Potential World Tour Takes Aim At PGA Tour With Lucrative Individual And Team Concept

[bscinstnct]

So, Rory makes 18.65MM on the PGA Tour and 19.5MM on the PGL. That's less than a 1MM difference. That's nowhere nowhere near enough to consider playing 18 events all over the world (he has settled in with his wife in FLA) and bailing on a ton of high profile PGA Tour events and the big Euro events.

 

I'd expect him to ask for at least $50MM **guaranteed in his **first year in the form of sign-on bonus, cash payouts, and maybe equity. But I wouldn't expect him to value the equity for much given the risk.

[cdnglf]

 

[bscinstnct]

Barbarians at the gate. Good analogy. Turned out to be a disaster ; )

[Holy Moses]

Take it for what it’s worth

 

 

[Hawkeye77]

No.

[MMB1500]

McIlroy has said an explicit "no" to the WGL proposals, stating: "The more I've thought about it, the more I don't like it."

He also added:"Tiger is 44,” the Northern Irishman said. “He’s got two young kids. He openly said last week he wants to play 12 times a year, this league is proposing 18, so he’s not going to do it.”

Admittedly he doesn't move the needle like Woods but he is still World No. 1 and this is significant development.

[Dave230]

As famous as Tiger is, and to a lesser extent Mickelson, they would need players in their 20s and early 30s to commit, particularly Rory and Koepka. Just becomes a glorified Champions Tour if Tiger and Mickelson are the main stars by about 2025, time is against them.

[redfirebird08]

 

He's right that Tiger won't want to be forced into playing 18 events. If both of these guys want nothing to do with it, that is a huge win for the PGA Tour. Those are the 2 biggest stars (by a long shot) in the top 10 of the rankings. I am curious to see what Koepka might do. I could see him having a similar view in terms of not wanting to be forced to play ANY event. We all know Koepka thinks the regular events are pretty much meaningless next to the majors.

[cdnglf]

 

PGL “Evolution”

Team photo

left to right: DJ, Phil, Tiger, Koepka

[bscinstnct]

I don't think they can get *anybody big to leave the PGA Tour for another "tour".

 

Time to rethink the "product". "Product", lol.

 

They need a few big names for anyone to care to watch. Let's say Tiger, Phil, Rory, and BK. Ok, you get those guys together, a lot of people will watch. In fact, you get those guys together, you really dont need much else. Maybe another 4 big enough names.

So, you put together a type of thing like Phil and TW had with "the match". Say, 4 teams of 2 that play each other. Big money per hole, slick, Vegas/Monaco type of production vibe. Celebrities, broads, get Holly Saunders interviewing in some get up.

 

You get just a few guys with enough juice to tell the Tour, "I'm playing in this, end of discussion". And that's how you start it.

[Darth Putter]

No Tiger and no Rory= DOA

[Hawkeye77]

Good for McIroy -- have always admired his willingness to go his own way in a sense and not be afraid to speak his mind, even when sometimes it seems he doesn't think things through or is maybe too honest. Glad to see someone speak up.

 

[Holy Moses]

Rory saying no is a huge loss. Getting Tiger would be huge and it would probably have to happen for it to get off the ground, but the PGL is rumored to be offering him $250 million to join. Tiger at age 46 or 47 and on is something to bank on? You never know when his body is going to break down and I'd imagine Tiger would only have a few more years after that. That's a big investment unless you are a middle eastern billionaire for what could be a short-lived time with Tiger.

Will the PGL get OWGR points? Shortened 54 hole tournaments get OWGR points, but what if a tournament starts out as 54 hole event without a cut? The PGA Tour Champions doesn't award OWGR points and their tournaments are mostly set up like that. Not sure if they don't award OWGR points due to player age or tournament set up. Just seems like the PGL has to get OWGR points or it won't work. Players would fall out of the top spots in the world rankings on that Tour without those points and wouldn't qualify for the majors unless already exempt. But if they do get OWGR points, the PGA Tour's total ranking value takes a huge hit and it's a lot tougher for its players to get into majors. Interesting...

[Darth Putter]

The OWGR is controlled by the tours that the PGL is competing against and the majors. Strike #1 will be telling the PGL players they are off their respective tours. Strike #2 will be announcing that these 48 get no OWGR points for these 18 events.

 

Tiger is NOT playing the mandatory 18 tournaments a year for this tour even if they threw a billion dollars at him.

[Holy Moses]

The PGL will bend over backwards for Tiger to get him. They'll make an exception with the number of tournaments they'd make him play. But for a billion dollars Tiger would play 52 weeks a year for a few years. Geoff Shackelford thinks they will whittle it down to 10 tournaments. But if you can only play in 10 tournaments and the majors, will there be enough money to be made to make someone want to leave the PGA Tour?

