It’s been close to five months since one of the biggest shockwaves in the history of men’s professional golf. It was Tuesday June 06, 2023, a day marking the 79th anniversary of the D-Day Landings in Normandy, France, but with golf’s own D-Day deadline approaching neither party appears in any way close to signing off on an agreement.
Back in June, it was the Tuesday of the prestigious RBC Canadian Open and for the second year running the premier Canadian event took a back seat as news that the PGA Tour and DP World Tour had worked to produce a ‘framework’ agreement with the Saudi-backed Public Investment Fund (PIF) began to filter through.
To say the news shook the deep-rooted foundations of the game is an understatement while it was even more earth-shattering to learn that players like Rory McIlroy, the effective frontman for the PGA Tour in their fight with LIV Golf, had been kept in the dark leading up to the ‘agreement.’
There was a players’ meeting on the eve of the Canadian event where we had unprecedented calls from the rank-and-file calling for more of a governance role in the running of the PGA Tour in addition to calls that PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan must go.
In contrast, the general sports world seemed to welcome the news and the merger was seen as the factor that could finally bring an end to men’s pro golf being all over the front pages for all the wrong reasons.
Soon after the announcement PIF Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan and Monahan were interviewed together on US TV, with Al-Rumayyan speaking boldly that “it should be just a matter of weeks. It all depends on finalising many things, including the valuation, and once we get that sorted it’s just a matter of week’s.”
Monahan, sitting beside Al-Rumayyan, immediately spoke-up declaring: “We’re going to get that done!”
However, eight days after the announcement the PGA Tour put out a statement that Monahan was taking a leave of absence to recuperate from a ‘medical situation.’
Monahan returned to work on July 17th, with many arguing his stature as the head of golf’s biggest Tour was untenable having betrayed his players, players such as McIlroy whom Alan Shipnuck would later claim in his book Liv and Let Die, was “heartbroken” by the PIF deal.
The next month, at the season-ending Tour Championship in Atlanta, all talk naturally centred around the ‘agreement.’
After his traditional, long-winded opening ‘State of the Tour’ address, Monahan found himself being quizzed from pillar-to-post with questions over the PIF agreement and advised the attending media they were progressing but revealed nothing specific.
Yet, the 31st December ‘agreement’ deadline is nearing and there are articles out there now with headlines suggesting that nothing has been done. And with the 2024 PGA Tour season schedule already in place, it begs the question: why the rush?
What must be remembered is that we are talking here of an unprecedented agreement between one of the biggest American sporting bodies, who hands out millions in prize-money every week to its members, and a foreign sovereignty that are far from your ‘average’ foreign sovereignty.
We should all agree that, for the sake of the men’s professional game, a resolution has to be reached but given the enormous variables that need to be assessed and considered, those making the decision must take their time and not be pressed by an end of the year deadline.
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