by The Saudis have been given the chance to unify professional male golf after an American consortium, led by the owners of Liverpool FC, invested in the PGA Tour which could reach £2.4 billion.
The agreement with the Strategic Sports Group (SSG) comes eight months after plans were announced for a merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, which could still happen this spring.
SSG has confirmed that the door remains open to Saudi investment in the American tour but there are fears that due to the threat of American regulatory control and the suspicion that SSG will dilute Saudi influence, LIV Golf’s financiers may now choose to wait alone. path and thus cause even more divisions in the game.
One possible scenario could even include a partnership between the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) and the DP World Tour, which would split elite male golf in two.
It certainly continues to rule, despite the PGA Tour announcing the launch of the “for-profit” PGA Tour Enterprises as a “first-of-its-kind programme” that will give £1.2 billion of equity to players who have stayed loyal through the LIV. saga.
Between 180 and 200 Tour members would be vying for a share on a transitional scale, with the percentages based on “career achievements, recent achievements, involvement and future services”. This could mean an equity value of around £20 million each for the superstars.
‘The only way forward is for PIF to be involved’
The deal with SSG was passed “unanimously” by a vote of the Tour’s policy board, which has six members including Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth. Woods spoke on the conference call with the players as he thanked the Strategic Sports Group – a group of US-based sports owners led by Fenway Sports – “for believing in our sport and the potential growth we can have enjoy it together”.
The mood was thus celebratory at Sawgrass Headquarters, but it was far too early to induce peace in our time. As Scot Bob McIntyre, a new member of the United States circuit, said: “The only way to move the game forward is for PIF to be involved.”
Undoubtedly, as Jay Monahan, Tour Commissioner and CEO of this new commercial entity, said, “today is an important moment for the PGA Tour and fans around the world”. But this is not nearly the end of the civil war that has accompanied the pro fairways for the past two years. And it might actually open up an even more destructive battlefield.
The ball is certainly in the court of the Saudis, and the Tour said that “the transaction announced on Wednesday allows for a joint investment from PIF in the future, subject to all necessary regulatory approvals”.
And while that is exactly where Yasir Al-Rummayan, the PIF governor who chairs LIV Golf and Newcastle United, has always wanted the ball, this is by no means a done deal.
LIV spent more than £500 million in off-season signings with Jon Rahm, the world No. not ditch his child yet.
If PIF decides to join SSG as minority investors in the £9.5 billion new company, the resulting investigations by the US Department of Justice and the Senate could take up to a year to complete. That would mean a revolutionary golf calendar wouldn’t be introduced until 2026 at the earliest. That gives LIV, at least, two more seasons, and depending on the details of any deal, could see more eye catches.
The longer LIV lasts, the greater the danger and Al-Rumayyan could turn off the Tour and the SSG and go to the DP World Tour. Wentworth HQ would then have a quandary: either remain allied with the PGA Tour or side with PIF and let the likes of Rahm and Co play in their events.
With the lack of world ranking points on LIV, this would make the league more attractive to the heavyweights and solve the Ryder Cup problem. Suddenly there would be no concern about the eligibility of Rahm and the rest of the future rebels.
This may come to fruition, but for now there is hope that PIF will honor the “framework agreement” – no matter how loose it seems now in light of the arrival of the SSG – signed last year.
Monahan confirmed that he met with Al-Rumayyan recently and sources within the DP World Tour insist that talks are “progressing very well”.
In addition, Al-Rumayyan knows Fenway Sports, which also owns the Boston Red Sox, through the English Premier League and may see the value in connecting with the other investors in SSG – owners of high-profile sports franchises in America as the New York Mets, the Atlanta Falcons and the Boston Celtics.
SSG has said it would welcome working with PIF and establishing Al-Rumayyan as a major player in US sports. The upper board may have had an influential seat on the Saudi master plan from the start.
But what to do with LIV? And how will the DP World Tour benefit and, oh yes, the fans too – that part that has been largely forgotten as the players have gotten richer and the product poorer? The SSG market is only the first answer. There is still much more to discover.
