PGL To Players: Time To Tell The Board To Listen

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You can only get your phone calls and enquiries not returned for so long!

After trying to work with the PGA Tour, the Premier Golf League’s World Golf Group has decided to plea directly to players for consideration of their pro golf model. The timing speaks to some momentum for the Saudi-backed LIV Golf and little progress in convincing the PGA Tour and DP World Tour’s to contemplate major changes.

The letter was sent to players and essentially calls BS on a couple of key points, namely that the PGA Tour vetted the proposals through Allen & Co. And of course, noting that Jay Monahan “works for you” also is a concession that the commissioner is still not interested in a discussion.

It also remains confounding that a bunch of players who did nothing but be in the right place at the right time would get $2 million.

Stay tuned!

PGA Tour Has Not Responded To PGL's Substantial Offer Letter

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We learned from the Fire Pit Collective that Rory McIlroy brought the Premier Golf League’s latest concept to the PGA Tour Policy Board, including substantial free money for players.

Bob Harig reports that the PGA Tour has not responded to the letter and proposal more than a month after the letter went out.

There was no direct response to PGL other than through player-director Kevin Kisner, who told the Fire Pit Collective that an independent company studied the proposal and “the results were presented to us: not feasible.’’

The PGL outlined its plan in a Feb. 14 letter to the PGA Tour Policy Board that was shared with numerous players. According to the plan, it would generate significant equity value for all voting PGA Tour members, as well as those on the DP World Tour and Korn Ferry Tour.

PGL's Updated Proposal: Co-Sanctioning, $460 Million Advance, For-Profit Model, No Crown Prince

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Bob Harig at SI.com has details of the World Golf Group/Premier Golf League’s latest pitch to get a meeting with PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and the PGA Tour Policy Board.

Set aside the silliness of the current 200 PGA Tour players getting $2 million each for being in the right place at the right time (Thanks Tiger!), and consider the specifics.

World Golf Group states it believes the PGL will generate $10 billion of equity value by 2030, which would equate to $20 million per PGA Tour voting member and $3 million per Korn Ferry member.

In addition, the proposal includes a cash advance on future equity value of $460 million. In simple terms, each of 200 voting members of the PGA Tour would receive $2 million upon the launch of the PGL, with 200 Korn Ferry members each getting $300,000.

Andy Gardiner, the CEO of the Premier Golf League, who was recently at the Players Championship, declined to comment.

Harig noted Rory McIlroy’s comments on the No Laying Up podcast last December that all but force him to bring the proposal to the table.

“Yes, OK, I get the business model that the PGA Tour is currently under, Andy said 'hamstrung,' in terms of ... this is just sort of what they can do and they’re doing their best with what they can, and I agree that they’re doing a wonderful job within the structure they’re in because that was what was created before Jay (Monahan) took charge. You know it is what it is. But if someone comes along and says I think I can create this amount of revenue and distribute it amongst every player, you have to listen to that, right? Because again, that’s my responsibility to all the players who voted me into this position.’’

But as Harig notes…

What remains to be seen is if McIlroy, the PGA Tour Policy Board and Monahan will take a meeting with the World Golf Group to discuss the PGL proposals.

Report: PGA Tour Floating Detail-Light And Eerily Familiar Sounding Plans To Stop Players From Fleeing

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We’ve moved to the bad movie phase in this Leagues v. PGA Tour. This is the scene where law enforcement calls and starts off by saying, I just want you to know before I say anything else, the FedExCup is safe. Now, for the bad news…

Years after first learning of different approaches to the pro golf model and months after knowing those pesky Saudi’s are offering silly money, the PGA Tour is (finally) formulating plans for a fall world circuit of WGC-style cut-free events and—are you ready—possibly a team component. Breathtaking originality.

The real takeaway from this Eamon Lynch Golfweek exclusive is that (A) the Tour is very worried about the Saudi offers and (B) no where in the Global Home was there a plan tucked in a drawer should this very predictable scenario arise. Oh, and (C) the FedExCup is not why players show up to tournaments.

