There are numerous reasons for the current divide in the men’s professional game, many of which have been dissected to various degrees over the past couple of years as the tussle continues to drag on.
At its simplest and perhaps most basic, it boils down to the ability for a golfer to play where he wants and when he wants, without onerous restrictions.
To Greg Norman—and to a degree, Seve Ballesteros before him—playing around the world unencumbered was the basis of their independent status.
To Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner—and his predecessors Tim Finchem and Deane Beman—the sum has always been greater than its parts. Or, individual star players do not supersede the mandate of the PGA Tour, which has rules in place to benefit all.
You can poke holes and debate all sides of these views, and who knows the correct answer, especially now?
Perhaps it might come as a big surprise that Beman is in favor of a deal that suits the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, the DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia ... even if he staunchly believes in the ability of his successors to enforce the rules that helped create the current divide.
“I think it’s best if they find a way of co-existing and meeting both sides’ needs,’’ Beman said during a recent interview with Sports Illustrated. “In any kind of business deal that I made for the Tour, I always felt the best deal was where both sides won and there was not a winner and a loser. So I think that finding a way where both sides can win is important.
“So their (the PIF’s) desire to invest in an enterprise that helps them and their country ... I don’t object to that. In dealing with the reality of the dollar figures, they’ve got unlimited financial resources but I don’t believe they are going to for the next 10 to 15 years spending a couple of billion (dollars) a year without a real good return or without a business plan that would at least show them over a period time that they can at least break even. They continue to spend a lot of money and so they have incentive to make a deal that both sides can win. And hopefully they’ll come up with something.”
Beman, 86, is 30 years removed from what was then a surprising decision to step down as PGA Tour commissioner in 1994 and play senior golf.
The four-time PGA Tour winner who also captured a U.S. Amateur and British Amateur became commissioner in 1974, just the second to hold the job since the Tour broke away from the PGA of America in 1968. Finchem succeeded him in 1994 and Monahan became the fourth PGA Tour commissioner in 2017.
Beman shrewdly installed a good bit of the system that remains today, even though the PGA Tour is now evolving with a for-profit model called PGA Tour Enterprises.
The nonprofit model called PGA Tour Inc. was mostly Beman’s brainchild (Adam Schupak’s 2011 book, Deane Beman: Golf’s Driving Force, is an excellent resource on the subject) and changed the fortunes of the PGA Tour for the organization and its players.
It allowed title sponsors to get a tax write-off for sponsoring events, got television rights fees—coupled with sponsorship fees—to cover the expenses of the weekly purse and beyond, and allowed local organizing groups to either own or run the events as nonprofit entities, with their proceeds going to charity.
Beman infamously rescinded Ballesteros’s Tour membership in 1986 because the Spaniard—who to that point had four major championships and was the top player in Europe—would not commit to playing 15 events on the PGA Tour.
That was—and remains—the minimum for Tour membership. That year, without membership, Ballesteros played just the major championships and had a sponsor exemption to another event on the PGA Tour.
“If I can, I would be very happy to be here a few more times,” Ballesteros said that year at the U.S. Open. “If I’m free to come over and play anytime I want, maybe I can play eight, maybe I can play 15, 18 or 20. It depends on how I feel when I keep going. If I have to play one specific number, it’s different.”
Ballesteros, who holds the DP World Tour record for victories with 50 and died in 2011, famously feuded with Beman over this issue.
So did Norman, now the LIV Golf commissioner and CEO who is also a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Norman’s fight continued with Finchem and saw the then-PGA Tour commissioner rebuff an attempt by the two-time major winner to start a rival world tour.
The big difference today is that Norman didn’t have a sovereign wealth fund backing him 30 years ago.
Norman never argued with the idea that the best golf was being played in the United States and on the PGA Tour. But the Australian star also had commercial opportunities beyond American shores that he hoped to exploit.
Starting in 1984, when he played his first full season on the PGA Tour and won his first tournament at the Kemper Open, he always wondered why his ability to play around the world came with stipulations.
As a member of the PGA Tour, he had rules to adhere to and permissions to obtain.
