THE golf world has never known anything like its current state of flux. After 18 months of rancour, acrimony and bitterness the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) astounded everyone in the sport by not only patching up their differences but also engaging in a merger.
Golfers haven’t been this flabbergasted by a partnership since Hal Sutton paired Phil Mickelson with Tiger Woods at the 2004 Ryder Cup.
But how did we get here from there? It’s a good question and the seeds of golf’s discontent can be traced back further than you may think. Let’s dig into the history books to find out where it all started and how it accelerated to last week’s shock announcement.
1968 – In one form or another tour golf can be traced back to the years after the First World War but in the late 60s golfers were – get used to this, it’s a common theme – discontent with the state of affairs. From those irritated scenes, the PGA Tour as we now know it was born.
1989 – The European Tour was created in 1972 and, riding the wave of Severiano Ballesteros’s thrilling success, peaked in the 1980s. And, in the last year of that decade, the circuit ventured to the Middle East for the first time for the Dubai Desert Classic. Over the next 30 years the importance of the region increased and, in 2019, the Saudi International joined the schedule.
1994 – Meanwhile, a fire burned in the belly of Greg Norman. He was not only a world class golfer but a businessman of high ambition and he was irked that the PGA Tour was so focussed on America at the expense of the wider world. With Rupert Murdoch he tried to launch a World Tour but was stymied when Arnold Palmer warned golfers not to join.
1997 – The PGA Tour allied with other circuits to form the World Golf Championship. It resembled Norman’s idea closely enough, while being nowhere near widespread enough, to stoke that fire in his belly.
2014 – Tour gossip has it that a new World Golf Series is being mooted. It becomes the Professional Golf League and chatter about it rumbled on without anything solid occurring. Its leading figures did meet Saudi officials, however, at the 2020 Saudi International where they also played with Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia.
May 2021 – Shortly after the PGA Tour and European Tour announced a strategic alliance, and other measures to counter potential breakaways, the Daily Telegraph reported that Phil Mickelson, Justin Rose and Dustin Johnson had been offered sums in the region of $100 million to join a new venture.
October 2021 – LIV is announced with Greg Norman at its head.
February 2022 – Now it gets fruity. The PGA tour was described as “greedy” and a war of words followed, mud flying everywhere as journalists, lawyers, and columnists all had their say. Quicker than the ink drying on the morning headlines, however, the first LIV schedule was released with prize funds of a dizzying $25 million per event.
May 2022 – A controversial press conference that escalated far beyond the realms of golf as LIV news flew around the world, but for all the wrong reasons.
June 2022 – LIV’s first event teed off and, as the players wandered down the fairway, Jay Monahan announced that they were banned from the PGA Tour. Weeks later, the PGA Tour and the European Tour, now known as the DP World Tour, announced another strategic alliance.
July 2022 – LIV started going to court. Players were challenging bans both sides of the Atlantic and, in time, Patrick Reed, a LIV recruit, started many of his own court proceedings. Lawyers licked their lips. The DP World Tour could not, however, stop LIV players competing in their events.
July 2022 – The 150th Open took place at the home of golf and Greg Norman was not invited. Tiger Woods reiterated that he is not a fan of LIV, Cameron Smith lifted the Claret Jug and, when asked if he would be joining LIV, suggested the question was distasteful.
August 2022 – Smith joined LIV. And, before him, Henrik Stenson did so too forcing Europe to find a new Ryder Cup captain. Woods and McIlroy led a meeting in which a new PGA Tour schedule was revealed. It had 12 designated events with enormous prize funds, an effort to compete with LIV’s riches.
😲 Think it's pretty safe to say that Cameron Smith is a popular guy back home in Australia
💪 Look at the following he had at LIV Golf Adelaide….. pic.twitter.com/6x8yadf9GB
— Golf Monthly (@GolfMonthly) April 21, 2023
September 2022 – The BMW PGA Championship was held at Wentworth: the old world and the new world were all in the field and it was … awkward.
April 2023 – LIV lost its arbitration case with the DP World Tour. Those LIV players who were competing in Europe could no longer do so. Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter resigned their membership of the traditional tour and with it became ineligible to play in the Ryder Cup or captain the team.
May 2023 – Following a bold LIV showing at the Masters, LIV’s Brooks Koepka triumphed in the PGA Championship. Meanwhile, PGA Tour commissioner Monahan said that he vetoed a new sponsor for an event because it had Saudi Arabian links.
June 2023 – Monahan changed his tune. It turned out that he, along with PGA Tour board members Jimmy Dunne and Ed Herlihy) had been secretly meeting with PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan in April and May. The results of that? The PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and PIF are now engaged in a merger. Cue: fury, confusion, mockery and many other sensations.
The future: Who knows? Monahan insists PIF is just an investor but there are many questions to be asked of its involvement and its levels of control. How will golf’s pyramid be rebuilt, as surely it will have to be? How does the DP World Tour fit in? Will LIV survive or was it just leverage? Hoes do McIlroy and Woods really feel? How long will Monahan remain in his position? So many questions and, as yet, no answers.
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