MEETINGS, MONEY AND CHANGE
Stunned observers were taking in the breaking news while CNBC’S Squawk on the Street show aired the half-hour interview involving Monahan and (Yasir) Al-rumayyan. It was extraordinary to see these two apparently sworn enemies now sitting chummily together in the New York Stock Exchange studios. The PIF governor insisted that the PGA Tour would retain control even if his body made bigger capital contributions to the new entity than the golf circuit. He also optimistically and erroneously claimed it would take only “weeks” for the agreement to be finalised.
Already the narrative was moving towards this being a ‘merger’. News organisations ran with the line that it was a coming-together of the PGA and LIV. This infuriated the DP World Tour, who were also signatories to what was nothing more than a Framework Agreement.
The European circuit were also aggrieved that their boss, Keith Pelley, was absent from the New York interview on CNBC. “That was the most botched announcement I have ever seen,” a highly-placed source told me. “They were never meant to do an interview, just the two of them… they released it half an hour early. And they released it as a merger! You’re chasing your tail now.” One official called it “a f*ck up” and there was a strong feeling that Pelley – an astute media operator – would have steered the interview more effectively than Monahan.
Given all that had been said and done in the previous two years on both sides of golf’s great divide, it was extraordinary to think that Greg Norman, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Rory Mcilroy – the four biggest personalities involved – had all been blindsided by the move.
“A great day in global golf for players and fans alike. The journey continues,” Norman told his followers on social media. Mickelson tweeted: “An awesome day today.”
Monahan, meanwhile, hotfooted to Toronto to brief players in a specially convened gathering at the Canadian Open. “It was a tough meeting for both sides,” former US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy told NBC. “Nobody knows what it’s really going to look like in the end. One of the feelings here is the players just want the (PGA Tour) loyal players rewarded… I don’t know if it’s all going to be happy families.”
The meeting, involving around 100 players, was heated. The lowly-ranked Grayson Murray told Mcilroy to “f*ck off” when the Northern Irishman suggested that the best way to improve his lot was “to play better golf”. However, at the end of the meeting, relations were cordial between the two players.
Nevertheless, there was plenty of anger among rank-and-file PGA Tour members. Mackenzie Hughes tweeted: “Nothing like finding out through Twitter that we’re merging with a tour that we said we’d never do that with.” Collin Morikawa, the 2021 Open champion, expressed similar sentiments. Weeks later, Monahan admitted he had been too hasty. “My biggest regret was not being more patient on June 5,” he said at a news conference. He wished he had gone to Toronto to inform players prior to the roll-out and sitting with Yasir in that New York TV studio.
In the immediate aftermath, up-andcoming Englishman Callum Tarren told the Golf Channel: “The guys who stayed loyal to the PGA Tour, it’s kind of a kick in the teeth to them. Obviously Rory was a huge advocate of
‘I THINK THIS IS ONE OF THE SADDEST DAYS IN THE HISTORY OF PROFESSIONAL GOLF’
the PGA Tour, and now it kind of looks like all his hard work and sticking up for the PGA Tour was left by the wayside.”
Golf’s establishment, which felt it was on the right side of history until this deal was struck, was stunned and in some quarters furious. Former tour player and outspoken pundit Brandel Chamblee told Golf Channel viewers: “I think this is one of the saddest days in the history of professional golf. I do believe that the governing bodies, the professional entities, have sacrificed their principles for profit.”
The deal also caused concern in the corridors of American power. Senator Chris Murphy, the Democrat representative for Connecticut, referred to his recent meeting with PGA Tour bosses when he tweeted: “So weird. PGA officials were in my office just months ago talking about how the Saudis’ human rights record should disqualify them from having a stake in a major American sport. I guess their concerns weren’t really about human rights?”