“It still frustrated me to death why as an independent contractor I couldn’t get out there and expand on my true market value that I truly believe I had,’’ Norman said soon after being named LIV’s commissioner. “Same with all the other players.
“I always wanted to understand why we were stuck in a box,” added Norman, 69, the winner of 20 PGA Tour events and 88 worldwide who was ranked No. 1 in the world for 331 weeks. “In ’93-’94, I thought of this idea of how do we get the best players to play against each other on more of a regular basis and give them an annuity into the future.
“I always thought if I could do something for my fellow players and carry the burden of responsibility ... I just thought there was a better way, why I thought of this World Golf Tour, where they could have ownership. That’s thinking out of the box. That’s thinking like an independent contractor. Like an entrepreneur. Understanding the marketplace.”
Norman was continually irritated about needing permission to support his home circuit. He won the Australian Open five times, the Australian Masters six times. He also won another 22 Australasian Tour events. (Today, a player—such as Rory McIlroy—can get unlimited exemptions to compete on his home circuit but must still meet the PGA Tour’s minimum requirements.)
But while a member of the PGA Tour, Norman had to seek and be granted releases to go play them.
Beman helped create the system that requires players to sign over the media rights when they become members. That means they can’t just play wherever they want. It’s why Scottie Scheffler and McIlroy need permission to play their one-day match against Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka in December.
The Tour argues it is protecting itself. The Tour wants to tell sponsors its players will be available. Hence it requires them to play a minimum of 15 events and seek releases for tournaments to be staged on other tours, even exhibitions. It’s one of the reasons the PGA Tour enjoys a lucrative television contract and can offer purses that make even random players fabulously wealthy.
The number of releases granted is typically three. To get more than that, negotiating takes place and the Tour likely will receive some sort of guarantee from the player: an extra start somewhere; a visit to a place he’s not played previously.
Despite being independent contractors, they are joining a player-based association that has rules. You can abide by them or not; Norman always did, but balked at being constricted, because securing five, six or seven releases became prohibitive.
As part of the PGA Tour-LIV feud, Monahan and the Tour granted no releases whatsoever to play in LIV events. They have deemed it “unauthorized.” Even as they have extended releases for international tournaments, the Tour has never done so for domestic tournaments. And how a player could reconcile playing 14 required LIV events and 15 on the PGA Tour still remains elusive.
In essence, what Norman has wanted for his players is what Ballesteros wanted some 40 years ago—to be able to play the PGA Tour whenever and wherever he wanted.
Norman has been advocating for the stars, a shift that has taken place throughout golf as more funds have been directed to the top players.
Beman—and Finchem and Monahan—have sided, mostly, with the masses.
“I haven’t been there at the core of it to understand all that is going on now,” Beman says. “But from the outside, it would appear to me that Greg sold them a bill of goods. Sold them on the fact that if he got a certain number of prominent players, that he wouldn’t be investing billions a year with no sign that they can even break even. I think he sold them on the face that the players who went there could defeat the Tour in the regulation of conflicting events. I think he got that wrong.
“And I think he got it wrong that the superstars in his mind would control everything. The realities are that someone like Jack (Nicklaus) in his heyday was the best player in the world and played as few tournaments as he could and the Tour was still successful without him. It’s the same with Tiger (Woods).
“It’s the organization and the volunteers and the events themselves and the ability to attract corporate sponsors who put up the money to make it all work. And they get great value for that. It’s not Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods even though we love to have them.”
Beman wants to see a deal get done but things have clearly changed a good bit since he was in charge.
The Tour now has private equity investment from Strategic Sports Group and the formation of a new for-profit entity. It has shifted to a model that sees the top players come together for bigger purses in small-field signature events. Discussions are under way to streamline the Tour, with smaller fields and fewer exempt spots.
And lurking are the ongoing negotiations to bring unity to the men’s professional game with some of the age-old issues still in play.
What’s next for Anthony Kim and LIV Golf?
A month has passed since LIV Golf played its team championship and things have been relatively quiet in the interim, save for the news that the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia is looking to perhaps split Greg Norman’s commissioner and CEO positions.
