PGA Tour, SSG venture carries potential as well as questions | Golf Central | Golf Channel

Rich Lerner, Johnson Wagner and Paul McGinley discuss their reactions to the PGA Tour’s venture with the Strategic Sports Group and look ahead to how this business decision could influence the future. #GolfChannel #GolfCentral #PGATour
» Subscribe to Golf Channel: https://www.youtube.com/golfchannel?sub_confirmation=1
» For the latest news around golf: https://www.nbcsports.com/golf

Welcome to Golf Channel’s official YouTube channel. We are the #1 destination for everything golf – 24/7. Find golf instruction tips, sneak peeks to our original series, news and tournament coverage. We are part of the NBC Sports Group.

Discover what else Golf Channel has to offer:
Live Coverage on Peacock: https://peacocktv.smart.link/v82e9dl56
Live Scores: http://bit.ly/GCScores
TV Schedule: https://www.nbcsports.com/watch/schedule
Instructional Tips: https://www.golfpass.com/learn
Golf Course Reviews: http://bit.ly/GCCourseReviews

PGA Tour, SSG venture carries potential as well as questions | Golf Central | Golf Channel
https://www.youtube.com/golfchannel?sub_confirmation=1

And joined Now by Johnson Wagner and Paul McGinley Johnson you’ve been a member of the PG tour for 17 years you were on the call this morning for the announcement what’s your reaction uh I have more questions than answers but it it’s certainly positive news I spoke with both Peter Milady and web

Simpson after the call both board members of the PGA Tour they’re excited so that leaves me uh encouraged uh couple main things I took away from the call uh the PGA Tour was given just under A14 billion valuation so now there has been worth of the PGA Tour is out

There so uh thinking about a$3 billion do investment is certainly a minority investment I like the idea that players have an equity stake and own the majority of their tour and the other thing this new PGA Tour Enterprises it’s going to be uh there’s going to be a

Board it’s going to be 13 member board uh it’s going to compile six current player directors plus one other player player so they will have uh they will have the majority of this board and and it certainly seems like we’re in an era where the players are controlling all

The shots and and I as a player I like that but I don’t know that uh PGA Tour players Paul are the best people to be making uh business decisions yeah absolutely I mean that’s the the value of bringing SSG in you know um the the expertise that’s coming on board is not

To be undervalued the PGA Tour needs that more now more than ever with what’s going on in the last few years we need uh and they need really experts in terms of driving this business forward I mean I I see it rich you know I’m I’m a

Little bit nonplused um um you know I’m speaking I’m not a member of the PGA Tour I’d say I speak for a lot of people out there H in TV Land who are looking at this going this is just more Rich guys getting richer and and I think the

That narrative around money has got to be changed and we got to soon move on to what is the product going to look like how are we going to make this game better fair enough Paul but but but they had to go through this they did to to

Get to a place where they’re not talking about it it was essentially a hostile takeover and they had to respond and it was going to get ugly yeah and that’s where I was going to get to you know this is a business move I see this as a

A smart business move I see uh you know you know there’s three real aims here of this as far as I can see number one is secure the Loyalty uh of the PGA tour players that have that have left that they’re not going to jump at the next at

The next uh uh waving of a wallet in their Direction so they now have a Ed interest in the success of the PGA Tour that they will be paid for that so that secures them somewhat it secures the the platform of the PGA Tour that’s really really important secondly it brings in

As I say real credible people in the industry who understand Sports FR franchises and their job is to drive the business in a very profitable Direction and also diversify the income of the PGA Tour that then then can be um you know invested in other areas in it and and I

Think the third one and and not to be underestimated is obviously the platform that’s now created to potentially bring in Saudi and potentially re re re uh reunify the game again so for there’s three big uh goals that have been achieved with this so I’m not against it

In any way um I understand that there’s a lot of money going to be talked about at the moment these telephone number monies but you know it’s a very important business move if we are going to reunify the game which is what we all want and and the main question that I

Still have though and it’s been we’ve been talking about it forever is what what is SSG getting out of this one and. half three billion investment clearly it’s a long game play that that they think the PJ tour is going to grow over the next certain amount of years but I