To say the details are not well formulated or even close to fruition is an understatement:

The Tour intends to stage between four and six events annually outside of the United States, in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The series will begin in the fall of 2023 at the earliest, though possibly not until 2024.

Three years? That’s a lifetime in this world. Are we going to blame the global supply chain for the lag time? Then again, when you haven’t planned accordingly, that time is needed.

This almost makes the PIP look original and smart.

While internal discussions are continuing on specifics, tentative plans call for between four and six events, with fields limited to 50 or 60 competitors and no halfway cut. It has not been decided if the fields will be determined by the Official World Golf Ranking or FedEx Cup standings. A range of format options are being considered, including the possibility of a team component.

“Nothing firm on formats yet,” the well-placed executive said, “but a team format is certainly one of the ideas on the table.”

See, that baking option in the Global Home Cafe has drawn real outside-the-box thinkers!

And again, so you can rest easily, the most important thing of all…

A PGA Tour source told Golfweek that a mechanism will be devised to ensure players who compete in the overseas series will not be disadvantaged in the FedEx Cup points race as a result of having skipped the U.S. schedule.

“Top guys want to have a break from the FedEx Cup,” the source explained. “The setup would be so they don’t have to worry. If they play in these big events, the idea is they don’t fall behind in the FedEx Cup.”

Big relief! Maybe one less points reset too? Oh…that was aggressive, sorry.

Given that we have full confirmation even decent fall leaderboards draw no audiences, it will be fascinating to see star player reaction to something assuring the schedule is year-round and asking them to divert their energies away from the core part of the schedule surrounding the majors.

Major(s) News & Notes, November 11th, 2021

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This week’s edition free for all to read and subscribe to for free explores the danger of pro golfers talking money. Plus, an update with links to the best reads about the chase for money.

Then the Quad dives into how major venues fared in Golf Mag's World Top 100, followed by a Frisco update, and some non-golf reads.

Quadrilateral: Ranking The Disruptive Forces

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So much is at stake in the coming months and it’s a pretty stunning change from not that long ago when the “league” idea was declared dead.

For a new edition of The Quadrilateral, here are fifteen factors that have put the PGA Tour on notice and opened the door for potential pro golf anarchy.

Shark On Saudi Arabia: There Are Women In Restaurants!

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As Commissioner Greg Norman tries to sell the Saudi golf move into the Asian Tour and an elite global tour inspired by the Premier Golf League, the Shark is out spinning his role. Speaking to GolfDigest.com’s Daniel Rapaport, Norman made clear there is nothing to see here when it comes to the home of 9/11 hijackers, public beheadings and women’s rights.

I’ve been going to Saudi Arabia now for three years. I was invited to do a golf course design project there. Unless you actually go there and see and understand exactly what’s happening there, you [can’t] sit back and make judgmental calls. I made the journey there to look at what was happening in Saudi Arabia before I made any decision on anything because I’m not a person who makes judgement calls. I make sound decisions on sound facts and information that is presented to you. So when the PIF wanted to become a majority investor, I knew what was happening in the country.

Women’s right issues—the women there now, I’ve been so impressed. You walk into a restaurant and there are women. They’re not wearing burkas. They’re out playing golf.

That last comment earned this from the Golf Digest editors:

Editor’s note: Saudi Arabia ranked 147th out of 153 nations in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index for 2021. And according to Human Rights watch, despite women’s rights reforms in recent years, “Saudi women still must obtain a male guardian’s approval to get married, leave prison, or obtain certain healthcare. Women also continue to face discrimination in relation to marriage, family, divorce, and decisions relating to children, including child custody.”

Saudis And Commissioner Norman Seem Ready To Go Public With Tour Plans

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The Guardian’s Ewan Murray says we are due to learn any day now about Golf Saudi’s plans for tournaments with their new partners at the Asian Tour.

