The PGA TOUR is facing an avalanche of setbacks including the loss of a major tournament sponsor, as well as more big names like Tony Finau allegedly heading to LIV Golf.
So the real question is, can the PGA TOUR survive amidst all of this turmoil?
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31 Comments
What did they tell Jon Rahm? That LIV is going after the majors.
WHEN YOU F CK WITH YOUR TOUR MEMBERS…… THIS IS WHAT YOU GET….CERTAINLY NO SURPRISE….
Frank, I love how everyone is now jumping on the LIV train. Rahm said LIV wasn’t golf and then he goes.
It's for players to decide…LIV purse way more than pgat. No brainer!
It will survive!!
PGA ignored global players, just as much golfers outside the USA across the globe. They brought liv upon themselves
Not only can they survive but they are in an even better positions now that Jon is gone and took such a big contract. Wake up people. The contracts are too big at LIV and they can’t keep it up. They don’t have fans who buy tickets and they don’t have major tv contracts. The PGA has a profitable model that is why pay is lower while still insanely high paying. LIV is burning through their investors money like wildfire and only have big contracts to convince those with no integrity to come over. But reality is those contracts will never pan out as the money dries up and LIV goes bankrupt in the next few years. The knows all they need to do is wait them out and now that PIV is investing into the pga that just got easier. LIV will be showed lived and crash hard and as the payers who left see they are heading to bankruptcy as it becomes more clear the contracts where all bs and way to high to maintain they will all start trying to run back to the pga much faster than the left for LIV. The Suidi investors may have a lot of money but they have a lot because they don’t like wasting it once sometimes becomes a losing gamble and LIV and it’s formate is proving to be a losing gamble. All the players talk about how bad the format is but the only reason they put up with it is because of the contract and again those contracts will all fall through before they see a fraction of the money hit their bank accounts.
I bet Finau’s wife is telling him to take the money. He has a big family and lots of mouths to feed. Plus he’s being sued so he can use a big financial gain. More players leaving before the merger so might as well get ahead of it. As far as majors exemptions, as the big names move, and Liv possibly changing their format, the OWGR will have to start giving them points which will get them in majors.
And yes more big sponsors will probably start dropping out because of the money PGA requiring them to pony up is too much. They cannot recover their investment. They will eventually move to LIV. Instead of being called the range goats, it’ll be called the AT&T range goats. Or the Sony 4 Aces.
As soon as pga got into talks with liv they made mugs of the tour players who stuck by and validated liv at the same time .
Take the money guys and run .
Personally i will not watch a liv tournament no matter whos playing , where or when .
But i still think think take the money if you can .
Look, have you examined the terms of the tentative agreement between the PGA and Saudi investment group? Here is a NYTimes explanation: "The PGA Tour would remain a nonprofit organization and would retain full control over how its tournaments are played. But all of the PGA Tour’s commercial business and rights — such as the extremely lucrative rights to televise its tournaments — would be owned by a new, yet unnamed, for-profit entity that is currently called “NewCo.” NewCo will also own LIV as well as the commercial and business rights of the DP World Tour. The board of directors for the new for-profit entity would be led by Yasir al-Rumayyan, who is the governor of the Public Investment Fund and also oversees LIV. Three other members of the board’s executive committee would be current members of the PGA Tour’s board, and the tour would appoint the majority of the board and hold a majority voting interest, effectively controlling it."
Liv will be owned by the PGA and Saudi fund together. All sending Jon over to LIV did was significantly increase the value of what the PGA will own (together with the Saudi investment fund). I suspect, if the tentative agreement is approved by the parties, that the board oi the new company could change about anything relating to LIV they want. But they will want it to succeed as complimentary to the PGA because if it does the PGA makes money.
money is killing the sport
Good podcast, new subber here. You've got to look outside the USA. There's a whole untapped source of viewership out there. LIV golf, for the moment is free to air, advert free, on youtube, app and networked worldwide. There's rumour's that Na's team will be all South Korean in 2024 for example. LIV golf is working on developing a world league, different time zones, and a younger audience.
Players are stupid if they have an offer and don’t go to LIV… the pga tour has shown it’s immoral and working against their players.
