Jay Monahan – Syndication Server

PGA Tour players and Saudi Arabia PIF boss have ‘constructive’ meeting in Bahamas

During the meeting, Yasir Al-Rumayyan talked about his vision, priorities and motivations for investing in golf.

Last week Golfweek was first to report a group of PGA Tour players were planning to meet with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the head of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, in an effort to continue towards a deal that would seemingly reunite men’s professional golf.

While the original report stated the meeting was scheduled at a private residence in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, following the conclusion of the Players Championship at nearby TPC Sawgrass, flight tracking data showed the meeting appeared to happen in the Bahamas. After the meeting, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan sent a memo to players – first shared by Monday Q Info – to provide a brief update.

“The conversation throughout was constructive and represents an important part of our due diligence process in selecting potential investors for PGA Tour Enterprises,” Monahan said of the meeting between player directors and Al-Rumayyan. “This mirrors the approach we employed earlier this year as we evaluated an investment offer from the Strategic Sports Group.”

“During the session, Yasir had the chance to introduce himself to our Player Directors and talk through his vision, priorities and motivations for investing in professional golf,” Monahan continued. “As we continue these discussions with the PIF, we will keep you updated as much as possible, but please understand that we need to maintain our position of not conducting negotiations in public. To that end, we will provide no further comments to the media at this time.”

The message doubles down on Monahan’s comments at last week’s Players Championship and only confirms what had already been widely reported. The Tour has maintained the discussions with the PIF dating back to the June 6 framework agreement have been productive, but nine months later a deal has still yet to be reached.

During his annual State of the Tour address, Monahan confirmed he and SSG representatives met with Al-Rumayyan in Saudi Arabia in January. That same month, the SSG invested $1.5 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises, the for-profit entity that was originally supposed to include the PIF via the framework agreement.

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Two things are clear: the Players Championship has been diminished, and the PGA Tour is reeling

Monahan talked about the fans, but he talked more about what is best for the members of the PGA Tour.

When Jay Monahan met with the media ahead of this week’s Players Championship, the flagship tournament for the PGA Tour for which Monahan is the commissioner, two things became apparent.

First, with many of the LIV golfers in the world able to play in the four major championships, the Players Championship might be the tournament that is impacted the most by the absence of the LIV Tour players like Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka. The narrative that the Players is the fifth major isn’t very strong when the majors are actually letting the LIV Golf and the PGA Tour players play together, but the Players Championship isn’t allowing that.

The second thing that is crystal clear is that the PGA Tour is still in trouble two years into the battle with the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Tour. Monahan answered plenty of questions, but didn’t, in reality, give many answers.

Monahan said that the negotiations with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund over a potential investment deal are still ongoing, but his unwillingness to offer details about the negotiations or what a potential deal will look like are hardly the things that disgruntled and frustrated golf fans want to hear.

What fans want is a deal. They want the talk of negotiations and player defections and money and money and more money to go away. Monahan basically told those fans that the battle will continue and there is no deadline for a deal. And there is certainly no guarantee that PGA Tour players will ignore overtures from LIV in the coming months.

Monahan talked about the fans, but when push came to shove, he talked more about what is best for the members of the PGA Tour. The fans have been rising with a more unified voice of frustration and are showing that frustration through a drop in television ratings for PGA Tour events. Only the American Express with its amateur winner Nick Dunlap has seen a ratings increase among tour events this year. Fans still don’t seem to be a priority.

2024 Players Championship — Viktor Hovland focuses on the 10th hole during the first round of The Players Championship Thursday, March 14, 2024, at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

Will fans stay or revolt?

The thinking is probably that the fans are the fans and they will continue to be fans, and that they won’t abandon the game they love over two years of money grabs and insults. That might be dangerous thinking as the Tour continues negotiations with LIV, especially given that the PIF seems to have greater leverage than the PGA Tour because of money.

