It may be well over a year since the PGA Tour and PIF announced the framework agreement which was designed to provide a pathway towards the game of golf coming back together, but there remains a huge question mark over how the sport is going to look in the coming years.
What is clear is that the game cannot continue to be divided. Too many players are bemoaning the fact that there is no pathway between the leading tours, while the fans are suffering from not seeing the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau face off more than a handful of times each year.
It remains to be seen if the PGA Tour can find a way to agree a deal with PIF which brings the game back together one way or another. But clearly, the deal is not a simple one, with the framework agreement signed in June 2023.
Given how complicated everything seems to be, it appears that many need to be prepared for the possibility that talks break down. Both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf appear to have the strength, for now at least, to continue on their own, so both sides may well feel that making too many concessions is unnecessary.
Rex Hoggard asked if the DP World Tour could strike a deal with PIF if PGA Tour talks break down
What that could potentially do is open the door for the DP World Tour. The European Tour has arguably suffered more than anyone since LIV arrived. And with that, PIF have sensed an opportunity.
Sports Illustrated reported that LIV Golf recently tried to reach an agreement with the DP World Tour amid speculation over the fines Jon Rahm was facing. However, that offer was rejected.
And according to Rex Hoggard on the Golf Channel Podcast, that highlights the problem PIF would have if they instead attempted to invest in the DP World Tour – which has struck up a partnership with the PGA Tour.
“To unravel that alliance, essentially the European Tour would have to buy back the shares that the PGA Tour has now invested in, earned, brought from the DP World Tour if that makes sense. The PGA Tour has made a huge investment into the DP World Tour to become that strategic partner, and so, to get that back, Jay Monahan has a seat on the board, there is no ambiguity here. Jay Monahan and the PGA Tour has a say in what the DP World Tour does going forward,” he said.
“I’m not saying that’s impossible, but I would think it would be very, very difficult for the DP World Tour to decide, ‘okay, this isn’t working out with the PGA Tour, we’re going to break out and go in a different direction’, because Jay Monahan and the PGA Tour would have a say in that.
“I think the perfect example of that is the story Bob Harig from ESPN just broke a week or two ago, where LIV Golf and the Public Investment Fund reached out to essentially the DP World Tour and wanted to come up with some sort of deal: ‘alright, let’s stop the fines, let’s stop all of the legal issues that are coming along with players on LIV wanting to go back and play the European Tour’, and there were agreements that were going to be in place. The DP World Tour were going to get some starts on the Asian Tour series that essentially LIV Golf runs, they were going to get a sizeable, I was told it was $6 million investment in cash, and they were going to come to some sort of agreement that all of the LIV players could go and play DP World Tour events if they had status. And that was nixed, the DP World Tour said no, I think you’d be fooling yourself if it was the DP World Tour that actually said no, it was Jay Monahan who said no.”
A partnership with huge potential – which will worry Jay Monahan
It is such a fascinating situation which could seemingly go in a number of different ways, but perhaps it also highlights how difficult a deal is going to be to agree in the coming months and years. Ultimately, the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and DP World Tour will all have their agendas, and any deal has to accommodate all of those.
It does feel as though the DP World Tour has been dealt the toughest hand so far. The PGA Tour dominates much of the calendar during major championship season, while the 10 best players in Europe are handed cards onto the PGA Tour at the end of each year. So events such as the Scottish Open, BMW PGA Championship and Alfred Dunhill Links Championship have become even more important.
The PGA Tour appears to have the strength to continue if talks with PIF break down. But they will be concerned about what the DP World Tour could do if PIF then approach them. Certainly, the strong LIV contingent this week shows the potential a partnership could have.
But clearly, Hoggard thinks that partnership is little more than a pipe dream as things stand.
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