Premier Golf League a long shot
Idea would bring together top 48 pros for series of tournaments
In 1994 Greg Norman was golf’s biggest draw. Owner of two major championships, he didn’t have the game or the pedigree of European Tour contemporaries such as Nick Faldo and Seve Ballesteros. Nonetheless, Norman moved the needle. He was the marquee star of pro golf.
In connection with moneyed and media interests from Australia, Norman promoted the concept of a world golf tour. His idea was to put together the 5060 top golfers in the world to play a series of tourneys with no cuts and bigger-than-usual purses. Obviously this would have impacted weekly tournaments in America and Europe. The solution by PGA Commissioner Tim Finchem was to undercut Norman’s plan and put together a handful of tourneys that would become the World Golf Championships, a feature of professional golf that remains a component of both tours. While the best 60 golfers in the world played in the WGC-Mexico several weeks ago, the rest of the tour was in Puerto Rico competing in a regular-season event.
The idea of a small, top-notch circuit limited to the game’s stars has once again reared its head. In 2010 the concept of Tour de Force Golf was made public although there was little actual activity. In 2014 this entity reached out to Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy, hoping that the world’s No. 1 player would be the poster boy for their new tour. The issue was made public to touring professionals during the 2018 British Open. Now we know a whole lot more about the concept and the money behind it.
In January of 2020, Tour de Force had changed its name to the Premier Golf League. The thought was that beginning in 2022 the PGL would host 18 tournaments with a combined purse of $240 million. Each week would feature a $10 million purse and the final two events would have a bonus pool. There would be 48 golfers in each event and there would be individual stroke play as well as four-man team competition. To take advantage of a fivehour television window, the PGL would feature 54-hole tourneys and the first two rounds of play would entail a shotgun start to accommodate the viewers at home. The PGL motto was “Only the best, playing the best, each week.” The comparison model according to the PGL folks was Formula 1 Racing and the English Premier League Soccer.
Although it wasn’t exactly clear regarding the funding source of the PGL, that became more apparent when the European Tour was in Saudi Arabia last month. Phil Mickelson played in the pro-am prior to the tournament with representatives from the Raine Group, Barclays Capital and the Saudi Golf Federation. Phil contended that he had talked to his amateur partners about their plans for the Premier Golf League. Yet all he would say was that his playing partners had “some very interesting ideas.” The Raine Group added to the theme by adding that “The League will re
balance the game’s economics. The best player needs to compete, but not against 150 other guys every week — 47 will suffice.”
Reaction from the PGA Tour and the European Tour was immediate. Tour offices emailed their memberships and spoke of the “consequences of breakaway.” Rory McIlroy went public and said he wasn’t interested in the PGL. He liked the fact that he is an independent contractor who can play when and where he chooses as a dual member of the European and American tours. Six-time major champion Nick Faldo was even more concrete with his reaction. Faldo asked, “Is a 54-hole tournament with two rounds of a shotgun start a real tournament?” He added, “How do you gauge yourself against golf’s history from Walter, Gene, Sam, Ben, Arnold, Jack, Gary, Tom, Lee, Raymond, Seve, Tiger, Phil, Rory and Brooks?” A PGL golfer couldn’t.
From my distant perspective, I see two issues. The top pros play about 20 times annually and seldom more than 24 events. Having to commit to 18 PGL events while playing in four majors, four World Golf tourneys and perhaps a few local events suddenly puts the best golfers in the game competing in close to 30 tournaments yearly. This leaves no room for the Tour Championship, the Fed Ex Cup and Race to Dubai playoffs, and anything that the wife and the kids might enjoy like a tournament in Orlando with all the theme parks nearby.
From the Premier Golf perspective, I see logistical concerns as well. Will the viewing public turn into a PGL event in early February or will the folks at home prefer to watch the AT&T Pro Am at Pebble Beach like they always have? How will the PGL sustain the brilliance of the top 48 golfers? For instance, had the new circuit begun four years ago it would have obviously tried to include Bubba Watson, Jordan Spieth, Sergio Garcia and Phil Mickelson. While the aforementioned are name golfers today, they are no longer among the best 48 in the world. Maybe Tiger would be interested in the PGL, but he’s not capable of playing 18 tournaments in a calendar year. Some professionals have alluded to the Saudi connection in all this. In light of the draconian tendencies of the current regime in Saudi Arabia, there is a taint involved with the European Tour playing there the last two seasons let alone the fact that the money source of the PGL further diminishes the end product. Finally, with a locked-in team concept, how to you deal with injuries? If Brooks Koepka or Tony Finau need to leave professional golf for three months to recover from an injury, who will replace them on their four-man PGL team?
My lasting thought is that the Premier Golf League is an upper echelon pyramid scheme for the game’s top performers. The pyramid has all top and no base. How do the organizers of the PGL “fire” Phil, Sergio or Bubba as their skills diminish and replace them with Gary Woodland, Abraham Ancer or Viktor Howland? What about the out-of-nowhere golfers such as last weekend’s tour winner, Englishman Tyrrell Hatton, or aging vets such as Adam Scott? What about all those loyal tour events in places like Pebble Beach, Napa, Houston and the Quad Cities? What inducement do they have to continue holding PGA Tour stops if they can only get the game’s second tier while the marquee 48 are off in Las Vegas, South Africa or Saudi Arabia? There aren’t a lot of television options out there for the PGL. With the Golf Channel, ESPN, CBS and NBC locked into a new $680 million, nineyear deal, there might not be enough air time left for the PGL. Fox has the USGA events tied up and ABC might not be interested with all of the sports programming it currently provides. The Premier Golf League is still in the incubation stage. With all the hurdles it has, most notably the PGA Tour and the European Tour, it might find itself to be an idea whose time will never come.