The new adage might be that golf is a five-letter word. And that word is chaos.
An old line in sports is that golf is a four-letter word. That saying is no doubt from all the words you might hear on a golf course from all the golfers in the world hitting bad shots.
But the new adage might be that golf is a five-letter word. And that word is chaos. Nowhere has the chaos that is engulfing the golf world been more obvious than in the last month.
What once was a sport with a reputation for sportsmanship, civility and good fellowship is showing cracks at the professional level. Sniping, name-calling and greed seem to have taken over.
It’s been 25 years since Tom Wolfe published “A Man in Full,” the novel in which an Atlanta good ol’ boy, Charlie Croker, sees the high times grind to a halt as the reserves of cash and goodwill so long extended to him finally run dry. Eventually, even his allies turn. “His botching things was malfeasance. It made them look so goddamned bad!” Wolfe wrote of Croker’s fleeing friends. “Half a billion! Now his heedless deadbeat squandering was making them all look like fools! Suckers! Patsies!”
For a time this summer, it seemed Jay Monahan was destined for his own “Cap’m Charlie” reckoning as the PGA Tour commissioner’s issues mirrored those of Wolfe’s character. There was the apparent need for a cash infusion to meet bills, laid bare in the announcement of a Framework Agreement with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund. There were the legal headaches, LIV’s withdrawn litigation having been replaced with a Justice Department antitrust probe and U.S. Senate subcommittee theatrics. There were the people who thrived in the good times who began to sour when the going got tougher, in Monahan’s case the players, whose anger at the secrecy around the Saudi deal — and the associated moral backflip, but mostly the secrecy — threatened his future.
In retrospect, the least surprising moment of Monahan’s long, hot summer was his taking a month-long leave of absence to address his mental health.
The Monahan of ’23 is markedly different from what we saw twelve months ago at the Tour Championship, when he announced plans for designated events, increased purses and bonuses, and rookie subsidies. He was laying out a vision. Sure, it wasn’t his — it was largely the creation of Colin Neville, the Raine Group partner brought in to advise players by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy — but it was an actionable concept. There were specifics.
He relied on boilerplate remarks and repeatedly stiff-armed inquiries about the ongoing negotiations with the Saudis. “We continue to reinforce the fact that the framework agreement ultimately is the path that we’re on and when we’re able to share more information, we will,” he said.
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Even when Monahan touted figures highlighting the robustness of the PGA Tour’s business — viewership, engagement, revenue, demographics — it felt like a perfunctory concession to metrics that only matter in a rational business environment, a conventional standard by which he is no longer judged. His shareholders in the locker room primarily have one yardstick (money) and one concern (how they’ll get more of it).
Which explains why the commissioner was at pains Tuesday to remind us for whom he works. Monahan never could muster the imperious swagger of his predecessors, but what little he had was extinguished by the recent revolt in which players demanded more say in governance. I asked if he saw that move by players as an indictment of how the organization has been managed.
“I did not,” he replied. “I look at this as not an indictment, but a very positive message… We’ve listened, we’ve responded, and now we have the right people, the right process in place for us to be able to move forward and determine that future. But I look at it as a positive and something that I and we embrace.”
Something else Monahan has embraced is this phrase: “a positive outcome for the PGA Tour,” words he relied upon several times today. What constitutes a “positive outcome” is, of course, wholly subjective. Some people within the Tour contend that a positive outcome has already been accomplished — the ending of litigation. Others point to the Tour’s creation of a for-profit entity to expand its product, an investment vehicle in which the Saudis need not be passengers, or at least not the only ones. There’s also a group for whom a positive outcome is no Saudi partnership at all, a position bolstered by reports this week from human rights groups that their putative business partners machine-gunned hundreds of migrants and asylum-seekers.
Monahan acknowledged that there is other investment interest — clean capital, as it were — but that he is focused on talks with the Saudi PIF. “I think the realization that there is an entity that can be invested into at the PGA Tour and the uniqueness of being able to invest into a professional sports league of the caliber, quality and sustainability of the PGA Tour, obviously has generated a lot of interest,” he said. “But in terms of alternatives, right now, you know, the sole conversation that we’re having is the conversation we’re having with PIF.”
Right now. Or until an alternative definition of a “positive outcome” has the votes.
