One of the game’s most influential backers, Executive Chairman of Hero MotoCorp Dr Pawan Munjal, has admitted that men’s golf is not benefiting from the current impasse over how to heal its fractures.
The company he leads is sponsoring this week’s Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, and he spoke to reporters alongside the tournament’s host Tiger Woods ahead of the Albany event.
There, he explained that the uncertainty over the direction of the men’s elite game, against the backdrop of protracted talks between the PGA Tour and Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) behind LIV Golf, is causing damage both on and off the course.
The businessman said: “Very simply put, the game is not benefiting, the players are not benefiting. Maybe some on tour. What has to happen is everyone gets back together and the game moves on, the players move on, the sponsors move on."
As well as the Hero World Challenge, the motorcycle manufacturing giant Munjal heads also lends its support to several other men’s events, including the Hero Dubai Desert Classic and the Hero Indian Open.
He then elaborated on exactly how the issue is affecting the sponsors in general, adding: “There is confusion for the sponsors as well right now, what to do, where to go, how to look at the future. The future is uncertain, which is not a good thing.”
He then reiterated that no one - with the exception of a few players - wins from the current stalemate. “Well, as I said, it's not doing any good for the game of golf, for the fans, for the sponsors," he explained.
"As I said, some players are benefiting, but the majority of the players are not benefiting from all of this confusion. We need to move on. We need to have certainty. We need to have a clear future plan which everyone knows and then moves along that path going forward. Confusion is no good for nobody.”
Munjal’s comments come a little over a week after another prominent businessman with significant influence in the men’s game, billionaire Steve Cohen, who is part of the Strategic Sports Group which has invested in the PGA Tour, said of the potential deal between the PGA Tour and the PIF: “I think we’ll get there.”
Woods, who is a player director on the PGA Tour’s policy board, is also optimistic about a deal, but couldn’t elaborate on when it might be agreed. He said: “I think something will get done. In what form or shape, I don’t know yet.”
