As talk about a potential competitor to the PGA Tour has waxed and waned over the course of 2020, a major move should bring the game’s top two tours even closer together in the future.
The European Tour and PGA Tour today announced a new alliance on Friday, with a release noting that the PGA Tour will buy a minority stake in the European Tour’s media production company.
Also, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan will get a seat on the European Tour’s board of directors.
Per the release:
The landmark agreement will see golf’s two major Tours explore all facets of collaboration, working together on strategic commercial opportunities including collaborating on global media rights in certain territories.
This will come through part of the agreement which sees the PGA Tour acquire a minority investment stake in European Tour Productions (ETP), the European Tour’s Media Production company, which produces and distributes content internationally.
The tours will also work in partnership on a number of other areas including global scheduling, prize funds and playing opportunities for the respective memberships. Further details of these areas will be announced in due course.
Keith Pelley, Chief Executive of the European Tour, said: “This partnership is an historic moment for the game of golf and is a fantastic opportunity for both the European Tour and the PGA Tour to explore ways to come together at the very pinnacle of our sport and work in unison for the benefit of the men’s professional game.”
This comes as major news because organizers of the Premier Golf League had reportedly been wooing the European Tour to join forces.
Back in July, The Guardian reported formal offer letters worth “hundreds of millions of dollars” have been sent to a handful of players.
By mid-March Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka — then the top-three golfers in the world — had all came out to reject the PGL, a proposed world tour of golf’s best players backed by the Raine Group, seemingly stopping any momentum the PGL may have had.
Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott, Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose, Rickie Fowler, Paul Casey and Koepka had all been linked as possible targets of the new tour.
This announcement should come as a significant blow to the PGL.
“Today’s announcement is the formalization of a closer working relationship between the Tours in recent years. It was one which was crystallized earlier this year when both Jay and I were part of the working group containing representatives of the four Majors and the LPGA, a group which helped shape the remainder of the golfing calendar for 2020 during unprecedented times.
“We shared the challenges of working through a year neither of us could have ever imagined and we found definite synergies in many areas of our respective Tours. That gave us the impetus to move forward together and arrive at this momentous announcement we are making today.”
Jay Monahan, Commissioner of the PGA Tour added, “We are thrilled to announce this further strengthening of our partnership with the European Tour, and we look forward to working together for the benefit of the men’s professional game and for golf fans around the world.”
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