The only area in which Monahan provided clarity was his health. “I have never felt better mentally and physically than I feel right now. And obviously, I had to take some steps to go from where I was to this position. But I’m a work in progress,” he said. “So I’m working on the things that I’ve learned that are going to help me in my life and help me in this role. That’s how I feel, but more importantly my doctors, my wife, and girls, ultimately, that’s how they feel about how I’m doing. They are my arbiters. I feel as strong as I’ve felt in a long, long time.”
In that too, Monahan echoes Wolfe’s Charlie Croker, who found comfort in his version of stoicism, albeit too late in his case.
While he didn’t offer much in the way of policy particulars, Monahan gave the impression of someone for whom professional stresses now seem less important, less defining. Whatever his other shortcomings this summer, that’s not a bad place to arrive at for a man charged with laying out a sumptuous banquet for people with competing views about the menu, the timeliness of the service and the sourcing of the food.
The PGA Tour is delivering financial windfalls not seen since Bernie Madoff was the toast of Wall Street.
HOYLAKE, England — The organizations that run golf’s major championships share a common mission — foundational for some, adopted more recently by others — to grow the sport while preserving its values. This shared mandate distinguishes those bodies from the professional tours, which use similar platitudes as window dressing on their actual objectives of rewarding members and executives.
Against that goal, the PGA Tour has exceeded expectations, and perhaps good taste. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler has played 19 events this season, won twice, and averaged north of $1 million per start, with the fertile fields of the FedEx Cup playoffs still to be plowed. Granted, Scheffler has produced consistently high finishes during this campaign, but the Tour’s benevolent new economics are less trickle-down than tsunami. Patrick Cantlay hasn’t won this season but his prize money through July 20 exceeds Brooks Koepka’s haul in 2019, when his three wins included a major. The average on-course earnings on the PGA Tour currently stand at $1.8 million, with seven events and bonuses still to count. Why? Because of events like the Arnold Palmer Invitational. In 2021, the API’s purse was $9.3 million. A year later, it was $12 million. This year? $20 million.
In an effort to keep pace with the PIF, the PGA Tour is delivering financial windfalls not seen since Bernie Madoff was the toast of Wall Street.
The same upward trend is apparent in major championships. Two years ago, the average prize fund at a major was $11.875 million. In 2022, it was $15.375 million. Now it is $18 million. The purse for the 151st Open Championship at Royal Liverpool is $16.5 million, a bounteous sum to be sure, but last among the big four and reflective of the R&A’s status as the most threadbare body in men’s golf. This is probably why the organization’s chief executive, Martin Slumbers, bemoaned the money arms race Wednesday at Royal Liverpool.
“Significant increases in prize money in the men’s professional game has resulted in the long-term reassessment of the business model for professional golf. As custodians of the game, we have to balance the prize fund at The Open with ensuring the appropriate investment in grass-roots and new golf initiatives, ensuring pathways are in place from elite amateur golf to the professional game, and most importantly, promoting women and girls’ golf, both amateur and professional,” Slumbers said. “There’s no doubt that our ability to achieve this has been impacted by the much more rapid acceleration in men’s professional prize money than we had anticipated or planned for.”
Golf’s sustainability debate has shifted from the environment to green of another kind.
No sooner had Slumbers lamented the very existence of a money race than he pulled on his skates and tried to cut in at the head of the pack. Asked if the R&A will accept largesse from the Saudis, he offered this: “We have a number of large corporate partners that help us make this thing happen. I think the world has changed in the last year. It’s not just golf. You’re seeing it in football. You’re seeing it in F1. You’re seeing it in cricket. I’m sure tennis won’t be that far behind.”
Not by accident did he cite sports in which the Saudi sportswashing enterprise is established or currently circling.
“The world of sport has changed dramatically in the last 12 months, and it is not feasible for the R&A or golf to just ignore what is a societal change on a global basis,” added Slumbers, who has the mien of an aging Harry Potter. “We will be considering within all the parameters that we look at all the options that we have.”
