PGA and LIV: Major Requests & The Disappearance of Greg Norman
As we lead into The Open and the eyes of the media refocus on the world of golf, the topic of the LIV merger comes back to the forefront. If you haven’t been following it religiously like us golf tragics, here are the cliff notes. LIV is trying to recruit Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy; Greg Norman appears to have disappeared and the improved globalisation of the men’s professional game is still on the cards.
The main media attention sparking continued discussion about the merger has stemmed from a ‘leaked’ email documenting the demands of the PIF in negotiation talks. For those of you wondering, the PIF is shorthand for the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, the original financier of the LIV Golf Tour. Additionally, just to clarify the relationship between the tours is not strictly speaking a merger but rather the funds provided by the PIF resulting in them being a “minor investor” of the PGA TOUR, with the PGA Tour still maintaining its overall structure.
The email had a number of requirements, among those Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy would become LIV team owners and play in 10 events a year, Aramco would sponsor 2 premier golf events on either the DP World Tour or PGA Tour, the PIF would attain membership to Augusta National and the R&A, an estimated $2-3 billion would be invested by the PIF, board seats for the PGA Tour provided to members of the PIF and Greg Norman will lose his position as CEO of the LIV Tour.
Now, what of this will come to fruition is still highly speculative but with Rory McIlroy coming out and clearly stating he would rather “retire” than transition over to the LIV Tour, tensions among some major players are still running high. However, out of all the turmoil, a great opportunity to hear the voices of the players has certainly arisen, leaving the potential for long-term improvement for the Tour.
Perhaps the most interesting of the numerous requests, however, is for the governor of the PIF Al-Rumayyan to attain membership to Augusta National Golf Club (the host of The Masters). One thing you need to know about Augusta National is that it is private, like truly private. The club has been known to shun some of the world’s most famous, powerful people in the world for the simple act of making it known that they want a membership. The membership here is true to invite only, leaving some to speculate whether this whole charade with the LIV Tour was simply a way to negotiate a back-door entry to this world-famous club.
Looking at the women’s professional game, although nothing has been stated about how the merger talks will affect it, the vast investment funds and pre-existing relationship Aramco has in women’s golf will hopefully lead to the continued development of the game. One would suspect that, as typical for golf, the flow-on effect into the professional women’s game will be an afterthought by the PGA, DP World and LIV tours. Nevertheless, we can remain hopeful that some dedicated thought will be given to this key growth area for the game.
We will certainly keep you up to date as more concrete details begin to flow through around the relationship between the tours, however until then, enjoy The Open.
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Guest Writer: Callum Bakken
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