I'm not smart enough to figure this out, but I wonder how well you'd have to finish in the four majors as a PGL player not getting OWGR points in their league to acquire enough OWGR points to stay in the top-50 or wherever you have to be to qualify for majors the next year. Can anyone figure that out?

[grm24]

The 4 majors could really deliver a kill shot to the PGL. It won't happen though but the 4 majors could simply change their qualifying criteria to declare that the if you are a PGL tour player you are now ineligible to play in the majors.

[Holy Moses]

They could do that, but if the PGL somehow got off the ground, why would the 4 majors want to hurt their own tournaments just because a bunch of stars left the PGA Tour? Maybe that's not the point you were trying to make, but I don't see why the 4 majors would care that the top PGA Tour players left the PGA Tour as long as they are keeping their world ranking where it needs to be or have already qualified by winning. You could argue that the PGL would make the majors even bigger events than they currently are because that would be 1 of only 4 events where the best players all actually played together.

[Darth Putter]

The 40 event divisor is a real killer. Plus the majors are only worth twice as much as your average PGA Tour event. The WGCs. TPC and FedEX Cup Playoffs are worth 75%-80% of a major and the PGL guys would be out of those.

 

There are some ways around this for the PGL players.

US Open: qualify or special exemption

British Open: qualify or the R&A could designate one of the events as an Open Qualifier like the Australian Open

Masters: for international players they can invite whoever they want, they might extend that to American players if needed

[grm24]

They could do it because they can. The 4 majors are part of the founding group that started the OWGR and can decide if the PGL gets OWGR points for their events. Would that hurt the majors? In the short term yes. Right or wrong professional golfers careers are in large part judged on how many majors they've won. Some players may not care about that. And that's fine. Many do care.

However if you take the lure away not being able to play in the majors if you join the PGL it would cause some players to consider not joining. Or the majors could decide to not award OWGR points to PGL players in their event so it impacts their world rankings. Again I'm not saying any of this will happen. I think it would he highly unlikely. However it's something that could happen. Some of the worlds biggest names that have won majors over the last 10-15 years have missed majors for various reasons. The majors rolled on without them. And they would do the same in these scenarios.

[Holy Moses]

Maybe Anthony Kim can double dip? If he's getting his PGA Tour insurance payout, he could still play in the PGL. So we got him and Phil. Anyone else? I'm sure Reed will be in too. Team Reed will take on another dimension if he is the captain of one of the teams.

[Darth Putter]

I just don't see many US PGA Tour players going to the PGL, especially with the "freedom of tournament selection" point Rory made today.

The PGA Tour might even pay them to take Patrick Reed.

I do think they can get a lot of international players. The team concept (like Formula 1) could really appeal to them. The money would be much better than they could get in Europe, Japan or the other tours. The European Tour's only defense is the Ryder Cup.

Can this work with Phil, some top Euros and some from the next tier, a scattering of US pros and the best of the rest of the world that abandon their home tours?

[grm24]

Saw a quick bit on Golf Channel this evening about the PGL, ET players and the Ryder Cup. It was on Golf Central. Basically the point made was that if a ET player eligible for the RC jumps to the PGL they would not be eligible for the RC.

[Holy Moses]

No, it won't work without at least 10 of the top 25 PGA Tour players. Rory is already out. He's one of the five that the PGL really needs to get besides Tiger, Phil, Brooks, and Rahm.

[Darth Putter]

Yep. Is possibly tripling your earnings worth being banned from the Ryder Cup? How many among the young who have never played and don't get it, those that will take the money and those who are past their prime and don't think they'll ever get back.

[Holy Moses]

There's really only two scenarios to me. The first is that the PGL gets OWGR points. The second is that that PGL doesn't get OWGR points and it can't get off the ground. The stars that the PGL are recruiting are the very people who care about their legacies, especially their major totals. I don't see a PGL that doesn't get OWGR points working. The top players are playing the majors one way or another. I could see a 50-100th ranked player skipping the majors and going with the PGL and not getting OWGR points because they have a small chance of winning majors, but that's not the type of player the PGL wants.

[cdnglf]

 

like starting a hockey league with, say... Bobby Hull, 45 year old Gordie Howe, Anders Hedberg, and Robbie Ftorek

[grm24]

The other statement I thought I heard (sort of half paying attention) was that if an ET or PGA Tour player jumps to the PGL they would not have a tour to come back to. IIRC Rex Hoggard and Todd Lewis were discussing it.

[grm24]

The PGA Tour and ET are part of the group that decides if the PGL gets OWGR points for their events. They won't allow it.

 

[cdnglf]

Would they revoke Phil’s lifetime exemption?

that would be worse than

[Darth Putter]

I would guess that letter from the OWGR has already been sent to the PGL and players.