Rival tour making some noise
Golfers could earn millions just for signing on the dotted line
It was more than two years ago that Golden State Warrior shooting guard Klay Thompson was badly injured in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. He blew out his ACL near the end of the game. In November of 2020 it was announced that Klay would miss another season of competition because of an Achilles tendon injury. Thompson had signed a five-year, $190 million contract with the Warriors in July of 2019. Although he hasn’t walked onto a basketball court for an NBA game in close to 29 months, he continues to draw his salary due to the nature of his contract.
Such was not the case for professional golfer Erik Compton. An All-American at the University of Georgia who played on the 2001 Walker Cup team, Compton like Thompson has had major gaps in his playing career. Compton is the golfer who has had two heart transplants. Unlike Klay, Erik is selfemployed like all members of the PGA Tour. When he doesn’t make the cut at a PGA Tour event, he doesn’t get paid. He’s also responsible for his travel, his meals, his hotels and rental cars, and most notably, his medical bills. He’s not as financially stable as Klay.
Independent contractors like professional golfers are more responsible for the day-to-day nature of their careers. They also have some degree of freedom that their team-sport contemporaries do not. If Erik Compton doesn’t want to go to Pebble Beach in February to avoid the winds and rain, he simply doesn’t enter the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. If Klay Thompson doesn’t necessarily appreciate the winter weather in Minneapolis in January, he keeps his thoughts to himself, gets on the team charter, and heads off to play the Timberwolves.
Yet there is some degree of structure to becoming a fullfledged member of the PGA
Tour. You are required to play in a minimum of 15 tour events each season. You are also required to have some degree of success, most notably by finishing among the top 125 Fed Ex point winners from the previous season. This is pretty much how the tour has operated since its formative years following World War I. Nonetheless, you are an independent contractor.
Yet the golfing monopoly that seems to be the PGA Tour and the European PGA Tour has had past challenges to its way of doing business. In the early 1990s, the No. 1 player and chief marquee draw on the PGA Tour was the Great White Shark, Greg Norman. Norman and fellow Australian Rupert Murdoch of the Fox Network announced in 1994 the formation of an eight tournament series called the World Tour. These would be bigmoney events for the top 40 golf pros in the world. A telling moment came when Arnold Palmer
made the comment, “You should all do a lot of thinking before you decide to do anything.” Arnie was not a fan.
The PGA Tour and its then-commissioner, Tim Finchem, immediately circled the wagons. The tour has a clause that its members must get permission to play in competing events. For instance, you have to get the tour’s blessing to play in the German Open when it conflicts with the Byron Nelson. Finchem made it very clear that he wouldn’t give permission to play the World Tour. Anyone playing in a Norman-Murdoch tournament would be banned from the PGA Tour. One year later Finchem and the other major world tours came up with a new series of tourneys called the World Golf Championships. Greg Norman has been embittered ever since.
Yet during the course of the last few years, plans for another renegade tour have emerged with the backing of money from Saudi Arabia. I’m not sure if it’s any sort of a coincidence, but this has all come to pass about the time that the Saudi Arabian government was implicated in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Is this all part of a political smoke screen? Are the Saudis really into golf? The Saudi International became a tournament on the European Tour that was able to get a big-time field because of multi-million dollar payouts to topnotch golfers. Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Justin Rose have gone to Saudi Arabia. Johnson has won over there twice while former U.S. Open Graeme McDowell won in 2020.
The initial idea behind a Saudi-backed alternative tour called for 48 golfers playing a version of four-man team golf. It was advertised as “real life fantasy golf.” There was talk of million dollar bonuses to join the league. While Mickelson said he was “intrigued” by the idea and Tiger Woods said his team would have to “figure it out,” other stars such as Rory McIlory, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka gave a definitive thumbs-down. They were chasing majors, not money.
Just last week, a new version of this tour came out in press releases that left many questions unanswered. The Premiere League would be a part of the Asian Tour, would have the financial backing of LIV Golf Investments, and would have 66-year-old Greg Norman as its chief executive officer. The press release said LIV’s investment would be $200 million during a 10-year period with 10 LIV tournaments added to the Asian Tour for 2022. You can get world ranking points for placing in Asian Tour events, so these new tourneys would give you points toward getting into the major championships. It would also enhance your bank account. Norman was quoted as saying, “This is only the beginning, rich with playing possibilities that create valuable player pathways.” Asian Tour Commissioner Cho Minn Thank said it was “the single biggest development in the history of the Asian Tour and a major milestone for professional golf.”
Current PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan had other ideas, suggesting a lifetime ban to PGA Tour members who play in these new events.
Yet making a fortune in Asia while getting world points would still get you into the Masters and the other majors. It would keep you from playing in the Fed Ex Cup playoffs, but then again, who cares about a $20 million bonus for winning when the Saudis are willing to dish out a presumed $30$100 million just for signing on the dotted line. In the end, will pros see value in the established PGA Tour and European PGA Tour or will they follow the money and play in Kuala Lampur for big bucks?
When all is said and done, Rory McIlory and Collin Morakawa aren’t going anywhere. Yet it might make sense for 40and 50-year-olds with declining skills such as Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott, Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose to go overseas with big-time bonus money in their bank accounts. Why miss the cut at the Quad Cities when you can get a $3 million bonus just for teeing it up in Saudi Arabia? Then again, this could all blow up, just like it did back in 1995. My thought is that this isn’t the end of the story. After all money talks and only time will tell.