Translating Slumbers, it’s unpalatable that the R&A allow others to burrow into the Saudi trough without donning a napkin of its own. It ought to be a jarring juxtaposition to hear an industry leader talk in one breath about promoting women and girls, then in the next breezily signal his willingness to cash a check from a misogynistic regime to finance that mission. To paraphrase Adlai Stevenson’s observation on Richard Nixon, it’s the equivalent of chopping down a redwood and then mounting the stump to deliver a conservation speech.
There is a way in which the R&A – like the Masters, PGA of America and USGA — can underwrite the noble work at hand without resorting to putting a cash value on their proudly-held values.
There’s never been a more pronounced divide between legacy and lucre at the elite level of golf, a gap that’s sure to grow as yet more money pours in from either the Saudi Public Investment Fund or from private equity, depending on which faction on the PGA Tour’s Policy Board carries the day. The fixation on money diminishes players and the platforms on which they compete, but it elevates the majors, cementing their status as the events upon which legacies are built. Which is why the majors should not try to keep up in the cash competition but rather abstain entirely.
Make the prize fund zero. Not a dime.
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Instead of being just another lucrative payday for players, let majors be an opportunity for them to give something back to the game that is enriching them. A stipend can be provided to cover costs, otherwise the $72 million paid out at majors this year can be redirected to growing the game, a cause for which every organization professes passion. Winning a major has never been about the size of the check and nor would it be diminished by the absence of one.
A few disgruntled players might choose to stay home every April because the Masters says no mas, but not many. Every player knows that the long-term career value of winning one of the sport’s premier titles far exceeds the amount earned on the day. Professional golfers have never enjoyed more opportunities or greater rewards. Their present day is plenty good enough. Let the majors be a vehicle to invest in golf’s future.
No three words are more overused in golf than “grow the game.”
While the intended outcome is admirable, it’s not always honest. The phrase has been co-opted by various organizations and leagues within the game, especially those involved in the Greg Norman-led and Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf. At the same time the future of the game was being discussed in a U.S. Senate hearing on the proposed deal between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, 96 players and 430 volunteers were actually growing the game instead of speaking about doing so.
The 2023 U.S. Adaptive Open at Pinehurst No. 6 is the second playing of the USGA’s newest championship which puts disabled golfers in the spotlight and provides them the opportunity to showcase their talent in a national open they deserve. After the second round, former U.S. military veterans who were wounded in service of their country questioned whether or not the proposed deal with the Kingdom is the best way to, as they often say, grow the game.
“It’s one of those things, they’re trying to grow the game, and I don’t know if that’s the right way to go about it,” said Chad Pfeifer, who is competing in the leg impairment category after he lost his left leg in 2007 while serving for the U.S. Army in Iraq. “I feel like there’s other, better ways to grow the game of golf.”
Such as, for example, creating a foundation with other disabled golfers that aims to get more disabled people and adults involved in the game through clinics or by providing equipment for those in need. That’s exactly what Adam Benza, Kenny Bontz, Kellie Valentine and Pfeifer did with their foundation, Moving Foreward.
“Look here this week,” said Pfeifer. “Hopefully a lot of people see this and they’re inspired and maybe pick up the game of golf. There’s just a lot of other ways you can grow the game of golf.”
Due to Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the attacks on 9/11 to the Kingdom’s wide-ranging human rights abuses – which include politically motivated killings, torture, forced disappearances and inhumane treatment of prisoners – LIV Golf had long been criticized as another way for Saudi Arabia to sportswash its reputation through the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars.
At first, Larry Celano wasn’t too bothered by LIV Golf or the Tour’s decision to sign a framework agreement with the PIF, “because it’s not my war.” The Arizona native was wounded during the invasion of Panama on Dec. 22, 1989, as a member of the U.S. Army in the 82nd Airborne Division and sustained an L1-L2 spinal cord injury due to gunshot wounds. He retired in June of 1990 and was awarded the Purple Heart. He also started the Seated Golfers Association, of which he serves as the president.
“What (Saudi Arabia) did, the money’s not good money,” said Celano, who also noted the lengths to which corporate America has accepted Saudi investment. “I don’t want the money now because my friend opened my eyes to realize how they treat people.”
Maybe it’s time for those claiming to grow the game to listen to the people who are actively doing it.
WASHINGTON — A pair of PGA Tour executives are set to field questions from members of a Senate subcommittee this morning, as Congress continues to scrutinize the golf tour’s proposed deal that would see it effectively merge with Saudi-funded LIV Golf.
