Tag: PGA Tour Policy Board

Tiger Woods named to PGA Tour Policy Board, becoming sixth player director

“I am honored to represent the players of the PGA Tour,” Woods said in a statement.

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Tiger Woods is joining the PGA Tour policy board for the first time, becoming a sixth player director, it was announced on Tuesday.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and the Tour’s player members, Player Directors and Player Advisory Council members announced a new agreement “to ensure that the Tour lives up to its mission of being a player-driven organization, ‘for the players, by the players.'”

With Woods joining the board, the Tour will have a total of 12 board members — six player directors, five independent directors and one director representing the PGA of America.

“He takes the future of the PGA Tour very seriously and he wants it to be in the best hands possible and it to be in the best position possible,” Justin Thomas said. “I think it would be very easy for someone like him, all he’s done, just kind of like what do I need to do, I’ve made the Tour what it is, where it’s at financially, all the sponsors, TV deals whatever, and it would be pretty easy for him to just hide under a rock the rest of his life and be just fine. But that’s not who he is, he wants to continue to see the PGA Tour grow and succeed.”

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The current Board includes Patrick Cantlay, Charley Hoffman, Peter Malnati, Rory McIlroy and Webb Simpson; independent directors Chairman Ed Herlihy, Jimmy Dunne, Mark Flaherty, Mary Meeker and a to-be-announced replacement for Randall Stephenson; and the PGA of America Director John Lindert.

According to a press release, player leaders joined together to “uphold the Tour’s core principles” and ask that certain steps be taken immediately, and Monahan has agreed to support the players and their requests.

As such, the players and Commissioner Monahan will work together to amend the Policy Board’s governing documents to make it clear that no major decision can be made in the future without the prior involvement and approval of the player directors. In other words, no more secretive bombshell deals such as the June 6 announcement of the Framework Agreement that the Tour and Saudi Arabia’s PIF were forming a new entity to combine their commercial interests.

Second, the player directors’ special advisor, Colin Neville, will be fully aware of the state of the negotiations contemplated by the Framework Agreement, and Neville will be provided with full access to any documents or information that he requests as being necessary for him to carry out his duties on behalf of the players.

The player directors have been promised full transparency and the authority to approve — or to decline to approve — any potential changes to the Tour as part of the Framework Agreement discussions. Woods had remained largely silent since the controversial deal was announced in June.

“I am honored to represent the players of the PGA Tour,” Woods said in a statement. “This is a critical point for the Tour, and the players will do their best to make certain that any changes that are made in Tour operations are in the best interest of all Tour stakeholders, including fans, sponsors and players. The players thank Commissioner Monahan for agreeing to address our concerns, and we look forward to being at the table with him to make the right decisions for the future of the game that we all love. He has my confidence moving forward with these changes.”

“Tiger’s voice and leadership throughout his career have contributed immeasurably to the success of the PGA Tour, and to apply both to our governance and go-forward plan at this crucial time is even more welcomed and impactful,” said Monahan. “I am committed to taking the necessary steps to restore any lost trust or confidence that occurred as a result of the surprise announcement of our Framework Agreement. My job in the negotiations – in partnership with our player directors, PAC and the broader membership – is to advocate for what is best for the PGA Tour members today and in the future. Any agreement we reach must be shaped by our members’ input and approval earned through our player directors.”

According to the Tour-issued release, the following players expressed their support for these changes: Woods, Cantlay, Hoffman, Malnati, McIlroy, Simpson, Jordan Spieth, Adam Scott, Rickie Fowler, Kevin Kisner, Billy Horschel, Sam Burns, Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele, Justin Rose, Max Homa, Collin Morikawa, Will Zalatoris, Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, Matt Fitzpatrick, Cameron Young, Shane Lowry, Keegan Bradley, Brian Harman, Tom Kim, Tony Finau, Wyndham Clark, Hideki Matsuyama, Tyrrell Hatton, Jason Day, Mackenzie Hughes, Corey Conners, Maverick McNealy, Keith Mitchell, Henrik Norlander, Ryan Armour, Brice Garnett, Kevin Streelman and Tommy Fleetwood.

James Hahn cast the only dissenting vote on the changes coming to the PGA Tour. For the first time, he explains why

“Certain changes were made to combat the LIV Tour, not necessarily make our Tour any better,” James Hahn said.

ATLANTA — Two-time winner James Hahn doesn’t claim to be disappointed with the changes coming to the PGA Tour next season, but that doesn’t mean he is pleased with them either. As one of four player directors on the Tour’s nine-voting member Policy Board, he cast the lone dissenting vote. In a Golfweek exclusive, Hahn tells for the first time why he felt compelled to do so.

“Certain changes were made to combat the LIV Tour, not necessarily make our Tour any better,” he said in a phone interview on Saturday. “To prevent more players from leaving our Tour, we are ending up paying the top players in the world guaranteed money that has increased exponentially. Three years ago, we started implementing this new PIP program, which has grown to $100 million. It seems like the people who have the most influence of how much money is distributed to the top players in the world have a much stronger voice now than they’ve ever had. I understand the reasoning that the money is used to keep top players and without them, we have no Tour. My question to them is when is it enough? We’ve gone from $50 million to $100 million. When $100 million isn’t enough, will they ask for $200 million? How will that impact our business?”