That was obvious in December when the PGA Tour’s Dec. 31 deadline for a deal with PIF grew closer and closer. The Tour did make a $3 billion deal with investment group Strategic Sports Group, but LIV poached Rahm from the PGA Tour with a deal of more than half a billion dollars, showing that its money advantage perhaps overruled the PGA Tour’s arguments of history and tradition or its SSG deal.

Members of the newly established 13-member board of directors of the new PGA Tour Enterprises need to understand that every week that goes by without a deal is another opportunity for fans to become a little more fed up with the constant noise and bickering between the two rival tours.

Fans honestly don’t care about player equity in the new structure of the PGA Tour. I’m not sure fans really care whether the top 10 players in the world all play together every week, just that they are all united on a single tour and have a chance to play together more often.

If this sounds like a condemnation of what the Tour is doing, that’s only partly true. The LIV players elevated guaranteed money to their greatest goal in the game. They took the money knowing there would be no world ranking points and there would be no easy path back to either the PGA Tour or the DP World Tour.

And they now play in a certain amount of obscurity, because the television ratings for that tour are worse than the worst PGA Tour event. Even adding Rahm, one of the great players in the game at the moment, hasn’t changed the television story for LIV. As Scottie Scheffler said this week, the splintering of professional golf came from the LIV players leaving, not the PGA Tour players staying.

So fans could walk away from Monahan’s press conference Tuesday with little hope that things are going to change in the coming weeks. And the prospect of federal intervention that could delay any final deal by a year or more has to be depressing for all parties involved.

In the end, it isn’t promises of an accelerated negotiation or $3.6 million first-prize checks or player equity fans want. Fans want a deal and for the rancor to go away. Without a deal, the fans might go away.

Larry Bohannan is the golf writer for The Desert Sun. You can contact him at (760) 778-4633 or at larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @larry_bohannan. Support local journalism. Subscribe to The Desert Sun.

Exclusive: PGA Tour players nearing secret meeting with Saudi fund boss

Six sources told Golfweek that player-directors are being strongly encouraged to meet Yasir Al-Rumayyan.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – A group of PGA Tour players are nearing a meeting with the head of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund as efforts continue to broker a deal between the Tour and the controversial sovereign wealth fund that has been disrupting men’s professional golf.

Six sources told Golfweek that the Tour’s player-directors are being strongly encouraged to meet Yasir Al-Rumayyan and that it could happen within days. Two sources said a meeting is tentatively scheduled for Monday at a private residence in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. The Players Championship concludes on Sunday at nearby TPC Sawgrass. Details of the meeting are being closely guarded and several insiders caution that it’s still unclear if the powerful Saudi investment chief will commit to attending or cancel at the last minute.

Five of the six player-directors on the Tour’s Policy Board — all of whom now also serve on the board of the new for-profit entity, PGA Tour Enterprises — are in the field at the Players: Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth, Adam Scott, Peter Malnati and Webb Simpson. Only Tiger Woods is not competing. Joe Ogilvie, a retired veteran who was added to both boards last week as a liaison to player-directors, plans to arrive in Ponte Vedra Beach Sunday in advance of an Enterprises board meeting scheduled for Tuesday at Tour headquarters.

A meeting between Al-Rumayyan and the players would be intended as an informal ice-breaker in a bid to advance negotiations between the Tour and the PIF, talks which have been largely stalled since the June 6 announcement of a Framework Agreement between the parties. A faction of player-directors remains angered about the secretive process leading to that agreement and are known to be skeptical of a deal with the Saudis, who have poured billions of dollars into LIV Golf.

On Tuesday, Tour commissioner Jay Monahan confirmed that he met recently with Al-Rumayyan in Saudi Arabia and was accompanied by representatives of Strategic Sports Group. In January, SSG invested $1.5 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises, the vehicle through which the future of the sport will be shaped. “Our negotiations are accelerating as we spend time together,” Monahan said.