PGA Tour chief operating officer Ron Price and Jimmy Dunne, the Tour board member who played a significant role in orchestrating the deal, are both scheduled to testify in front of members of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in a meeting room on Capitol Hill beginning at 10 a.m. ET.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is the chairman of the committee and has been publicly critical of the deal, which will unite the two once-warring factions in golf under the same commercial umbrella.
In excerpts of his opening remarks that were released on the eve of the hearing, Blumenthal says this isn’t simply about golf, but rather “how a brutal, repressive regime can buy influence – indeed even take over – a cherished American institution simply to cleanse its public image.”
“A regime that has killed journalists, jailed and tortured dissidents, fostered the war in Yemen, and supported other terrorist activities, including 9/11. It’s called sportswashing,” Blumenthal says.
“It is also about hypocrisy, and how vast sums of money can induce individuals and institutions to betray their own values and supporters, or perhaps reveal lack of values from the beginning. It’s about other sports and institutions that could fall prey – if their leaders let it be all about the money.”
The subcommittee initially requested testimony from PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, but he has been out with an unspecified medical issue since June 13. He is set to return to his post on Monday.
LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman. (Photo: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
Greg Norman, the chief executive of LIV Golf, and Yasir al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, were also asked to appear. But Blumenthal and subcommittee ranking member Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., said in a statement last week that the two LIV representatives said they would be unavailable “due to scheduling conflicts.”
“Consistent with our subcommittee’s practice, we look forward to working with both witnesses to find a mutually agreeable date for them to appear in the very near future,” the senators said in their statement.
The subcommittee’s inquiry into the PGA Tour-LIV Golf deal is one of two parallel probes underway in the Senate. The other is being conducted by the Senate’s finance committee and overseen by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. The Department of Justice has also been investigating the deal.
Tuesday’s hearing comes about 36 hours after The Washington Post reported that a PGA Tour board member had resigned over concerns with the deal. The newspaper reported that Randall Stephenson, the former chairman of AT&T, wrote in his resignation letter that the framework agreement “is not one that I can objectively evaluate or in good conscience support, particularly in light of the U.S. intelligence report concerning Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.”
Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, was killed at a Saudi consulate in 2018. The aforementioned intelligence report concluded that the country’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, signed off on the operation − one of several incidents that activists point to as evidence of Saudi Arabia’s widespread human rights abuses.
Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.
A longtime member of the PGA Tour policy board has resigned following the framework agreement between the Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to create a new global golf entity.
Former AT&T executive Randall Stephenson has left his position as an independent director due to “serious concerns” over the proposed deal, which still needs to be passed by the Tour’s 10-member board. Stephenson joined the board in 2012 but said the framework agreement “is not one that I can objectively evaluate or, in good conscience support, particularly in light of the U.S. intelligence report concerning Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.”
“I joined this board 12 years ago to serve the best players in the world and to expand the virtues of sportsmanship instilled through the game of golf,” Stephenson wrote in a letter to fellow board members obtained by the Washington Post. “I hope, as this board moves forward, it will comprehensively rethink its governance model and keep its options open to evaluate alternative sources of capital beyond the current framework agreement.”
PGA Tour members were notified of the resignation on Sunday night by the PGA Tour’s acting leadership of Tyler Dennis and Ron Price, who are filling in for PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan while he deals with an undisclosed health issue.
Stephenson also said he planned to resign within a week of the deal being announced but stayed on after the news that Monahan was stepping away. Golfweek was first to report on Friday that Monahan would be returning to his post, and the Tour confirmed the commissioner would be back July 17.
PGA Tour bylaws state the four remaining independent directors on the board are to select Stephenson’s replacement, defined as “a public figure with a demonstrated interest in golf” after consulting with the five player directors. There is no specific time frame for appointment.
On Tuesday the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), will hold a hearing due to concerns raised by “the Saudi government’s role in influencing this effort and the risks posed by a foreign government entity assuming control over a cherished American institution.”