Back in 1990, a Japanese company bought Pebble Beach golf – sold it back a short time later due to push back/ loosing$$ from golfers / time will tell if there is push back on LIV – watched a broadcast wasn’t all that impressed
They could have survived without going behind the players backs and selling them out for a deal with LIV. As soon as they did that, they signed their death warrant as being able to have all the top names involved, as long as liv continues to spend money shifting players over.
PGA in huge trouble, sponsors are going to pull out. Why give huge payouts with all the big names leaving. TV viewers , I think will be less. The Masters viewers numbers are going to be the tipping point. The rollback stinks, elite athletes change the rules of the game, Wilt Chamberlain did it basketball ball, juicing the baseball to bring back attendance, the long ball for the .001% out of 50 million golfers doesn’t make sense.
They are expecting LIV to be a large global tour and Wells Fargo wants a piece of that action- just positioning themselves!
There is a tipping point 👉 the signings just make the pga liv thing pressure too merge for sure.
Fans will benefit massively from this… contracting players gets them to play the same events…
A true market for a pro golfers value doesn’t exist yet. LIV is buying an entire league when they pay these huge signing bonuses to Rahm or DJ. The offers won’t be around long.
After the league is set the teams will compete and create a market value for player salaries.
This will be a future MBA case study on what happens when you take your competitive advantage for granted. The PGA has been playing defense from day 1. They are playing checkers, while PIF is playing chess. At the end of the day they can't outspend PIF. PIF doesn't need a ROI, where every tour sponsor has to….really everything else is noise.
Rahm is now the property of LIV. He can't be honest anymore.
FYI you guys are super critical of LIV and their fields and format etc… doesn’t seem like you give it a fair shot. You guys were loving the idea of TGL. Just seems biased
I don't understand why he needs to explain himself he got a better contract and took it
PGA is General Motors in the 80s. A bunch old white guys who don't get it. Thank you LIV for elevating the sport. It worked well for football to combine in the 60's and 80 years later, golf will have to do it.
Why do all american golf commentators all dress like hobos ?
Wells Fargo bailing out is more proof that the old PGA "title sponsor" for each event doesn't work any longer. Every step the PGA Tour has taken since LIV began was in reaction to LIV…poorly thought out, unproven and unrealistic. The people who run it don't understand that less is more. There's a reason there are only 4 majors every year and LIV has it right with a limited number of events that are spread out throughout the spring, summer and early fall. The players have been vocal about not wanting to play 25 events every year. Their preference is for a lower number of more meaningful (ie: larger purses) events against the best competition on the very best courses. Rather than "elevated events", they should reduce the number of players in each event, provide 2 weeks prior to majors with no event and have no cuts in any event. Golf is not a better product when some of their best players only play on Thursday and Friday.
The future of golf is to keep fans engaged and allow them to stream/follow the players that they choose through the whole round. The less we hear from commentators the better. Mic up the players! Team golf fun and having different formats is also exciting to watch. Ryder Cup is a great example Stroke play has its place but allowing these players to even do a Three club challenge seems like a stretch but my point is watching stroke play outside the majors is not as exciting especially if you can't follow the players you enjoy watching. Day and KOs win for example was some really great golf and added some variety and more appreciation for the game. Imagine Tiger, JT, Speith, and Ricky Fowler on a LIV Team! PGA needs to evolve. Even LIV has some growing pains but seems to be open to some fluidity to ensure that the talent is also drawing in fans/viewers. The Golf Channel is so biased and will never be as good as when it was not associated with NBC. I get 90 percent of my golf entertainment on YouTube!
Once the points were denied LIV had to choice but to move forward away from the PGA. The PGA never should have played hard ball and denied players play both.
The merger gave it validation
You're totally misreading the intent of the recent PGA memo announcing them engaging US investors. That is not a power move, the Saudi's will welcome it as Congress is threatening to kill the deal because of the foreign investment (which I question they can even do). This will smooth the waters ahead of the PIF deal and allow it to go through unencumbered, and the Saudi's will hold a majority position and be the final word on everything. If the PGA decided to cut PIF out of the deal they could double or triple down and take every top 20 player on the tour. The US investors will demand an ROI, the Saudi's can wait it out until there is nothing left of the PGAT and sweep up the crumbs for nothing, them thay will be the only game in the worls and will start making the ROI they envisioned.
Grand dads old fart pga golf days are over and like it or not it’s a younger generations turn to run it. I think it’s what is needed for actual longevity.