Under the terms of the Framework Agreement, the PIF could also become a minority investor in PGA Tour Enterprises, but last month one player-director was noticeably lukewarm when asked if a deal with the PIF was necessary after the SSG infusion.

“I just think it’s something that is almost not even worth talking about right this second given how timely everything would be to try to get it figured out,” Spieth said. “But the idea is that we have a strategic partner that allows the PGA Tour to go forward the way that it’s operating right now without anything else with the option of other investors.”

Those comments led to a public response from Rory McIlroy, who Spieth replaced on the Policy Board in December. McIlroy said reaching a deal with the PIF is in the Tour’s best interests and warned that Spieth’s implicit stiff-arming of the Saudis could complicate negotiations. McIlroy has also suggested that LIV golfers be allowed to return to the PGA Tour without sanction as part of a unity agreement. That’s one of the thorniest issues negotiators will face, and several prominent Tour loyalists immediately rejected McIlroy’s view, including Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.

When Monahan addressed the media on Tuesday at TPC Sawgrass, he repeatedly declined to offer specifics on the state of negotiations or on any areas of contention, but reiterated his belief that a deal with the PIF is the best outcome for his organization. Asked what the game will look like if a deal with the Saudis is not concluded, Monahan said, “I guess I’ll answer that question if a deal isn’t concluded.”

“However we end up, I think that we’re not going to be able to satisfy everyone, and that goes for both sides,” he added. “But what we’re trying to do is to get to the best possible outcome again for the Tour and for the game, and I do think that that’s achievable.”

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Jay Monahan says Saudi PIF discussions are ‘accelerating’ but refuses to answer specifics

Monahan and SSG representatives went to Saudi Arabia in January to meet with PIF representatives.

During his annual press conference ahead of the 2024 Players Championship, Jay Monahan updated the media on the current state of discussions with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

“As I’ve said on a number of occasions, you can’t negotiate a deal like this in public,” Monahan said at TPC Sawgrass on Tuesday morning. “I recently met with the governor of the PIF, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, and our negotiations are accelerating as we spend time together.”

“While we have several key issues that we still need to work through, we have a shared vision to quiet the noise and unlock golf’s worldwide potential,” he continued. “It’s going to take time, but I reiterate what I said at the Tour Championship in August. I see a positive outcome for the PGA Tour and the sport as a whole. Most importantly, I see a positive outcome for our great fans.”

Monahan said he went to Saudi Arabia in January with representatives from the Strategic Sports Group to meet with Al-Rumayyan and the PIF.

“That’s why we continue to have productive discussions. There’s a mutual respect there that I think is helpful towards ultimately getting a deal done,” Monahan added. “And I think it is that level of discussion that has helped accelerate the conversations.”

Monahan said he appreciated the questions on the subject of the PIF discussions but refrained from answering specifics about team golf or whether or not players who left for LIV Golf would be welcomed back to the Tour.

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Lucas Glover still hates the signature events — ‘it’s a money grab’ — and poses questions for Jay Monahan

“Nothing that has happened in the last two years in golf, in my opinion, will help the game.”

ORLANDO — Lucas Glover didn’t like the PGA Tour’s signature events when they were announced, he didn’t like them when he won twice late last season to become exempt for all of them this year and he still doesn’t like them after having played in the first four, including at this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club & Lodge.

“I don’t like the idea at all,” he said of the limited field, mostly no-cut events with purses of at least $20 million and elevated FedEx Cup points. “It’s selfish and it’s a money grab.”

Glover understands the Tour has been facing an existential threat from LIV and that’s the primary reason for many of its knee-jerk reactions to protect its place as the premier tour for men’s professional golf. But he still claims they didn’t need to hit the panic button.

“Nothing that has happened in the last two years in golf, in my opinion, that will help the game,” he said. “I’ve yet to figure out what’s so bad out here that we had to do all the things we’ve done.”

When someone joked facetiously that it’s really terrible out here, where a record 139 pros earned more than $1 million last season, Glover deadpanned, “I know, it was terrible, we’ve got a bunch of millionaires running around driving three cars and eating really good food.”