“Our goal is to uncover the facts about what went into the PGA Tour’s deal with the Saudi Public Investment Fund and what the Saudi takeover means for the future of this cherished American institution and our national interest,” Blumenthal wrote in a letter which invited PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, LIV Golf League CEO and commissioner Greg Norman and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan to testify. “Americans deserve to know what the structure and governance of this new entity will be. Major actors in the deal are best positioned to provide this information, and they owe Congress — and the American people — answers in a public setting.”
Jimmy Dunne, a member of the Tour’s policy board member who helped construct the deal, and Ron Price, the Tour’s chief operating officer, will be present.
Both Tours and the PIF announced the framework of a new global golf entity last month on June 6 after the deal was signed on May 30. The U.S. Department of Justice is also investigating the proposed deal.
As part of the framework for the new entity, both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf dropped all pending lawsuits, but the New York Times has motioned for all documents in both LIV’s claim and the Tour’s counterclaim to be unsealed due to the public’s First Amendment and common law rights to public records.
Ahead of a Senate hearing scheduled for Tuesday on the tentative deal, Johnson suggested he sees the agreement between the major golf organizations as necessary to preserve competition of play in the sport. He acknowledged concerns over PIF and LIV Golf’s ties to Saudi Arabia but said he wants to play a “constructive” role in bridging the gap between the two groups.
“The fact of the matter is the Public Investment Fund … if they want to invest in global sports, they’re going to invest in global sports, and you have to recognize and react to that reality,” Johnson said of Saudi Arabia in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Thursday. “I think that’s what the PGA in the end was faced with.”
“You may not like that reality. I hated to see what happened with the split, with the players at each other’s throats,” he added, referencing the creation of LIV in 2021 as a direct competitor to the PGA Tour that caused a rift in the golf community. “And I’m hoping to play a constructive role in helping bridge that gap, repair the breach.”
Two PGA Tour officials — Ron Price, the tour’s chief operating officer, and Jimmy Dunne, a PGA board member who helped broker the deal — will testify Tuesday before the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, on which Johnson is the top Republican.
It’s expected to be a closely watched hearing, with lawmakers in recent weeks raising antitrust concerns and worries over Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.
Here’s what Johnson is saying about the deal ahead of Tuesday’s hearing.
Johnson wants to see ‘purity of competition’ preserved
Johnson said he initially felt that “Congress at this point shouldn’t get involved” in the merger.
But since U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut who is the subcommittee’s chairman, initiated the inquiry, Johnson said he wants to make sure the “purity of the competition” is maintained in the new for-profit entity that would be created after the planned merger.
PGA Tour events are contested over 72 holes with the field cut at 36 holes. Nothing is guaranteed, even for the greats. The tour plans to alter some events next year. It’s a response to the LIV format of 54-hole, no-cut competitions with team and individual winners.
In an interview, Johnson indicated he would like to see the competitive nature of the PGA Tour remain unchanged by Saudi Arabian involvement and pointed to a framework agreement between the two parties that would give the PGA Tour regulatory oversight over the game of golf.
“It’s just not the same thing,” Johnson said of the competition in the LIV compared to the PGA Tour. “And that’s certainly what I want to make sure is preserved — is the purity of the competition.”
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson will be part of a Senate hearing on Tuesday regarding the PGA Tour and LIV Golf deal.
What are the concerns with the deal?
The deal drew quick criticisms from both PGA Tour fans and lawmakers on Capitol Hill following its surprise announcement in early June.
Some lawmakers have questioned whether the deal, which would effectively create a single international golf organization, violates antitrust law. And Senate Democrats have said the deal raises questions about allowing a country with a history of human rights abuses to have a major stake in a U.S. institution, accusing Saudi Arabia of “sportswashing” their record.
In a letter to PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan last month, Blumenthal said the tour’s decision to make a deal with LIV after being in outspoken opposition to the group — they suspended players who joined LIV — raises “serious questions regarding the reasons for and terms behind the announced agreement.”
Johnson on Thursday called antitrust concerns “a legitimate issue” but indicated he believed courts would rule “in favor of sports competition.”
“In general, they’ve looked past those technical violations and say it’s necessary for these sports leagues to cooperate, to collude, in order to maintain the type of competition that the public wants and I would say even demands,” Johnson said of antitrust decisions.
Patrick Reed hits his tee shot on the ninth hole during the Pro-Am tournament as part of the LIV Golf Washington D.C. 2023 event at Trump National Golf Club outside Washington DC. (Photo: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports)
What about ‘sportswashing’?
