The Premier Golf League is back in the news this week with a report in The Guardian claiming 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.
The following players have reportedly been linked to the new circuit: Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott, Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose, Rickie Fowler, Paul Casey and Koepka, despite the world’s sixth-ranked player previously saying, “I have a hard time believing golf should be about just 48 players.”
While the PGL would directly compete with the PGA Tour and European Tour, Raine Group has allegedly been in talks with the European Tour.
“For the past couple of years we have been proactively sought out by a number of private equity companies, all of whom recognize the strength and influence of the European Tour across golf’s global ecosystem,” said a European Tour spokesperson. “We have listened to them all but our primary focus remains ensuring that the remainder of our 2020 schedule, and onwards to 2021, is robust and healthy for our membership in these constantly changing times.”
McIlroy was the first player to speak out, at the WGC-Mexico Championship on Feb. 19, before doubling-down during an interview with the Golf Channel after the first round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
“You’re going to be contracted to play 18 events, they’re going to tell you where and when you should be there, and as a golfer and an independent contractor I didn’t like the sound of that,” McIlroy said, “and I didn’t really like where the money was coming from either.”
Koepka told the AP he made his decision on the PGL after meeting with organizers in Los Angeles during the Genesis Invitational.
“I get that the stars are what people come to see,” Koepka told the Associated Press. “But these guys who we see win, who have been grinding for 10 or 15 years, that’s what makes the cool stories. I’d have a hard time looking at guys and putting them out of a job.”
Contributing: Julie Williams.