PGA TOUR, DP World Tour and PIF announce newly formed commercial entity (*** NO POLITICS ***)

[caniac6]

Just now, N8dogg2669 said:

OK, so more importantly, what does this mean for Ryder Cup? 

It means anything goes. Everyone can play.

[kasting333]

5 minutes ago, hunterdog said:

I was opposed to LIV Golf because of the Saudis, sportswashing, 9/11, and human rights. With the merger, is there any way that I can watch televised golf in the future, without accepting that there are no morals that money cannot buy?

You and many others were sooooo naive to think the pga tour was taking a moral stand. 

[bladehunter]

Just now, golfortennis said:

 

Pretty much everyone who isn't McIlroy or Monahan or their shills.  

 

 

But how so ?  How is it great if you didn’t want to play LIV ?  

[Is Golf Fun or Work]

ROTFLMAO, that didn't take long.  I wonder what PGAT will do with all those KF players they promoted to the big show?

[Mp14forlife]

Rory 6 months from now 

[Ronnie Mundt]

WAIT!!! I thought guys like Billy Horschel and Rory McIlroy were “members” of the PGAT!!! But they didn’t know this was going to happen until they found out on Twitter?

 

Is it possible there is anyone in human history that has spewed more BULLSH!T than Jay Monahan? I’m starting to think not.

[MFBach]

1 minute ago, maowv said:

Ultimately, this will be bad for the sport of professional golf.

I think it will be great for golf. I want to see Brooks, DJ, and Cam Smith playing. When the majors didn’t ban the LIV guys, the PGA was on borrowed time. Between that the antitrust suit, this was inevitable. Didn’t think it would happen today though, obviously. 

[PearSorbet17]

Is the pga tour now the “bonesaw” tour?

[widow-maker]

I guess we'll have to wait to see the details.  On the surface, it looks like the Saudis have bought their way into the PGA Tour.   I have no interest in the LIV team play with shotgun starts and music blaring.  I won't watch anything like that.... ever.  I will watch the 4 Majors and the Ryder Cup.  I'll watch a few weekly tournaments (Memorial, Rocket Classic because I used to work at DGC, Pebble and a few others).   I have a feeling they may drive more people away from televised golf than they bring in.  Maybe they just don't care.  This may all be about franchising and gambling.  I'll wait for details but I'm not too optimistic that this is going to be a good thing. 

[bscinstnct]

8 minutes ago, KarstenK said:

Lol Norman “just got the call about this a few moments ago” 

 

I saw that!

 

[bazinky]

Good news is I'm going to have a lot more time to play golf. No need to pay attention to any of pro golf now, especially if they do a ball-roll-back. 

[jaydub]

They are dead to me if they are taking any Saudi money. They can all go to you know where. .

[tdeutmeyer]

So is the PGA considered a Nonprofit or Profit organization?  Does this buyout change things?

[Jayjay_theweim_guy]

50 minutes ago, AdmiralPicard said:

This is going to be my favorite part of this. I don’t even care about the golf right now, I just gotta see how Chamblee pivots to an extreme backpedal here. 

Chamblee, the entire editorial board of GOLF Magazine... 

 

Whole lot of bridges to be mended.

[sdiver68]

 

 

[King_Slender]

Just now, jhoppmann said:

Ryder Cup implications?

 

 

They'll let all players in without a doubt.

 

What I think people are missing is that this is really going to lead to a three-tiered setup.

 

1) A "Super Tour" of the top 72 or so players playing premium events.

2) The rest of the PGA Tour

3) The DP picking up any scraps

[GolfinDave]

The players may be pissed, but this is just a tentative agreement. If the players don't sign-off at the end of the day, not sure if the deal closes. If the PGA Tour lives on and they make more money, not sure if there will be many gripes. 

[golfortennis]

1 minute ago, AUTIGER07 said:

The players not knowing is the most interesting part of the news (and there is a ton that is very interesting). This is going to fracture the player relationships even more if the guys that took the money can come back with no issue.

 

I don't think the players will be like that with each other.  They all know the score, they are out there for the money.  Some guys give good PR about "legacy" or whatever.

 

The players however will no longer trust anyone in a position similar to what Jay Monahan and his ilk have held.  The players who refused to take the money are the ones who lost out.  BUt that isn't Koepka's fault or DJs fault.  They listened to Jay Monahan, and well, here we are.