He still can’t wrap his head around why the Arnold Palmer Invitational field has been reduced from 120 players a year ago to 69 this year with a cut to the top 50 and ties.

“I’m 44 and I’m getting towards the get-off-my-lawn dad,” he said. “I just don’t see what was so bad out here that we had to do all this. Let’s raise some purses to make sure we keep some guys around but now we’ve eliminated a lot of playing opportunities for some really good players.”

And he suggested what he termed “a smart-ass question” that someone in the media should ask PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan next week during his Tuesday State of the Tour press conference

“Why are the signature events (max) 80 players and only 50 make the cut but our biggest signature event next week is 144 players with a full cut. THE signature event,” Glover emphasized. “It’s very mind-blowing that our biggest signature event has the most players and the biggest cut.”

Glover isn’t passing judgment yet on the Tour’s recent deal with private equity firm SSG that could pump as much as $3 billion into the Tour. He said he’ll sit down and watch all the videos the Tour sends to players at once before forming an opinion. He’s more interested in how it all fits rather than how it’s going to line his pockets. Then he offered another question that he suggested should be posed to Monahan.

“Now that we have a second entity, PGA Tour Enterprises or whatever it’s called, with a new board, does that eliminate the regulations in place that the Tour has or had to ban certain people?” he wondered. “My answer to that immediately would be no, so, there’s your way back.”

While the Tour and PIF continue to take their sweet time negotiating – or perhaps more like not negotiating – Glover can sense the eventual end game.

“I think we’re going to end up with 12-16 events around the world with the top players for the most money and wherever that money comes from – who knows whether it’s private equity or PIF – clearly, that’s where it is headed,” he mused.

Ultimately, he pictures the landscape will look like this: “A few of our big (PGA Tour) events are probably going to fit into that. You’re looking at eight PGA Tour/DP World Tour-style events around the world, three or four LIV-style events around the world and four majors and you’ll have a Tour of the who’s who. I’m very happy I’m close to being done. That’s how I see it,” he said.

Glover has watched the game he loves change — and not for the better — and he doesn’t like the direction that the career he’s invested more than 20 years of his life is headed. But, come on, there has to be something positive that has come from all the turmoil, right?

Glover paused and pondered the question before delivering his answer. “Food’s better,” he said.

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Lynch: Signature events are trying to engineer outcomes that the PGA Tour’s stars can’t guarantee. It’s time for tweaks

Signature events rely on a formula designed to artificially engineer outcomes.

The ambition that underpins the PGA Tour’s signature events is supposed to be apparent at the glamorous end of the leaderboard – popular stars locked in thrilling battles – but the shortcomings undermining these tournaments is evident at the other end of scoring at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Fridays on Tour are about who gets sent home; Friday at Bay Hill is about how many go home, or more accurately, how few.

Just 69 competitors started the week, and deep in the second round 61 of them were inside the cut, which covers the top 50, ties, and anyone within 10 strokes of the lead. Bay Hill is typically among the most demanding courses on Tour, so it was always unlikely that anyone would stretch a lead sufficiently to render the 10-shot rule irrelevant. Which means everyone who misses the cut might be able to share one of the tournament’s courtesy Cadillac SUVs to the airport. Granted, a decent percentage of starters will be cut at day’s end, but this is an unnecessary diversion.

While far short of a constitutional crisis for King Jay, quibbles about the cut speak to a broader dilemma with how the signature events are structured and marketed. Tournaments billed as all-star showcases are an automatic loss in the eyes of many if those all-stars don’t show up, which for the most part they haven’t in 2024. Since individual form is beyond the control of Commissioner Monahan, he might consider the words of business theorist W. Edwards Deming: “Eighty-five percent of the reasons for failure are deficiencies in the systems and processes rather than the employee.”

And signature events rely on a formula designed to artificially engineer outcomes that simply cannot be guaranteed.

Winners of signature tournaments this season are a worthy bunch, albeit not barn-burner personalities: Chris Kirk, Wyndham Clark and Hideki Matsuyama (the latter a superstar on distant shores, but beyond a language barrier for a U.S. audience). That list has been unfavorably compared with champions from elevated events in ’23, guys like Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland. It’s convenient cherry-picking. Last year’s winners also included lower-wattage players like Kurt Kitayama, Lucas Glover and Clark (before he was a major champion). What’s different is that the leading men won early last year and established a narrative that signature events were delivering on their intent, while the supporting cast is stealing scenes this year and fueling a narrative that the Tour has lost its luster.

Building tournaments around Goliaths while trying to exclude most of the Davids isn’t indefensible, but it does have consequences, because every little reduction in competitiveness dilutes what makes things compelling for fans. At 9:30 a.m. on the morning of the second round, the practice range on Tour is usually a hive of comings and goings, pure tournament theater. Friday morning at Bay Hill, there were six players preparing for their rounds. Spectators in the stands behind them must have felt like they came for a feast but found a famine. One metric that matters for fans can’t actually be quantified: the vibe. You know it when you feel it, you know when you’re not feeling it. And not many are feeling it this week, in part because of the size of the field.

The field might be nominally stronger in that a greater percentage is made up of the Tour’s best players, but there’s simply less activity around the grounds, less action to follow, less spectacle to absorb. Just less, period. A tee sheet of 69 does no favors for the tournament, for fans or for the PGA Tour. If the old standard for the invitationals on the schedule (120) is thought too many, then why not 100? And if there’s no appetite to spread the purse among that many – which is the real reason for small, lucrative events – then dispense with the customary formula for distributing the prize fund and pay less for mediocre finishes. This ain’t LIV Golf.

With the exception of Tiger Woods, golf has never been a sport in which the top dog leaves with the trophy most times he competes. The loss percentage for even the best is way higher than other major sports. The signature events are an attempt to strengthen the Tour’s product by helping the VIPs get more Ws. What we are seeing so far in ’24 is that desired outcomes can’t be made to order, that in the pursuit of robust ratings, fan engagement and player preferences, we are instead sacrificing potential Cinderella stories and the vibrant bustle of tournament week for paying spectators. One cannot predetermine something that is inherently capricious: elite professional golf.

The Tour’s top stars have spent two years telling us they deserve greater rewards and the sport’s economy has been distorted to grant that request. Surely it’s not too much to ask that they play better, and play better against a few more guys.

Lynch: PGA Tour board changes prove players can’t run a billion-dollar business as a side gig

Ogilvie’s appointment is a tacit admission that the prevailing wisdom on Tour — players should be in charge — is twaddle.

Press releases issued from the PGA Tour’s Global Home are usually more noteworthy for what is omitted than what’s included, but are often so artlessly composed that a kernel of truth inadvertently reveals itself. So it is with the announcement of the slate of board members at PGA Tour. Enterprises, the new for-profit entity that will set the future shape of the men’s professional game.

The boardroom has seats for the six player-directors from the Tour’s Policy Board, none of whom have an MBA and most of whom lack a college degree. Four chairs go to Strategic Sports Group, which just invested $1.5 billion into the new company, but nothing was offered on whether those seats will be split if the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund kicks in a similar contribution. The Commissioner and an independent director from the Policy Board swell the ranks of the double-jobbers serving both panels, while Keith Pelley apparently didn’t hear the tune end in this game of musical chairs; his DP World Tour went unmentioned.

It’s the 13th man on the roster who warrants attention. Joe Ogilvie competed on the PGA Tour for 15 years before quitting in 2014 to become a money manager. He’s smart and personable, a man who studies the minutiae of the golf business with a fervor that most of his peers can only muster for yardage guides and conspiracy theories. Few people are more invested in or animated about the jacketed side of the PGA Tour.

