Now that the PGA Tour has secured outside investment of up to $3 billion from a wealthy American consortium known as Strategic Sports Group, players are wondering aloud whether they even need to pursue a deal with the Saudis.
Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy, two of the tour’s leaders on and off the course, shared disparate views last week about finalizing the June 6 “framework agreement” as players reacted to news of the SSG deal, which broke before the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in California.
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“I don’t think that it’s needed,” Spieth, who replaced McIlroy on the PGA Tour Policy Board after the Northern Irishman resigned in November, told the media in dismissing potential investment from Saudi Arabia’s $700 billion-plus Public Investment Fund. “The short answer is, we don’t have to, and I think the long answer is, the positive there [would be] unification. … We have members that feel strongly on both sides, so until that would be able to be solved – and that would be No. 10 on the list of 10 things – it would be a situation that we should try to have, but I’m not sure if or how or when it would get done.”
McIlroy, a four-time major champion who had emerged in the past year as the conscience of a deeply divided PGA Tour membership, acknowledged he has “changed my tune” on partnering with the Saudis.
“I see where golf is and I see that having a diminished PGA Tour and having a diminished LIV Tour or anything else is bad for both parties,” he said at Pebble Beach. “It would be much better being together, and moving forward together for the good of the game. That’s my opinion of it. So, to me, the faster that we can all get back together and start to play and start to have the strongest fields possible, I think is great for golf.”
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan confirmed last week that he had been to Saudi Arabia in late January and that negotiations with the Saudis’ PIF continue. He added that the tour’s new investment group supports negotiations with the Saudis.
Norway’s Viktor Hovland, the reigning FedEx Cup champion and a leader among golf’s emerging corps of twentysomethings, spoke with the sort of wisdom that belies his 26 years.
“The PGA Tour is hurting from not having those guys over here with us,” said Hovland, a six-time winner who is coming off of a breakout three-victory season and a 3-1-1 record for the victorious Europeans in the Ryder Cup. “How we’re going to get those guys back, I don’t know. That seems a bit farther into the future. All I want to do is play the best tournaments with the best players. I think that would be better for the fans and better for golf.”
In the wake of the PGA Tour’s deal with SSG, LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman and PIF chief Yasir Al-Rumayyan sent separate letters to LIV players on the eve of the third-year tour’s season-opener in Mexico, reassuring them the rival tour is meeting its objectives.
Whether the PGA Tour and the Saudis come to an agreement isn’t stopping a U.S. legislative panel from its interest in the PIF, according to a report by Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard. The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations wants to know more about the tour’s potential deal with the Saudis.
Bernhard Langer, who had intended to make his final competitive Masters start this year, might have to put his exit on hold. The 66-year-old German, a two-time winner at Augusta National, will be out indefinitely after surgery on Friday to repair a torn Achilles tendon, the Champions Tour announced.
The injury happened while exercising, Langer told the tour, without elaborating. Masters champions earn lifetime exemptions, so Langer, who won green jackets in 1985 and 1993, could look to 2025 for his Augusta off-ramp.
With 46 victories on the Champions Tour, Langer is the all-time winningest golfer on the 50-and-older circuit. READ MORE
The WM Phoenix Open, which is scheduled to begin Thursday in its 38th consecutive year at TPC Scottsdale, is used to facing competition on the sports calendar in early February, especially when the Super Bowl is played in the desert. But this edition will be different.
The annual West Coast stop on the PGA Tour faces not only the big footprint of Super Bowl LVIII in neighboring Nevada but also LIV Golf’s tournament, which is scheduled to end Saturday in Las Vegas and yield to the next day’s NFL championship in Sin City.
No matter, Phoenix Open tournament chairman George Thimsen told The Arizona Republic newspaper. “There’s nothing that touches – especially in golf but in a lot of sporting events – that touches what we do here,” Thimsen said.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler leads the field for the $8.8 million WMPO. He will be seeking an unprecedented third consecutive Phoenix Open title in a tournament dating to 1932. READ MORE
Season two of the Netflix documentary “Full Swing” will premiere March 6 and look behind the scenes at the PGA Tour’s negotiations with LIV Golf plus the dynamics of last year’s Ryder Cup, the streaming service announced. READ MORE
TAP-INS
TaylorMade Golf has filed a federal lawsuit against Costco Wholesale in California’s Southern District regarding the equipment manufacturer’s iron technology, alleging patent infringement and false advertising on the big-box retailer’s Kirkland Signature irons. Costco’s irons sold out within hours of its release in December at $499 per set, roughly one third of the retail price of TaylorMade’s P790 irons, which list for $1,400. READ MORE
The U.S. Women’s Open purse will increase to a record $12 million this year, the USGA announced in introducing Ally Financial as a presenting sponsor of the May 30-June 2 event at Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Country Club. READ MORE
The LPGA has reduced the number of full exemptions to be awarded through qualifying. Beginning with this year’s Q-Series, the top 25 and ties – not the top 45 and ties, as had been the policy – will receive exemptions for next season. On the developmental Epson Tour, five more cards will be available through the season standings, expanding to 15 spots. READ MORE
Carl Weathers, a former NFL linebacker who starred as boxer Apollo Creed opposite Sylvester Stallone in the “Rocky” movies and played teaching professional Chubbs Peterson in the zany golf comedy “Happy Gilmore,” died Feb. 1. He was 76. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon