Yesterday, PGA Tour Commissioner, Jay Monahan, announced that the PGA Tour is partnering with LIV Golf and the DP World Tour.
Nearly thirty years ago, the (current) CEO of LIV Golf, Greg Norman, officially introduced (to the professional golf scene) his original vision for a worldwide tour thru assuming a leadership role in his heading of the World Golf Tour (WGT) in 1994. Before Norman’s WGT announcement, an informal experiment or test-run of sorts (for a worldwide tour) took place from the years 1991 to 1995 by way of a limited-field, no-cut event known as the Johnnie Walker World Golf Championship (played) at the beautiful Tryall Golf Club in Jamaica. At the time, the Johnnie Walker World Golf Championship (event) possessed the richest-purse of any event in the entire world, including the (individual) purses of all four major championships.
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During the events five-year tenure, the invitational-style tournament hosted just 24 of the world’s top-talent and was won by (exclusively) Major championship winners including the likes of Fred Couples (twice), Ernie Els, Nick Faldo, and Larry Mize.
In the days/weeks leading up to the inaugural event’s playing in 1991, Norman, and those who helped create the event, were (each) criticized heavily in the media for claiming that they wanted their event to eventually become golf’s most-prestigious event (outside of golf’s four Majors) on grounds that the event’s host-venue would prove to be too easy of a test from multiple perspectives. Among the early-WGC haters, one such golf journalist/critic predicted that the Tryall Club’s 6800 yard-layout would prove to be so easy that it would yield at least one sub-60 round. By the time the tournament was completed, however, it was overwhelmingly obvious that the Tryall Club’s difficulty had been grossly underestimated as just one player finished the four-day event with a score of better than par.
In hindsight, the elite field’s most notable mainstay during those five years didn’t come by way of any of its winners. Instead, that figure was Norman, who made his first contribution to the sport in a non-player role by taking the reins in helping create the no longer-existing Johnnie Walker WGC event in the early nineties. Although the original WGC-event was held for just five years, it became the writing on the wall for what ultimately evolved into a line of Norman-successes with respect to the subsequent creations of the WGT, WGC’s, and the modern-day LIV Golf circuit.
Hours earlier, Phil Mickelson expressed his gratitude for the PGA Tour-LIV Golf merger thru the words, “amazing day for golf”. Quite frankly, I agree with Phil.
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All along, this war or “rivalry” that the PGA Tour waged against Norman and LIV Golf was nothing but a diversion. The Tour never gave a damn about the “tradition and legacy” of the sport. In selfishly placing themselves on this pedestal of greater moral/ethical authority compared to LIV, the Tour and its apologists/supporters on Golf Channel only sought to protect its position in the market and not the spirit/quality/tradition/legacy of the game itself.
Essentially, the Tour attacked LIV Golf/Saudis by using the kind of ammo that one shouldn’t use unless he/she means it. In other words, 9/11, for instance, is a very sensitive issue. And it damn well should be. Every single person who played any role in the 9/11 attacks doesn’t deserve to still be walking. Just last year, Jay Monahan positioned himself and the Tour above LIV Golf and the Saudis by vigorously expressing (both) his own sensitivity towards the 9/11 attacks during an interview on CBS with Jim Nantz.
Apparently, those sentiments weren’t so heartfelt. While I understand the criticism of LIV Golf’s primary financial backers, I don’t understand how an entire entity can put on an act similar to the PGA Tour’s performances related to its anti-LIV propaganda campaign. The PGA Tour was never sincere in its intentions of upholding the spirit/purity of the game. All the PGA Tour cares about is itself.
In the wake of Monahan’s merger announcement, the sheer quantity of Tour pros who each feel wronged amazes me. On GolfChannel’s coverage of the merger, former Tour pro, Johnson Wagner, said he felt like “90 percent” of the pros who attended Monahan’s merger-meeting felt angry or “hostile” towards the Tour’s leadership. Mainly, those who disapprove of the Tour’s merger-decision feel as they do not just because of the nature of the decision itself, but because they were left out of the discussions which led to this major pivot.
In all honesty, I think it’s obvious that the Tour has been leaning in this direction for several months now. Recently, the Tour all-but mimicked LIV Golf’s business model/tournament structure thru adding more limited-field, no-cut events in addition to more elevated-status, higher-purse events. Again, the Tour has made the right decision by choosing to forego this fake rivalry in favor of unifying golf’s leading powers.
Like it or not, the Saudis have had a say in golf for longer than too many Americans are willing to accept. Last year, it was reported by several golf-media sources that 23 of the PGA Tour’s 25 title sponsors are Saudi-backed companies. Without its sponsors, the PGA Tour wouldn’t be able to pay anyone week-in, week-out.
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The Tour’s existence has been contingent on its primary title sponsors. Similarly, those sponsors are able to exist/function as they each do thanks to the Saudis and their endless pool of riches. By extension, the Saudis have been players in golf well-before the advent of LIV Golf. Thru waging a war against Norman and LIV, the PGA Tour fulfilled its destiny in epitomizing the role of American cultural hubris and its hypocrites. The Yankees have been buying World Series since the 19th century. By aligning its future with that of the DP World Tour/LIV Golf, the PGA Tour ended its attempts to Americanize a sport that was born across the Atlantic Ocean.
Make no mistake: When I see a random American on the leaderboard, I root for him over a foreigner. I don’t care what his name is, what his swing looks like, or what club/clothing manufacturer he represents. If he’s American, I pull for him. As a PGA-accredited club golf professional, I care about golf. Moreover, I care about America (n)‘s stature in the (larger) worldwide landscape of golf.
As an American, I found the PGA of America’s disrespect for this country’s former president(s) appalling. When the 2022 PGA Championship’s venue was moved from President Trump’s course in Bedminster, New Jersey, to Southern Hills, I asked why. Clearly, the PGA of America acted in the interest of optics. The association decided to wrong a former US President in favor of aligning itself with some imaginary forecast concerning a potentially unattractive and smaller gallery-turnout at Trump Bedminster compared to the turnout at another layout. By moving to Southern Hills, the PGA of America chose to distance itself from a man who not only was our president, but is an ambassador for the game of golf at home and abroad. If that is (supposed to be) an organization that represents America, it isn’t doing a very good job of it.
To all players who feel blindsided/surprised by the PGA Tour’s recent merger-decision: open your eyes. This is America in the year of 2023. Pro sports organizations exist in order to fulfill its perceived obligations towards “entertainment” value before it acts in the interest of (bettering) the spirit of the competition within the game. All along, the PGA Tour waged a morality war and made empty promises/claims in the hope that such actions would help in protecting its bottom-line (enough) down the road. For heavens sake, did we not see how the last two Super Bowl games ended? Both games ended in bogus calls in order to give the NFL’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, exactly what he wanted/wants: the kind of end-result that makes him more money.
Today, the entire game of golf won. Not only is there billions of dollars injected to the sport, but the best golfers in the world now have the opportunity to play in more events against one another for that same money. And, in a fashion unlike that which characterizes other sports, golfers aren’t left at the mercy of bad refereeing/officiating as each strives to do their best. There’s only so much that outside interference is capable of in golf. Now that more of the best can play with their own more often, the entire game of golf has reason to rejoice.
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