Ogilvie was named to both the Tour’s governing Policy Board and to the board of PGA Tour Enterprises as a “director liaison” — a position described by HQ as an aide-de-camp for players facing the significant time commitment of serving on two boards. He will be additive and influential, and not only because he gives players a symbolic 7-6 majority in the room. But his appointment is a tacit admission that the prevailing wisdom on Tour — players should be in charge — is twaddle.

A small group of stars has largely assumed directional control of the Tour, but how well that works will depend on how those stars exercise the power they’ve accumulated. In their eagerness to show that they’re the captains now, newly empowered players risk confusing governance with management.

A board ought to focus on the former — strategic goals, organizational health and structure — while leaving operational decisions and execution to an executive team. But this is a member organization and every member has a granular list of grievances around which he thinks the Tour ought to be arranged. The board includes players whose faith in its executives is sorely lacking, and who are themselves overly concerned with score-settling over the secretive Framework Agreement announced on June 6.

It’s fanciful to imagine that a multi-billion dollar business can be run as a side hustle by golfers who are trying to win tournaments or just keep their cards. Even Ogilvie has a day job.

That matters because PGA Tour Enterprises faces numerous issues that are existential. A rudimentary accounting of those:

The lack of progress in reaching a deal with the Public Investment Fund, and what must be a gnawing fear that the Saudis are deliberately delaying things to bleed out the Tour’s product strength.
The looming expectations of a return on investment — or at least material changes in business operations — by the Strategic Sports Group, a daunting reckoning for a complacent, legacy organization.
Broadcast ratings that are sluggish at best, and worrisome at worst, and which suggest eroding consumer interest just as the Tour tries to persuade constituents that they need to invest more capital.
Sponsors fed up with being asked to pay more for the same, or less.
Tournament directors angry at having to pay higher fees to headquarters, which for many means robbing the charitable poor box to give more to millionaires.
Leadership that is still struggling to regain the trust of the membership nine months and one day after the Framework Agreement was announced.
Players who are single-mindedly bent on retribution against those who engineered that Agreement, as though the guys who did nothing but hold their own Tour hostage can claim moral superiority over those who tried to do something, imperfect as it was.
Rank-and-file members who see opportunities they earned be diminished because of the relentless focus on rewarding those at the top of the pyramid.
Stars who insist the Tour’s business be organized around them — and that they be compensated not as the assets they are, but as the owners they imagine themselves to be — while underperforming for the product in 2024.
Around all of that, internal and external messaging that only departs from the banal so that it might veer into the blundering.

The PGA Tour has never been in a more precarious position. It’s hardly on the brink of ruin, but there are major systemic issues that aren’t being addressed quickly enough. Some of those are concerns for the board, some for management, but there’s a palpable sense that no one is really happy. The field at Bay Hill has been almost halved to just 69 competitors, and so few were working on Wednesday afternoon that the occupants of the practice putting green barely outnumbered LIV’s spectators in Jeddah last weekend. “Arnold Palmer would be so f****** pissed to see what has gone on here,” one tournament veteran said. “It feels like a member-guest.”

That from a Tour loyalist.

The coming months will expose how Balkanized things have become on the Tour’s Policy Board, which can only bleed into the newly-constituted board of PGA Tour Enterprises given the overlap. There exists no unity of vision for the future of the Tour among the 13 men on this board, at least not yet. Eventually, one faction will win the squabble over who gets to pilot the ship. Maybe then they’ll actually notice that their paying passengers have been quietly disembarking for a while.

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LeBron James, Drake lead list of celebrities who have invested in PGA Tour

LeBron and Drake weren’t the only high-level personal investors to back the PGA Tour.

The discussion around professional golf lately has been less birdies and bogeys and more dollars and bills.

