The golf world, stunned by news three weeks earlier of a business deal between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, received its first look at the framework of the deal last week.
The pact is “broad and necessarily vague,” according to a report by Global Golf Post’s Ron Green Jr., but it does provide a key point in the PGA Tour’s favor: control over LIV Golf.
Among other insights in the “framework agreement,” which can he read here, are these key points, according to GGP’s Green:
The Saudis’ Public Investment Fund, which funds LIV Golf, will work with the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour to “establish a partnership in global golf” and bundle existing and future commercial assets under a for-profit umbrella organization to be known as NewCo;
Creation of a communications committee, which will structure the final agreement among the Saudis and the established pro tours;
The future of LIV Golf, which will be determined by NewCo’s board, which will be led by PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and “weighted with PGA Tour Policy Board members”;
The path back onto the established pro tours for LIV defectors;
World-ranking points and LIV’s pending application before the Official World Golf Ranking;
Where the power will lie in this marriage of convenience: with the PGA Tour, which will continue to operate as a not-for-profit 501(c)(6) exempt from federal taxes.
Meanwhile, after nearly a month off, LIV Golf returned to action last week with a dramatically different outlook among its players. Last month, the rival tour was mired in a lawsuit and a countersuit against the PGA Tour. Now, with the legal actions being dropped as part of the new alliance, LIV awaits its future as the PGA Tour and the Saudis PIF work to combine their business interests.
“I’m excited for the future,” Dustin Johnson told Sports Illustrated’s Alex Miceli in Sotogrande, Spain, before last week’s LIV event. “I think with this agreement, the only thing that’s going to happen is LIV is going to get even better than what it is now, which it’s already great. I’m happy exactly where I am, and I’m definitely not looking to play more golf than I’m playing now, that’s for sure.”
After feelings of outrage and betrayal among PGA Tour players, all of whom were kept in the dark about the alliance, the mood seems to be shifting toward acceptance. Players met for five hours before last week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit and appear to be ready to work with the Saudis, Sports Illustrated’s Michael Rosenberg reported. READ MORE
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Travelers Championship leadership vows to offer a tougher test on the PGA Tour in the wake of criticism from Rory McIlroy.
After his tie for seventh in the recent Travelers, McIlroy dismissed TPC River Highlands as an unworthy PGA Tour site, saying “technology has passed this course by.”
“When we come to courses like this, they just don’t present the challenge that they used to,” said McIlroy, a 23-time winner who leads the tour in driving distance, at 327.6 yards.
Travelers champion Keegan Bradley shot a tournament-record 23-under-par 257 on the 6,852-yard, par-70 course, which is among the shortest on the PGA Tour.
One day later, Travelers official Andy Bessette emailed some top players to solicit their input on how to improve the venue and told the Associated Press that “changes are already in the works.” READ MORE
Eric Cole didn’t compete on the PGA Tour last week after 11 consecutive tournaments, but it hardly was a week off.
Cole, a 35-year-old mini-tour graduate who has made $2.84 million in his rookie season, lived up to his annual commitment to play in the Frank B. Fuhrer Invitational at Pittsburgh Field Club, and it proved to be nothing short of extraordinary.
After he tied for 24th at the Travelers Championship on June 25, Cole shrugged off a canceled flight and drove 7½ hours from Connecticut to Pittsburgh to play against mostly mini-tour journeymen for a first prize of $20,000. Cole shot 11-under 269 for a tournament-record nine-stroke victory to run away with the winner’s check … and then promptly donated it to charity, according to a report by Gerry Dulac in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“It’s something that fits the theme of what Mr. Fuhrer did with his life, as far as generosity and charitable giving,” Cole said of the late Frank Fuhrer Jr., who gave a struggling Cole a spot in the field 12 years ago. Cole won the Fuhrer title in 2014, which he said went a long way toward funding his PGA Tour dreams. “It’s not really about the money for me. It’s about being here.” READ MORE
The 2028 Presidents Cup will be played at Kingston Heath Golf Club in Melbourne, Australia, the PGA Tour announced. The biennial match between the Americans and Internationals will be making a fourth visit to Melbourne. The Internationals posted their only victory, in 1998 at Royal Melbourne, in a series that the Americans lead, 12-1-1. READ MORE
Utah will play host to the PGA Tour for the first time in more than 60 years when the Black Desert Championship debuts in the fall of 2024 at Black Desert Resort in Ivins, the tour announced. The news of a four-year deal comes three weeks after the LPGA announced that it will play a 2025 tournament at Black Desert Resort. The PGA Tour hasn’t competed in the Beehive State since the 1963 Utah Open Invitational. READ MORE
TAP-INS
The number of U.S. golf rounds played in May rose 10.1 percent compared with the same month last year, boosting the year-to-date total to a 5.5 percent increase compared with the first five months of 2023, Golf Datatech disclosed in its monthly National Rounds Played Report. READ MORE
Golf’s surge in popularity has fueled a rise in retail theft in the industry. According to a report by Mike Stachura in Golf Digest, the value of club thefts industry-wide totaled about $6 million in 2022, about five times what was reported lost to crooks in 2019. One loss-prevention expert explained it simply: “The game has become so popular. The market is so much bigger than it used to be, the equipment is so desirable and the stuff is just so easy to move.” READ MORE
Fenway Sports Group, which owns baseball’s Boston Red Sox, is buying the Boston team in the new TGL golf league being developed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy for TMRW Sports in partnership with the PGA Tour. The primetime tech-infused league is scheduled to debut in January. READ MORE
Voters in Timnath, Colorado, passed a ban on permanent fences taller than 65 feet, essentially giving a thumbs-down on plans by Topgolf to build a golf entertainment site in the town, which is about an hour’s drive north of Denver, the Fort Collins Coloradoan reported. READ MORE
BigShots Golf has scrapped its plans for a golf entertainment center in Naples, Florida, citing financing difficulties and rising construction costs in an email to the Collier County Commission, the Naples Daily News reported. READ MORE
The University of South Florida in Tampa will close its on-campus public golf course, The Claw, on September 5, citing losses of nearly $200,000 annually in recent years. The USF men’s and women’s teams have not used The Claw as a home course. The university has not decided on a use for the 120-acre property. READ MORE
Jin Young Ko gave herself an early 28th-birthday present last week when she set the record for the most weeks at No. 1 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings. Ko, a 15-time LPGA winner from South Korea, marked her 159th week at No. 1, breaking the record established by Lorena Ochoa in 2010. Ko will turn 28 on July 7. READ MORE
Sand Creek Station in Newton, Kansas, will host the 2024 U.S. Adaptive Open, the USGA announced. The course played host to the final U.S. Amateur Public Links, in 2014. READ MORE
Carnoustie Golf Links will host the 2024 Senior British Open, European Tour Group announced. The dates will be July 25-28. READ MORE
Irish singer Niall Horan appeared last week at the World Golf Museum in St. Andrews, Scotland, to help the R&A launch its Golf.Golf initiative to attract new players to the game. The approach targets prospective players who had or have an active interest in sporting activity but not necessarily golf. READ MORE
Four spots will be on offer at each of four locations in the U.K. on Tuesday during 36-hole Final Qualifying for the 151st Open, to be held July 20-23 at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, England. Scoring from the qualifiers can be found here.
Compiled by Steve Harmon