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ORLANDO, Fla. — Figuring out what is going on in the big picture of professional golf has proven to be an interesting pursuit. Opinions vary widely with no definitive answers. It is an uneasy time in the game.
A few answers should be forthcoming this week at the Players Championship, where PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan is due to meet with the media for the first time since the Tour Championship in August.
While Monahan is present at many events, he’s not conducted a formal interview session in all that time, skipping what has been a more informal media gathering at the Sentry in January.
Where to start?
Well, I posed that question the other day to Lucas Glover, longtime PGA Tour player, former U.S. Open champion, all-around good guy. What should we ask the commissioner?
“I’m sure you have a lot of the same questions that we do,” Glover said at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. “Where does everything fit now? As far as money or organizations, funds (Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia). Where does it all fit? Where does all that stand?
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“Now that we’ve got this influx of money from over here (from the Strategic Sports Group), what about this agreement we made nine months ago (the framework agreement with the PIF)? Those would be my questions. Not in terms of our pockets, but how does it fit?”
Good questions. The answers to which are likely still elusive.
As the PGA Tour took on more than $1.5 billion in investment from SSG, the long-talked-about deal with the PIF—and to possibly bring the game back together—lingers without resolution. There are numerous theories as to whether it will or won’t get done.
So far, what has occurred has or will immensely help the players, who already have been enriched through huge signing bonuses and purses paid on LIV Golf, and the resulting implementation of the signature events on the PGA Tour, all of which see $20 million purses, plus a couple more at the FedEx Cup playoff events as well as increased bonus money at the FedEx Cup playoffs.
What we’ve yet to see is how this will eventually impact the overall game for the better.
“Nothing that has happened in the last two to three years in my opinion will help the game,” said Glover, 44, a six-time winner on the PGA Tour who won in consecutive weeks last August. “Nothing that has gone on will help the game. I’ve yet to figure out what is so bad out here that we’ve had to do all the things we’ve done. Again, this is my 20-something year out here. I’ve seen it the other way. I didn’t think anything was wrong then. Is it a lot better? Sure. But I’ve yet to figure out what was so wrong.”
Glover, who joked about being at the stage where he is the “get off my lawn guy,” acknowledged that the PGA Tour needed to do something in response to LIV. But he believes the signature events are “selfish and a money grab.”
“This would be my question to Jay if I were you,” Glover said. “Now that we have a second entity, PGA Tour Enterprises, with a new board, does that eliminate the regulations that the PGA Tour has or had to ban certain people? My answer to that immediately would be no. So that’s your way back.”
Glover was referring to the fact that those who play for LIV are prohibited from playing in PGA Tour events for at least a year. But if they are permitted back in some way? Is that feasible? Isn’t that necessary?
His theory on how it might look.
“I think we’re going to end up with about 12 to 16 events around the world with the top players for the most money,” he said. “And whoever that money comes from, who knows. Private Equity? PIF? Who knows. But that’s clearly where it’s headed. I can’t imagine the people who have been banned fall under the guidelines of the PGA Tor now that we have a second entity.”
Glover’s view somewhat mirrors what Rory McIlroy has said about a world tour that is over and above what is in place now.
“We’d be looking at eight PGA Tour/DP World Tour-style events around the world,” he said. “And then you’ll have three or four LIV-style events around the world and the four majors and you’ll have a tour of the Who’s Who. That’s how I see it in the future. Whether that’s close or not, I don’t know.”
Not that he’s in favor. “I don’t like the idea at all. It’s a money grab. Just like this (a signature event). It’s selfish.”
Glover got on a bit of a roll.
“Another smart-ass question I’d ask Jay? Why are the signature events 80 players (maximum), and 50 make the cut (only at the Genesis, Arnold Palmer and Memorial),” he said. “But our biggest signature event, next week (Players Championship) is 144. Full cut. The signature event ...
“I’ve been against it from Day 1 when I wasn’t in them. Now I’m in them and I’m still against them. It’s mind-blowing.”
Glover might not get an answer to that one. And it’s unclear what other answers will be forthcoming.