The PGA Tour recently partnered with the Strategic Sports Group (SSG), an outside investment conglomerate headlined by Fenway Sports Group and comprised of several high-level U.S.-based sports owners, to create a new, for-profit entity called PGA Tour Enterprises. The deal will provide players equity in the new venture and will see the SSG invest up to $3 billion, with an initial investment of $1.5 billion. The player grants will vest over time and will be based on career accomplishments, recent achievements, etc. Only qualified PGA Tour players are eligible.

However, more people were involved in the investment than announced. According to the New York Times Dealbook newsletter, NBA superstar LeBron James and rapper Drake were part of a group of celebrities in the sports, music and entertainment spaces that personally invested in the new venture.

MORE: How player equity in PGA Tour Enterprises will work

The newsletter claims James and Drake will be “strategic investors” and will use their stardom to broaden golf’s audience and went as far as to report that James joined PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan at the home of SSG investor Tom Werner to discuss his role.

“Golf can be so much more than a sport. I remember some of my best childhood memories was being on the golf course with my uncle,” Drake said in a statement to DealBook. “It’s one thing to invest in a team, but to help reimagine one of the biggest leagues in the world is an incredible opportunity and I’m excited to be a part of it.”

The newsletter also listed the following PGA Tour investors who were previously unidentified: Chris Pratt (actor), Maverick Carter (James’s business partner), Rich Paul (James’s agent), Jeremy Zimmer (CEO of United Talent Agency) and Steve Stoute (founder of UnitedMasters). The point man behind the investments is Paul Wachter, the Los Angeles-based investor who now runs Main Street Advisors.

Back on June 6, 2023, the Tour announced a framework agreement with the DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to create what we now know as PGA Tour Enterprises. Four months later, the PGA Tour’s policy board announced it had advanced discussions with the SSG and that it had not shut the door on the PIF.

MORE: Greg Norman sends letter to LIV staff regarding $3 billion investment in PGA Tour

The Dec. 31 deadline to come to a definitive agreement with the PIF was extended, and Monahan sent a memo to players that stated “active and productive” negotiations would continue into 2024 with the PIF based on the progress made to date.

Why bring in outside investors if talks with the PIF are continuing? One could argue that bringing in SSG would dilute the Saudi investment and make the deal more palatable given the U.S. government’s various questions. On the flip side, such a move might be seen as a way for the Tour to have its cake and eat it, too, by pushing the Saudis out after ending the litigation with the framework agreement. The former seems more realistic and would be a step towards reuniting the game, while the latter would be another pivot from the Tour that would only lead to more battles with LIV.

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Player equity in $3 billion PGA Tour Enterprises to be broken down into four groups

The majority of equity will be granted to 36 players based on career and last 5-year performance, PIP results.

When the PGA Tour announced the $3 billion investment from the Strategic Sports Group (SSG) to create the PGA Tour Enterprises, one of the biggest questions surrounding the deal regarded player equity.

A Tour statement said “nearly 200 PGA Tour members will have the opportunity to become equity holders” in the new for-profit entity and that PGA Tour Enterprises was “also considering participation by future PGA Tour players that would allow them to benefit from the business’s commercial growth,” meaning new players or those who return from LIV Golf would have access once they gain membership.

A week after the initial release, the Tour sent a memo to players – first reported online by Ryan French of Monday Q Info – on Wednesday breaking down the equity groups and how grants would work. The player grants will vest over time and only qualified PGA Tour players are eligible.

From the memo:

Group 1 consists of $750 million in aggregate equity and will be granted to 36 players based on career performance, last 5-year performance, and Player Impact Program results.
Group 2 consists of $75 million in aggregate equity and will be granted to 64 players based on the last 3-year performance.
Group 3 consists of $30 million in aggregate equity and will be granted to 57 players who have earned certain fully-exempt PGA Tour status categories.
Group 4 consists of $75 million in aggregate equity and will be granted to 36 players who were instrumental in building the modern PGA Tour, based on career performance.

Of the initial $1.5 billion of the $3 billion investment, $930 million is accounted for in those four groups. But what about the rest of the initial investment?

