It is fair to say that the PGA Tour has come in for a lot of criticism in the last few years.
Despite what Scott O’Neil may say, the PGA Tour has provided the biggest stage for golfers to play on for much of its history. However, the last few years have certainly been rocky for Jay Monahan and the tour.
The arrival of LIV Golf onto the scene threatened the future of the PGA Tour, with a number of stars making the jump. Even some of those who have pledged to stay have subsequently made the move to LIV.
The tour has also upset some of the members who stayed loyal. The PGA Tour has decided to reduce the number of cards it will hand out from next year, while field sizes will be smaller at most events. Padraig Harrington labelled the changes ‘terrible’.
The PGA Tour criticised for ‘crazy’ decision
But it appears that one issue may be closer to being resolved. Tiger Woods suggested a deal with the PIF could come soon, with meetings involving President Trump taking place.
It would seem that talks are heading in the right direction. There were even reports that LIV Golf players could feature at the Players Championship next month – despite the league having an event in Singapore that same week.
It certainly seems that all sides want a deal to get across the line as soon as possible. And with that, Hank Haney has told his podcast that he is baffled that the PGA Tour did not accept the PIF investment in the first place.
“The point is Tiger made his money, Rory made his money, and now all of a sudden, they’re changing their tune and they realise that golf is not in a good place. And they’ve said, ‘well, we couldn’t get rid of them’. LIV’s not going anywhere. ‘We couldn’t get rid of them, they’ve got all the money in the world to hang in there, and what have we got to do? Now, we better be partners with them’. And this has been Trump’s thought all along. The President said Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the head of the Public Investment Fund, loves golf more than anybody in the world, and you’re better off being partners with them than you are trying to fight them,” he said.
“He’s finally convinced these guys, although they probably have no choice because their tour is not doing good – and I’m speaking of the PGA Tour. They’ve finally decided, ‘hey, we better get with them’. They want to invest $1.5 billion, and there’s plenty more where that came from, why wouldn’t you take their money? This has been the stupidest thing ever in business. And I know President Trump looks at it and says this is crazy, this guy wants to give you $1.5 billion and be partners with you, and you don’t want it? This whole thing has been so poorly managed.”
What Rory McIlroy said about potential Saudi investment in golf as PIF talks continue
The PGA Tour has definitely made a catalogue of mistakes in recent years, but you can understand why they were reluctant to get involved with the PIF initially. Clearly, it would have upset a lot of people for very valid reasons.
Rory McIlroy was amongst those who had reservations about Saudi investment in the sport. Speaking about the potential PGL in 2020, McIlroy said: “I didn’t really like where the money was coming from either. I wanted to be the first one to speak out against it. I’m glad that I have. I’m glad that I’ve done that.”
Had the powers that be known what was to follow, it is likely that they would have accepted that Saudi involvement in the game is inevitable at some stage – as the framework agreement arguably showed.
But, to give the PGA Tour a little credit for the decision they made, there would have been even more criticism had they just stepped aside and immediately allowed the PIF to invest.
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