The PGA Tour, DP Tour, and Saudi PIF announced their partnership on CNBC on June 6, but the signed framework has been obtained by multiple sources revealing that the deal took place a week earlier.
The deal -- signed on May 30 by PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, DP World Tour Chief Executive Officer Keith Pelley, and Governor of the Saudi PIF Yasir Al-Rumayyan -- included the topline points of the partnership.
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“The Parties share a common goal of creating a global golf partnership and of growing and promoting the game globally, ending division and unifying the game of golf for the benefit of all of their stakeholders,” the beginning of the agreement read.
It also said that the parties are working together for their “mutual best interest” and desire to “unify the game of golf globally.”
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The framework had ten defined terms as seen below. These are some of the main points:
- PIF-PGA Tour-DP World Tour Partnership in Global Golf Under One Umbrella - This defined the partnership between the three under one for-profit entity which they initially called “NewCo.” Here it was defined that Al-Rumayyan will be Chairman of the Board, while Monahan would be the CEO of NewCo.
- NewCo Will Be The Entity for Professional Golf; PGA Tour Will Be the Competition Manager for NewCo - PGA Tour will be in charge of golf-related endeavors such as operational decisions and commercial investments.
- Communications Committee - The three parties will establish a committee to ease the transition. Chair of PGA Tour Policy Board Ed Herlihy and PGA Tour Policy Board member Jimmy Dunne are some of the members, but there were blanks on the form to show that there are still some members who are unnamed.
- PGA Tour / DP World Tour and LIV to Co-Exist – NewCo will take an “objective empirical data-driven evaluation” of the LIV Tour to see how it could work with the others and how team golf can be included in the new tour. This line shows that LIV isn’t necessarily merging with NewCo and the PGA Tour, but there is clearly a lot undefined based on the wording.
- Player Status - The terms are very unclear here as to what will happen with the players who wish to return to the PGA Tour’s new entity. It simply said that the three will “work cooperatively and in good faith to establish a fair and objective process” for any future applicants.
- Settlement of Disputes; Non-Solicitation - This is the term where it shows that all litigation between the sides would be dropped.
- Other Sponsorships and Investments by PIF - The PIF is set to become a “premier corporate sponsor” of the PGA Tour and DP Tour while also establishing itself as a top sponsor for other events of the Tours.
- PIF Representation on PGA Tour Policy Board - There will be a PIF representative to be appointed to the PGA Tour Policy Board.
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