At an extremely select media briefing in New York in the coming days, the Saudis will break with anything that has come before and expand – albeit to hand-picked outlets, of course – on their plans for the professional game’s ultimate disruption plan. Industry insiders believe Greg Norman will be confirmed as the public face of a series – possibly involving a dream of 10 events on the Asian Tour – as obvious, direct competition to the European and PGA Tours. Saudi Golf and the Asian Tour are already in alliance for the Saudi International in February. Norman is understood to have been busy on behalf of the Saudis in the corporate world.

Is Greg Norman Going To Be Golf (Saudi's) Commissioner?

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Golf Digest Australia’s Brad Clifton is very excited about the rumored prospects of Greg Norman leading Golf Saudi’s theft of the Premier Golf League concept. That’s right, rumors are flying that the Shirtless Shark will be the, gulp, Commissioner of this new team venture taking aim at the PGA Tour.

Clifton writes:

One thing that is certain is the global outreach for such a platform will be equally as significant, if not more.

If the latest Norman rumours are indeed true, it’s the best news golf has received in a long time.

Has there been a more influential innovator in the world of golf over the past 40 years? It’s why ‘The Shark’ is the perfect person to help modernise the game at a time when the PGA Tour hasn’t exactly ticked all the boxes in its efforts to deliver a compelling product and give global golf and sport fans what they really want – the world’s best players competing against each other on a regular basis outside of the Majors and, crucially, outside of the United States.

Would this be a bad time to bring up the Shark Experience? You may recall the Shark’s epic tease a few years back:

“In the middle second quarter of next year, I’ll invite you guys down to my office,” he said. “We will tell you exactly how we’re going to break this cast iron that’s been wrapped around golf for so long. We’re going to shatter it. The institutions (USGA, R&A, PGA of America, PGA Tour) will eventually buy into it because they will have to buy into it. They won’t have a choice.”

Turns out, it was a golf cart that plays music.

Now Norman has apparently turned his focus to helping Golf Saudi in a grander fashion than his initial grifts of some course design work and appearances at their grow-the-game summits.

According to this story in Golf Digest Middle East—oh yes that’s not fiction—Norman has lauded the Saudis as “truly at the forefront” of grassroots development. Guess they liked the Shark Experience!

Time will tell what the Shirtless one’s role will be in the disruptor golf league, if and when it launches.

Meanwhile, more disturbing allegations regarding the Crown Prince were aired on 60 Minutes Sunday. Saad Aljabri, former number two in Saudi intelligence, says Mohammed bin Salman forced him out and is in exile, fearing for his life because he knows too much. Nice people.

The Other Team Event Hanging Over This Week's Ryder Cup

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The PGL’s Andy Gardiner

The PGL’s Andy Gardiner

All signs suggest the disruptor golf leagues declared dead multiple times by Tour toadies are, miraculously, still hanging around. There may even be a conversation or twelve this week between Vice Captains and players about who is in and where.

The Saudi’s and their SGL, a rip off of all things Premier Golf League only with a Middle East-heavy schedule?

Or will the new Strategic Alliance keep everyone a happy PGA Tour/European Tour camper?

Judging by Phil Mickelson’s remarks to Gary Williams, the PGA Champion is still very much interested in the proposals. Armed with major championship exemptions for another few years, his fearless jabs at the PGA Tour model suggest he’s open to the ideas.

Here is a link to the interview portion where Williams and Mickelson discuss the wraparound schedule, PIP and team league proposals merge:

A few curious and noteworthy comments by Mickelson:

  • He said of the wraparound, the Tour is “going away from that next year”. Not sure if that was a slip up or slip of the tongue regarding the 2023 schedule and beyond.

  • Mickelson lamented that only 26% of the revenue goes to the players and agreements requiring the Commissioner’s approval. He said that while players use the engine of the PGA Tour to be successful, “we don’t make a majority of our revenue from the PGA Tour” we don’t own our media writes, and YouTube “make millions” off it, citing Bryson’s 6th hole tee shot at Bay Hill earlier this year. The clip does have 1.4. million views and in YouTube money, that’s not much barring a massive sweetheart deal with the Tour.

  • He says “top guys are being taken advantage of” and believes the PIP money offered by Ponte Vedra “sounds like a lot” but in the “big scheme” doesn’t “even come close to being equitable.”