Hahn noted that many of the same players who bashed LIV defectors as employees who no longer had the luxury to pick their schedule and privilege to play when they want to have essentially given up those very rights.

James Hahn earned the win at Quail Hollow in a one-hole playoff.
James Hahn wins at the 2016 Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow in a one-hole playoff.

“It’s interesting how things have switched,” he said of how top 20 players will have to make 20 mandatory starts (three non-elevated starts will be optional) to receive their PIP money. “Purses increasing to $20 million isn’t enough – they needed guaranteed money to give up their freedom. It feels very hypocritical and it could cannibalize the rest of the season and make the other tournaments feel like second-class events. By asking the best players to play more and essentially the same schedule they are going to end up taking the same week off. Are they going to play the Honda Classic with its $8-million purse or the $20 million purses that surround it? I fear we could end up like the ATP (tennis circuit) where only a handful of events draw real interest. These are some of the things we had to think through before we voted.”

Hahn expressed concern that the gap between the haves and have-nots has widened even deeper, and noted several of the meetings have become heated.

“We all want the same thing, what’s best for the Tour, but we have different ideas on how to get there,” he said. “Right now, it seems like they are catering to the top players in the world.”

Hahn understands how the business works – the value of the next TV contract will depend on star power and being able to have the best players competing against each other more often is a good thing. The dollars have grown considerably in the most recent TV deal that kicked in this year and that money gets distributed to the whole membership primarily through larger purses. Hahn contended that the Tour’s rank and file provide value too.

“If we were at a steak house and everything was a la carte how much do you pay for your steak compared to the asparagus and the baked potato? If you were to do a la carte, sure, the top players in the world are worth exponentially more than asparagus. But you don’t eat just steak at a steakhouse. You have to have your sides, right? The Tour won’t taste as good if you just had 20 tournaments on our TV networks just showing the top players in the world. It doesn’t work that way. In my opinion, it’s just as important that they fill the other 20+ events with high performance golf in the tournaments that the top players in the world aren’t playing in. We have to remember that the TV deal is paying for those events too.

“We’re valuable to the Tour – not as valuable – and we’re trying to find a middle ground of how much guaranteed money we should pay the top players versus distributing the money in purses among the rest of the membership.”

He continued: “The secret meeting with Tiger and Rory set a precedent that the top 20 players can get whatever they want from the Tour. So, what’s stopping the other 90 percent of our Tour from getting together and doing the same exact thing as Rory and Tiger and saying the top 20 players can go play their own tournaments but the rest of the Tour, us 90 percent all stand together and we want more benefits? I feel like a portion of the $100 million could have gone to making our Tour great rather than going to the top 20. These are the little things that irritate the rest of the membership to the point there is a lot of animosity between the haves and have-nots.”

As a player director, Hahn enjoyed a front-row seat to a critical moment in time for the Tour. He wished he could’ve done more during his term on the board, which is coming to an end, but given the unique circumstances the Tour faced he’s not disappointed that he wasn’t able to do more.

“I understand the No. 1 priority has been to keep our top players,” he said. “We’ve lost DJ, Koepka, Bryson, Reed and others. That’s been the No. 1 priority. It takes up all the discussion away from other things that compared to that is meaningless. The thought process has been if we don’t focus all of our attention and throw as much as we can against the LIV Tour to keep our players, a year from now, we might not have a Tour to play on. That’s been the overall theme in these meetings and that’s why we pushed everything else to the backburner.”

Was enough thought and consideration given to the sweeping changes that have been announced since LIV became a reality?

Hahn sees both sides to that debate and says, “We didn’t have that much time to process and think and revise some of the changes that were made because we needed to do it before the end of the season so if someone was considering leaving that they would second guess themselves and ultimately stay with the Tour. If it prevents even one person from leaving, I guess it would be considered a success.”

He continued: “It’s crazy to think that it took a secret meeting between Tiger, Rory and the best players in the world to make a change so fast that could have been made a year or two ago. I was talking to Bryson (DeChambeau) before he left the Tour. That’s what he wanted. He wanted the top players in a room and have a conversation on what they bring to the Tour and how can they be compensated for it. Because of the person that Bryson is, I don’t think he got the respect of his peers to bring together those players.”

The 40-year-old Hahn, who finished 109th in the FedEx Cup this season, never was approached by LIV. With the final wrap-around PGA Tour season starting in a few weeks, he’s motivated by the fact that if he plays the way he knows he’s capable of, he’ll be rewarded better than ever before. And he also knows that the changes being instituted will make it that much harder to retain his job.

“Everyone has their legacy – it’s not as great as Rory or Tiger – but I want mine to remain on the PGA Tour,” he said.

Does he expect the changes that PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan got approved despite Hahn’s opposition to thwart more players from jumping ship to LIV?

“It all depends how invested the LIV Tour is,” he said. “If this were a game of poker, LIV raised, now we raised and it is back to the LIV Tour to call, raise again or fold.”

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