Johnson said he, too, has concerns over Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, noting he doesn’t think “there’s anything the Saudis can do to wash away” abuses like the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The term sportswashing refers to a country’s attempt to use sports to improve its image. Saudi Arabia has made inroads into a number of sports, including with the purchase of professional soccer clubs and players, in recent years.
“There are certain realities that you simply can’t wash away,” Johnson said. “They may attempt to do it. I’m not sure how good their attempt will ever be, because as we’re talking here, everybody is fully mindful of the, as I said, the Khashoggi assassination.”
But he said the deal brokered by Dunne, the PGA Tour board member, was “for the good of the game of golf” and suggested working with a country like Saudi Arabia, whose investment fund reaches into the $700 billions, could be a fact of life.
“Should we be buying oil from Saudi Arabia?” Johnson quipped when asked about concerns over Saudi Arabia becoming involved in a U.S.-based organization.
“There’s just certain realities in the world that you, whether you like it or not, have to accept,” Johnson said. “One of the realities is I’d rather as a U.S. government be dealing with Saudi Arabia rather than antagonize them and have them go rushing into the arms of our adversaries like China or Russia.”
What does Johnson expect at the hearing?
Tuesday’s hearing, titled “The PGA-LIV Deal: Implications for the Future of Golf and Saudi Arabia’s Influence in the United States,” will give the PGA Tour “the opportunity to describe the challenge it faces in managing professional golf,” according to Johnson.
He said he hopes to hear from PGA Tour officials about the “existential” challenges LIV Golf posed to the tour and “why they ended up reaching out to them and trying to work with them, rather than fighting them in court, which nobody knew the outcome other than the lawyers would make a lot, a lot of money.”
He called the tentative framework “amorphous,” noting its lack of detail and unanswered questions about what golf will look like moving forward but suggested the litigation between the PGA Tour and LIV was not sustainable.
“When you’ve got unlimited funds willing to get into any kind of business venture, it’s just not a fair competition,” Johnson said. “It wasn’t a fair fight between the PGA and Saudi Arabia. It simply wasn’t.”
What’s next?
LIV Golf CEO & Commissioner Greg Norman hi-fives spectators on the 12th hole during day two of Liv Golf Adelaide at The Grange Golf Course on April 22, 2023 in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)
LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman and Yasir al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund who would serve as board chairman of the new golf entity, will not attend the hearing due to “scheduling conflicts,” Johnson and Blumenthal said.
The senators in their statement said the pair “have valuable information to share about the operations of the Public Investment Fund, the future of LIV Golf and Saudi Arabia’s plans to invest in golf and other sports.”
But Johnson on Thursday told the Journal Sentinel it was “hard to say” whether the committee would hear from either Norman or al-Rumayyan in the coming weeks.
He suggested the PGA Tour-LIV Golf deal was not top-of-mind for him.
“From my standpoint, if I were chairman of the committee, I would be concentrating on what we got wrong during the pandemic. I would be concentrating on the fact that we’re more than $32 trillion in debt,” Johnson said.
He added: “This hearing will hopefully give the PGA an opportunity to explain itself, whether the Saudis, whether the other side wants to take an opportunity to explain themselves, that would be up to them.”
(Editor’s note: This version of the story has been modified. The deal between the two sides is not, technically, considered a merger, but rather a business arrangement.)
Among all the questions about the partnership between the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, the money behind the LIV Golf League, there is one that many people haven’t considered.
What if the deal falls through?
Not because many PGA Tour players are somewhere between concerned and furious with the new structure proposed by the three entities. Some players are stunned by the PGA Tour’s hypocrisy in the matter, but that won’t stop the deal.
But what if the United States government, specifically the Department of Justice and the U.S. Senate permanent committee on investigations, believes that the deal is illegal at worst and just plain rotten at best? It’s possible, you know, as both the DOJ and the Senate have launched investigations into the six-page framework agreement that was leaked to The Athletic only days after it was handed over to the government.
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The next step couldn’t possibly be to just go back to April when none of this deal had been agreed to or discussed in public. So what would happen?