[jdl]

 

[King_Slender]

Just now, tdeutmeyer said:

So is the PGA considered a Nonprofit or Profit organization?  Does this buyout change things?

 

They are merging into a for profit entity.

[Neutral_Impact]

7 minutes ago, MaineMariner said:

So today is a very good day for the "shut up and dribble" crowd. We get a unified professional golf league again!

 

But like, genuinely horrible on a geopolitical front. Although we don't know the full details yet, I think it's safe to say that a foreign government now owns a top-tier professional sports league. And a pretty awful foreign government, at that.

 

Yikes. Just... yikes. I feel kinda sick. This feels monumental. 

 

The bit that gets me is that it's a country that has had nothing to do with golf
Put it this way I could be swayed much easier if the Scotland tried to buy professional golf

It's much like Formula 1 where we now have races in Saudi, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Qatar. All gulf nations that have nothing to do with motor racing other than giant piles of cash to throw at hosting and sponsorship
Meanwhile we have no races in Germany (the home of many great drivers and the source of much of the sport's brilliant engineers) and France (the origin of grand prix racing) , and only one race in GB (the home of many of the teams)

[Barto78]

I hope the guys can wear shorts now!

[nsxguy]

47 minutes ago, No_Catchy_Nickname said:

Seems more like a win for LIV than the PGAT.

 

Very surprising.

 

Not that surprising. Almost a sure thing - just not expected quite so soon.

 

Money talks, and a relatively "poor" PGA Tour can't compete financially with a government.

[jls667]

I know everyone is wondering how the PGA Tour caved but maybe LIV caved and took a deal. LIV has been hemorrhaging money and I know the PIF has limitless money but they're not idiots. Maybe they saw the writing on the wall with LIV's inevitable failure and decided to maximize their investment while they could and the PGA Tour said that not only will this end the bickering but they'll get a huge infusion of cash at the same time. Bit of a win-win.

 

Keep in mind they're going to establish a path back for LIV players to get back to the PGA Tour and not the other way around, so it could very well be LIV bending towards the PGA Tour instead of the PGA caving as others are saying here.

Edited June 6, 2023 by jls667

[wildcatden]

1 minute ago, GGTTH said:

 

No it was the opposite.

 

PIF were basically going to lose the litigation which meant investments in other sports too would have had to go. This is PIF buying their way out of losing the litigations.

 

More than likely, Phil knew some stuff. The kind of things that make trouble for a 501c. 
 

We already knew about PIF dirty laundry. 

[MFBach]

1 minute ago, kasting333 said:

You and many others were sooooo naive to think the pga tour was taking a moral stand. 

This pissed me off more than anything. The PGA trying to make it a moral issue for Americans instead of just saying “we don’t like them because it hurts our product and model”… dragging 9/11 and those families into it. I’ll never have much respect for JM again. It wasn’t ever political, it was business. It was always the money and how it affected the PGA. 

[Its_KBO.]

Money talks. 

[golfortennis]

Just now, tdeutmeyer said:

So is the PGA considered a Nonprofit or Profit organization?  Does this buyout change things?

 

They are a 501(c) non profit currently.  The new entity becomes a for profit organization.  Which is as it should be.  This has been abused far too long.

 

What will also be interesting is what happens to the pension plan, given that it's treated as part of current assets or something like that with the 501(c) designation.  Ie., when Vijay Singh sued, had he won and been awarded a massive judgment, the pension assets would have been at risk. 

[MattyO1984]

Now, I am not going to get out my violin and play a sad song for Tiger but Norman said TW was offered $700-800 to join LIV and turned it down. How's that for an expensive decision to make!

[MtlJeff]

4 minutes ago, larciel said:

Loyalty is a imaginary rope to tie you to work for less money.

 

Look at ncaa now.

 

I can't even count how many times i posted this in the past 1-2 years. Companies use words like "loyalty" and champion "company men" like Rory to tell the people they didn't want to pay more to that there's more to life than money. There's prestige and tradition and loyalty

 

And then when they were offered the same billions it's "YES"

 

I can only imagine how pissed some of the guys that almost went for 30-40M guaranteed but didn't ....feel