  • Mickelson said the “competition is going to be good” for all.

  • He said for the first time “the top players are being valued by the PGA Tour” and the players are “so far down the line on, kind of, the bullying tactics that have been used to suppress the top players on the PGA Tour,” that this will all come down to what’s best for fans.

  • He said it’s “tough when only 4 people have a vote” and of the PGA Tour, says “I’m not sure we have, internally, the structure to fix it.”

On the PGL side, co-founder Andy Gardiner gave an interview to Golf Monthly and reminded how this week’s event is the inspiration for the concept:

If you can bring any of the brilliance of the Ryder Cup into a more regular format, then it’s got to be a good thing.

It’s easier for a fan to have allegiance to a team than it is to an individual.

Some individuals can have it – that’s where Tiger was utterly brilliant because he was so dominant that you could fall in love with him as the dominant player, or you could be fascinated by him.

But what everyone else was doing was backing the underdog because everyone else was an underdog.

What he did was to ignite both sides.

You had one group who wanted to see him win everything and you had those who wanted someone else to win.

PGL: "All we want is a conversation"

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Andy Gardiner spoke to ESPN.com’s Bob Harig about the hopes and dreams of conversations with the PGA Tour. I’m not sure I see a place where the Premier Golf League and the PGA Tour co-exist, but Gardiner apparently does.

"All we want is a conversation,'' Gardiner said. "We've never been the enemy. But I can understand why we've been perceived as such. But we'd love to be friends. I've not had that opportunity so far. And I will be redoubling my efforts. We want to have a conversation in the best possible way to ensure they understand where we are coming from and why we are doing it and to ensure that nobody's feelings will be hard done.''

Gardiner also revealed the PGL’s effort at making “an approach in the last 24 hours setting out our thoughts in the best possible way.”

Presumably the letter was delivered by FedEx. If it came via DHL or UPS, I’m not sure the conversations will be cordial.

He is playing up a free market, choice approach and it would seem to be boxing the Tours into a corner given the whole “independent contractor” push last year when the PGL was a topic. Also, taking an open tone certainly makes tough replies from the PGA Tour, while justified given what is an obvious business threat, could reflect poorly in some sectors.

"I do know the existing PGA Tour rules. The players will ultimately decide where they are going to play. There have been rumors of bans and not getting ranking points, but all individuals should have the right to choose how and when and where they work. These guys are professionals. If the PGA Tour changes its rules that allows them to remain members ... we hope that would be feasible.''

Premier Golf League Tweaks A Few Details, Answers Questions

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The Premier Golf League has returned to the disruptor discussion carrying essentially the same proposal as before, with three noticeable and significant changes.

Whether those tweaks to the plan—now six years in the making—change perceptions, we’ll see. Given how players could not rule out the Golf Saudi rip-off of the PGL’s concept, there is a perception that minds have been opened to a PGA Tour/European Tour alternative.

In this case, the money is no longer from the Kingdom and the schedule involves far less of a Middle East-focus. That would seemingly sway a few fence-sitters.

Here is the FAQ page of their website updated today.

From what I’m reading, the format remains essentially the same: 18 weeks, 12 targeted for the United States, built around majors and Ryder Cup, 54-hole stroke play with the shotgun start and five hour window (that’s a nice way of letting people know they want to tighten the days for everyone). Each week four players from each franchise play with a captain designating two who will count toward a season long race.

The first big format change: a 13th team owned by the league with players voted on by fans. This introduces a way to work in a budding young player or local legend or any number of possibilities. I’m not sure it’s enough to answer the question of how this league develops and welcomes new talent, but it’s a fascinating twist.

It’s about truly engaging the fans and getting them involved. Three wild cards picked by fans each week. Legends, rising stars, local favourites, men and women. That’s up to 51 additional players with a chance to win each season. The 13th team will be owned by our foundation and add an extra dimension to the League. We can’t wait to see who the fans will select?