But things are about to change as it will soon embark on a “free agency” period, a determination on the Promotions Event and how many players will advance to the league next year and the rest of the 14-event 2025 schedule.
Along with that is what happens with Anthony Kim, who left professional golf in 2012, led a reclusive life with periodic whispers that he might return, then came back to play LIV Golf this season, competing in 10 events.
Kim, now 39, admitted that he had barely played over the past decade and had to overcome addiction issues to get back to this position. Kim played as a wildcard with little success, although it's all relative if you consider that he was away from competition for so long.
The question now is whether it is worth bringing him back.
Some of Kim’s recent cryptic social media postings suggests something is coming, and if so, it is likely he will be signed by one of LIV’s teams. In the 10 events over 30 rounds (he was disqualified from one tournament), Kim broke par just four times, finishing outside of the top 50 (out of 54 players) on four occasions and outside of the top 40 on five others. His best finish was 36th at the Greenbrier, the only event he broke par for 54 holes.
If Kim does get a spot on a team, at least one player will have to be bumped outside of those who are already being relegated.
And while it doesn’t mean Kim would directly replace him, Eugenio Chacarra is believed to be on his way out.
Sergio Garcia, who is the captain of the Fireballs team that Chacarra played for this season, said he won’t be back.
“There is going to be one new player,” Garcia said recently to the Golf Magic website. “Unfortunately, Eugenio Chacarra finished outside the top 24 and his contract is up. We are very thankful for everything he’s done this last two and half, three years.”
Chacarra, 24, left Oklahoma State early to sign with LIV Golf when it launched. He won in his first year and last year won an International Series event. But since he was not among the top 24 in the individual standings and is without a contract, he is not assured of coming back unless another team signs him. Chacarra said recently that he would like to return to LIV.
There are other players in the league who also face a similar fate, which is why there could be some player movement among teams or new signings from outside of LIV Golf.
Still to be formalized is the Promotions Event to be played in December in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Last year it produced three players that joined LIV Golf in 2024 with the leader of the International Series getting another spot. There has been some consideration about altering that to have more come from the International Series. With that tour still playing, getting that determined soon seems imperative.
If Chacarra is not signed, he’d perhaps go to the Promotions Event or play International Series events. Under the current rules, he’d be prohibited from even trying to qualify for the PGA Tour for a year from his last LIV event.
Also to come is the rest of the schedule, or at least part of it. So far, LIV Golf has announced its first four events in Riyadh, Adelaide, Singapore and Hong Kong to begin in February.
Tim O’Neal’s long road to victory
A pro since 1997—the year after Tiger Woods turned pro—Tim O’Neal’s journey as a minority golfer was not filled with the same success. He bounced around various minitours and minor-league circuits, winning on nearly all of them, but never made it to the PGA Tour full-time. In his limited starts on the big circuit, O’Neal never made a 36-hole cut.
But the former Jackson State golfer broker through on Sunday for a win on the PGA Tour Champions, birdieing two of the last three holes to capture the Dominion Energy Charity Classic.
O’Neal had 16 collegiate victories and his hard-luck Q-school story has been often told. Needing just a bogey on the final hole at the 2000 PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament, O’Neal posted a triple bogey.
But he kept grinding, winning on such places as the Alps Tour, the Golden Bear Tour, the PGA Tour Latinoamerica Tour and others.
The victory on the 50-and-over Tour makes him exempt for all of next season as well.
“I don't know what to think, it's been a long season—for me to get it done when I had to—it means a lot,” an emotional O’Neal told Golf Channel after his victory. “I guess it was just supposed to happen. I've been playing well in the last few weeks, but just giving too many shots back. The last two days were really solid and it only takes one week—and this is my week.”
O’Neal earned $700,000 for the victory and jumped up in the tour’s Charles Schwab Cup standings to 13th, meaning a place in this week’s Simmons Bank Championship.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Former PGA Tour Commissioner Says LIV Golfers Were 'Sold a Bill of Goods,' But Remains Hopeful for Resolution.