Still and I have not heard it from anybody yet except maybe you have a couple ideas of of where their return is going to be I I see Johnson I see huge potential for this with smart Savvy business people involved here there’s incredible potential here golf is a very

Very fractured business and the ownership of all our major championships and the Ryder Cup and the DP World Tour and and the Asian tour and the African Tour It’s all under separate ownership so potentially with a massive fund which could be available here it’s an opportunity under the under the the PGA

Tour platform to somewhat unify that and maybe even get hold of a major championship or or maybe even you know partner with a major championship or a rider cup something like that there’s incredible opportunity here uh from the SSG group these are really smart people they’re not getting involved in no

Reason they’re also involved in tgl there’s loads of opportunities there to potentially blend tgl with the with live down the road as some way of unifying the game again who knows where they’re going to go but it’s an incredible platform for them and I think with really Savvy businessmen which they are

I think this is going to be a a very profitable Venture but it’s important that we get that in place but move on what’s the product going to look like get talk to the public more rather than to the players I know it’s important to solidify the players at a moment but we

Also you know as a as a product our golf we also need to talk to the public and excite them of what’s what’s ahead it feels like they’ve answered the question question of how do you satisfy the big names tiger Rory who did not go to live

As Rah and T Hatt and many others did by giving them Equity based on past achievements so you know that tiger is being taken care of in a meaningful way because there was that question what what about me I didn’t take the money as John ROM did and if those guys are

Allowed to come back and continue to earn know the superstars who stayed need to be taken care of and it appears Johnson that that’s the case I I think they certainly are I mean having an equity stake there’s still so many details to iron out what that’s going to

Look like for these players how you earn the points as Todd was saying um but but it’s like career achievements it it well tigers’s had plenty of career achievements okay that’s a lot of points but where do you draw the line as we were talking about before if you start

Bringing Jack Nicholas in if you start bringing all these former players does it end if you have 10 wins do you get an equity stake if you have five wins how how is that all going to get ironed out and I think that’s a lot of the details

That are still ongoing and to your point like I’m getting sick of all these three-letter piff SSG all these deals like I’m a golf fan and I want to get back to playing golf and watching Golf and and and have have the product speak for itself I know that that’s down the

Road you know I think this is a very important move strategic move on behalf of the PGA Tour and it creates an opportunity to now go and do a deal uh with the Saudis which we all know is pretty inevitable you’d have to say and and and and how that’s going come about

We don’t know there’s different ways of doing it like I say I could see the tgl you know and the PGA Tour which are all PGA Tour players blending with live and that what an opportunity you make it a green grass um event around the world you know there’s your Global tour that

Is a potential it’s only an idea who knows where it’s going to end maybe the players coming back to play some Elite events on the PGA tour um who knows but um you know this is a this is something that’s going to give the PGA Tour you

Know Rory made a point yesterday about you know they should come back without um you know having to pay any penalties and and I think this is a way of them gaining money without having the other guys having to pay a penalty to come back in so everybody wins but again it’s

So much about money here I’m I’m worried that we gone down that road too much how do you think nichelson Ron all those guys Brooks kka uh over on live how do you think they feel today I think that they’re got to be very giddy with what’s

Happened in the last 18 months from where we were this time last year and they’re Inc incredibly um good place they’ve got equity in all of these team so if if you know a blending of the two tours comes they’re going to gain with that and Liv stays on the pitch um and

And I think yeah they’ll feel well it’s good enough for the guys that we left behind if they’re going to have Equity as well too that’s good because we got Equity so I don’t think they’ll be too Disturbed with that but this is important uh negotiating tool now for

The PGA Tour they got a proper platform with proper people in there that can really help um drive this business forward so I think from a PGA Tour player you got to be excited and just to extrapolate on that I don’t think the road back to the PGA tour for a lot of

These guys is going to be as easy as just coming back I mean think about how many guys left that their exemptions have run out John ROM is a major Champion so he’s going to be able to have an exemption for a long time but you think about the Bryson Des Shambo

His exemptions gone Patrick Reed these guys are not just going to walk back on to the PGA Tour there are so many details to iron out in this whole thing and that’s why it’s taking such a long time