To dispense with the necessary off the top: any PGA Tour player is welcome to dislike or dispute whatever point he chooses in my work, and for any reason he sees fit. I might even take on board some of the criticisms posted to social media Thursday, though not the monstrous cheap shot about my “fluffy adjectives.” But I write an opinion column, and those opinions don’t require the approval of professional golfers, some of whom seem discomfited by commentary that isn’t affirming and flattering.
What irked some was a column critical of Patrick Cantlay, who has been discreetly rallying fellow members against the proposed deal between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund. That Cantlay has profound misgivings about the agreement should be welcomed since it represents a potentially poor settlement for his tour. The basis for his opposition matters, however.
Most elite PGA Tour players aren’t troubled by doing business with the Saudi government, the moral argument never having been a serious consideration. Nor are those opposed to this deal bent on salvaging the reputation of their Tour, which has performed a rhetorical backflip that would be the envy of Simone Biles. A few might still be upset about the secretive process toward the agreement, but even that has largely dissipated. For a handful of key guys, the concern is leverage, as in where can they find it? A deal that takes a competitor off the board, to use Jay Monahan’s words, also takes leverage from players who would no longer have a spendthrift suitor and who’d likely miss the lucrative cash out enjoyed by the soon-to-return LIV guys. Nixing this deal and fashioning an alternative with private equity potentially keeps LIV as a competitor and serves their narrow interests.
After an hours-long meeting on Tuesday, the Tour’s policy board released a statement that was at pains to emphasize the importance of input from player-directors, none of whom were in the loop about the agreement until just before it was announced. Fears about member discontent — among both elite and rank-and-file players — are real, and offer the board a sharp reminder about where power lies in the organization. Such wariness is understandable since surveying the path on which the Tour has set out suggests a perilous journey ahead.
The framework agreement between the Tour and the Saudis didn’t much satisfy any constituency, and as the basis for a radical restructuring of professional golf, it was awfully light on particulars. But it did illuminate the priorities of each party.
For the Saudis, it was ending the legal discovery process that could have exposed the Fund’s investments beyond golf, and also a desire for broad acceptance in the sport. For the PGA Tour, it was about ending legal bills and obtaining a cash infusion that would, among other things, sustain purse increases. If the proposed deal is consummated, both sides get what they wanted. If it isn’t, the Saudis still get their wish list, but the PGA Tour does not.
Even without a final agreement, litigation has ended and Saudi money has been normalized. The Tour still faces a Department of Justice investigation and Congressional probes, plus the risk of Saudi investment not materializing. Its legal leverage has been withdrawn, the morality card can’t be played with a straight face, and a green light has been given for corporations and players to kick the tires on LIV for themselves. The Saudis can continue operating LIV if no deal is reached, in which case more top players might opt to jump.
In short, the PGA Tour will be worryingly dependent on Saudi good faith in negotiations.
It wasn’t widely noted that deep in the framework document — paragraph 9 of 10 — is a non-disparagement clause, though it seems no one thought it necessary to ask for a non-dismemberment rule. The provision extends beyond the immediate negotiating parties to include “ultimate beneficial owners,” which in PIF’s case is the Saudi government, against which no criticism can be leveled.
But hey, it’s better if everyone agrees not to say anything mean.
There are just 10 weeks until the 2023 college football season. Conference summer meetings in July and players arriving in six weeks. So why write a college football column when nothing significant is happening? Because what is developing on the world stage in professional sports is a harbinger of things coming to college football. The warnings are there. The distinction between professional sports and amateur sports has all but disappeared and the threat to college athletics is greater than at any time in history.
How did we get here?
Start with the PGA Tour, the association for professional golf. You know by now that LIV Golf, part of the $600 billion Saudi named Public Investment Fund (PIF) and its spokesman, Greg Norman (who is paid $100 million by LIV), recruits golf’s top players to play at various tournaments, guaranteeing them tens of millions of dollars just for participating. Winning results in huge bonuses. Now you may be a pure capitalist and believe that one’s services can be sold to the highest bidder, but what about when that bidder is from Saudi Arabia? Women in that country regularly experience discrimination. Human rights violations are part of their history. How about the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident journalist who was allegedly assassinated by Saudi agents at the Saudi consulate in Turkey in 2022? And 15 of the Sept. 11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, though the Saudi government has consistently denied any involvement. This is the country America wants to do business with?