The other huge change: team owners now will not be relegated to players at the outset. From the FAQ:

We’ll be announcing our team owners soon. Team golf is nothing new, but this extraordinary opportunity is. Think about the unrivalled access, unparalleled experiences, unimaginable fun, at 18 unforgettable events every year. The opportunity to help change the game for the better, just as the greats did 50 years ago. A chance to make history, as well as a great return on investment.

You can expect to see a heady mix of global stars (not just golfers) and high-profile globally representative individuals from the world of business.

Finally, their statement on backers:

We have an incredible shareholder base that loves golf and is providing the required backing. But it’s not just about the money. You could have all the money in the world and still not get this right. It’s about being fair, inclusive and rewarding. It’s also about creating the right ownership structure and sharing with those who make up golf’s community.

Premier Golf League Jumps Back In At An Inconvenient Time For PGA Tour

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News of the Premier Golf League’s non-Saudi backed plan getting a refreshed non-Raine Group rollout seems to be designed to generate discussion at next week’s U.S. Open inside the bubble.

But the news landing this week highlights just how embarrassing the PGA Tour’s “product” can be in weeks when a 156-player field is rolled out despite no demands to see that many players for another stroke play event.

The PGA Tour incentivizes executives to create playing opportunities and purse growth, no matter how much if dilutes the product. Not many businesses I can think of would succeed that way.

Therefore this week’s Canadian Open replacement event turns up at a remote club in South Carolina featuring 156 players. Many had to be awakened from their backyard hammock to get down to South Carolina in time.

Or worse, in Tommy Gainey’s case, they passed to play the Korn Ferry event instead.

Hey congrats you’ve been called up to the Show! Wait, what? You want to stay in the minors?

What perfect timing for the Premier Golf League to highlight how the PGA Tour product can be so unnecessarily warped, bloated and unnecessarily weak. Imagne playing events where the priority is on providing work for golfers and executives instead of something a tad more aspirational for the people who pay the bills?

And they wonder why there are competing ideas to blow up the current model.

Look at the WD’s this week and the replacements. As Brendan Porath noted in the Tweet embedded above, what a contrast to Golf’s Longest Day where the lowest scores go to the U.S. Open. Granted, the various disruptor leagues are anything but democratic. Seems like something in between would be ideal for fans and the world’s best. And nothing against Omar Uresti, but no one is paying to watch him play on the PGA Tour…

BBC: The Premier Golf League Is Back And Shooting For 2023 Start

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BBC’s Iain Carter has the scoop: the World Golf Group’s Premier Golf League is back. While bruised from a failed merger attempt with the European Tour and Golf Saudi’s “Super Golf League” theft of the original concept once partly funded by the Public Investment Fund, they are set to announce later this week goals for a 2023 start and $20 million weekly purses.

The Formula 1 style concept remains in place with 18 tournaments featuring the top 48 male players in the world, with what sounds like a harder push to start a women’s version sooner than later. The team concept remains a centerpiece with four-player squads facing off in a season-ending event.

Carter writes of the funding:

Those backing the project, run by the British-based World Golf Group, are worth in excess of $20bn according to boss Andy Gardiner.

It is believed this iteration of the PGL involves no ties to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment fund or the Crown Prince, greatly increasing the potential appeal for some players.

Speaking exclusively to BBC Sport, Gardiner said: "The team is ready to go.

"We've used the last eight months to bring in externals to check through every single piece of the model to make sure the events of the last 12 months with Covid haven't changed our thinking.

"The January 2023 date right now is entirely feasible. We will see how the conversations go with the community that we want to embrace."

Already addressed by Gardiner: the threats of expulsion from Tours for signing up.

"Different bodies create their own sets of rules to protect what they have and then it's a question of whether the rules that they have in place are fair and that's when you look at the relevant law.

"Imagine the reaction of the sponsors and the broadcasters if the world's best players were all of a sudden banned. Common law in the US says that is a punishment, that's not a protection.

"You've got to allow people to live their own lives. That's why I'm confident."

More details to come!

In the meantime for those interested, here is my coverage of the PGL when it last surfaced over a year ago.