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.
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?
Here are a few guesses:
More players would jump to LIV with both feet
Already, golfers who stayed loyal to the PGA Tour for the last year and a half are wondering how they will get rewarded for that loyalty in the new system, currently called NewCo. If the deal disappears and NewCo goes away, those players may have the feeling that loyalty doesn’t pay as well as the PIF.
PGA Tour will be in scramble mode
If the PGA Tour really is short of cash, the PIF deal certainly would fill its coffers. If the deal falls through and the PIF money disappears, the PGA Tour will have to hit the ground running to secure other funding.
PGA Tour officials have said there were other options, but those options weren’t as good or as profitable as the PIF deal, apparently.
In a letter to the PGA Tour last week, Hall of Famer Tom Watson asked what Plan B was. The PGA Tour needs to assure people there is a Plan B.
Designated events would be in peril
The overall schedule might not change, but those $20 million purses for designated events might come to a quick end. Those purses were reportedly at least one of the reasons listed for the tour’s cash-flow shortage.
If there isn’t any deal struck and the PIF goes away, look for $9 million purses in some of those big events.
There still might be a deal, but a different structure
LIV isn’t exactly pulling in viewers and is costing the PIF money. The PGA Tour needs money and an end to the bickering.
If the DOJ or the Senate doesn’t like the structure of the current deal, that doesn’t mean a similar deal with better terms isn’t out there somewhere for the tour, the PIF and the DP World Tour.
Some people will still be angry
Even people who admit that some kind of bridge had to be built between the two warring sides in golf are still miffed at the way the deal came down. That won’t change even if the deal gets sidetracked by the U.S. government. In fact, if the deal falls apart, people who were angry at the deal to begin with might become angry that the deal was agreed to if it couldn’t pass the scrutiny of the government. Anger and money seem to go hand in hand in sports.
Of course, it is possible that even with the DOJ and Senate posturing, the deal to restructure men’s professional golf will not be blocked. That would mean the new structure, with the infusion of cash from the PIF, will kick in on Jan. 1, 2024. By then, some of the anger will have disappeared and fans and players might just focus on the schedule, the money and getting back to playing golf, with or without a LIV tour.
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.