Clearly, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan didn’t think so when he referenced the victims of 9/11 to pressure many his members from accepting the LIV “blood money” and defecting. He was on record that the PGA Tour and LIV Golf would never merge. Faces of the game like Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy had sacrificed hundreds of millions of dollars and pledged their allegiance to the Tour.
Then, the hammer fell when the two sides, while litigating their issues in court, announced a new deal. Monahan admitted he would be called a hypocrite by his own players. The Saudis never wanted to profit from this endeavor; they craved legitimacy, access and acceptance from the establishment. Influence is their goal and that is the danger. This merger indirectly compromises our golf’s legitimacy and our way of life. That’s why Congress and the Justice Department announced an investigation. Good luck with that.
The point here is when is enough enough?
Greg Norman addresses the crowd before the trophy presentation following the final round of LIV Golf Adelaide golf tournament at Grange Golf Club. Mandatory Credit: Mike Frey-USA TODAY Sports
But that’s not all. Soccer is the most watched sport in the world. The Saudis have been buying teams in Europe and instantly changing them from perennial losers to winners (see Newcastle). The great Cristiano Ronaldo, at one time, signed a three-year contract worth $200 million annually to play in Saudi Arabia. Karim Benzema opted out of his $30-million contract with Real Madrid for $150 million a year to play in the Kingdom. Finally, Lionel Messi, captain of Argentina’s World Cup championship team, and recognized by many as the GOAT, reportedly was offered a three-year $1.5-billion contract by you guessed it, the Saudis. He eschewed the offer to come to America and accept an estimated $200 million a year (both Apple and Adidas provided most of the compensation) to play for Miami FC. But he remains on the Saudi payroll as an “ambassador” for about $30 million.
So what does all this have to do with college football?
Everything.
The PGA Tour waved the white flag and said it couldn’t compete with these outrageous sums of money and decided to cut its losses. You can save the political argument about accepting money from the Saudis or any other country which does not share our values for another conversation. This is simply about the divisive effect big money has on sports. If Saudi Arabia decides it wants to start a professional basketball league, it says here they have the cache to do it, how does any league compete if salaries jump tenfold? Remember the AFL, WHA, ABA. LIV Golf is interested in spreading its influence and having a legitimate world stage and audience to advance its agenda.
The most vulnerable of all the popular sports in America today is college football (college basketball also is part of this vulnerability). Any entity (Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.) — foreign or otherwise — could compensate top players to establish relationships dedicated to advancing their interests. Nike, Adidas, FOX, ESPN, etc., are already doing this; we just haven’t identified it as a threat. But college football remains the most vulnerable because it has no collective bargaining agreement — and therefore no limits on what any third party can compensate an athlete under NIL. Some players already earn $1 million to $3 million.
What if Saudia Arabia decided to use its unlimited resources to pay the top players $10 million plus per year? Is it realistic? Let’s hope not.
Alabama head coach Nick Saban has some words for the Crimson defense after they allowed a long touchdown run during the A-Day game at Bryant-Denny Stadium. At left is Crimson team linebacker Jihaad Campbell (30) and at right is Crimson team linebacker Trezmen Marshall (17) at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary Cosby-USA TODAY Sports
That’s why on Wednesday a contingent from the SEC, including Alabama coach Nick Saban, arrived in Washington to address members of Congress about the need to regulate compensation under NIL. Don’t expect Congress to do anything anytime soon. The NCAA? Fuhgeddaboudit. There’s only one feasible solution: Unionize the players and negotiate a CBA that addresses NIL and limits the impact outside influences can have. Yes, a salary cap. Hard or soft, there’s no other alternative to save the competitive balance the game is losing. Stop the insane belief that college football players are amateur athletes and declare them professionals.
Time is not on our side and without dramatic changes, the exploitation of young, highly impressionable men is unavoidable. Otherwise, the resources, assets, support and capital, (all code words for money) of domestic and foreign companies will impact players at the college level to establish an agenda to manipulate the innocent and spread the influence.
That is the dangerous world we live in.
(Editor’s note: Ken Schreiber contributes a college football column for the Providence Journal. This post first appeared in the Providence Journal, part of the USA Today Network.)