“The recurring player equity grants are incremental to the initial grants, are in the aggregate amount of $600 million, and are planned to be awarded in the amounts of $100 million each year starting with the 2025 PGA Tour Season and continuing through the 2030 PGA TOUR Season (at a minimum),” the memo read. “It is important to note that all PGA Tour members are eligible to receive recurring grants – regardless of whether or not they received an initial grant. These recurring grants will reward future top performers and will be based on last 3-year performance, last year performance and Player Impact Program results.”

PGA Tour Enterprises also allows for a co-investment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, “subject to all necessary regulatory approvals.”

Back on June 6, 2023, the Tour announced a framework agreement with the DP World Tour and Saudi PIF to create the for-profit entity now known as PGA Tour Enterprises. Four months later, the PGA Tour’s policy board announced it had advanced discussions with the SSG and that it had not shut the door on the PIF.

The Dec. 31 deadline to come to a definitive agreement with the PIF was extended, and Monahan recently sent a memo to players that stated “active and productive” negotiations would continue into 2024 with the based on the progress made to date. Monahan and Al-Rumayyan reportedly met last month in Saudi Arabia to continue negotiations.

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LIV Golf Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan updates players on potential future investment in PGA Tour Enterprises

The letter comes a day after the PGA Tour secured a $3 billion investment from the Strategic Sports Group.

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico — Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund was first to the table in June of 2023 to negotiate a framework agreement with the PGA Tour to create a new for-profit entity that would alter professional golf as we know it, and has been locked in discussions in the seven months since.

Just hours after news broke that an outside investment group comprised of a consortium of U.S. sports owners had agreed to invest $3 billion to create PGA Tour Enterprises, Greg Norman responded with a letter to the entire league staff that was obtained by Golfweek. The note didn’t just hype up LIV Golf’s third official season – which begins this week at Mayakoba’s El Camaleon Golf Course – but also downplayed any negative impact the Strategic Sports Group’s investment may have on LIV’s future.

A day later, Golfweek has obtained yet another letter, this time sent from LIV Golf Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan to players, that took a more measured approach.

Dear All,

Yesterday’s announcement of the formation of PGA Tour Enterprises is consistent with PIF’s longstanding passion to grow the game. PIF continues to discuss and evaluate the possibility of a future investment that benefits the greater game of golf.

PIF remains committed to investing in and supporting LIV and the team golf format that has brought new energy and so many new fans to the game around the world.

The game of golf is only beginning to fulfill its potential. This is the vision we had when LIV was created, and today that is more alive than ever. LIV has transformed the sport, and we will continue to grow the game globally, expand its fanbase, elevate its platform, and maintain incredible momentum.

LIV has a great season ahead. Good luck at Mayakoba. I will see you all on the range soon.

Yasir

LIV Golf Chairman

[5:27 PM] Woodard, Adam

Words matter, and Al-Rumayyan chose his carefully by hedging any guarantee of an investment. He also amplified the PIF’s investment in LIV and made it clear the league plans to continue to grow whether or not a deal is reached, as seen with new player signings and eight of 14 events outside the United States. In the Tour’s announcement of its partnership with the SSG, the release stated PGA Tour Enterprises allows for a co-investment from the PIF in the future, “subject to all necessary regulatory approvals.”

The U.S. government has kept a keen interest in the proposed PIF investment since the initial framework agreement was announced. An optimist would say the inclusion of the SSG investment may dilute any future Saudi investment just enough to make a deal more palatable for the feds. A pessimist could also argue the Tour is attempting to squeeze the Saudis out.

LIV Golf has ventured on after the Tour and PIF’s previous deadline of Dec. 31, 2023, to come to an agreement was missed. The league has poached great players and characters like Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton and will host at least four events in 2024 the same week as PGA Tour signature events, including this week in Mexico. While the possibility of an investment in PGA Tour Enterprises is certainly still on the table, Al-Rumayyan’s letter sure makes it seem like the two sides still aren’t close to coming together.

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