The landmark agreement between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund will contain safeguards to ensure the PGA Tour will maintain leadership of both the resulting for-profit entity and its existing circuit. This claim by PGA Tour officials will be shared with members during a players-only meeting set to be held Tuesday night in Connecticut ahead of the 2023 Travelers Championship, according to Golf Channel. The hope is to restore trust among membership and dispel concerns of a takeover of professional golf.
Though the PIF will make a “minority” investment as the lone investor in the new for-profit company, the PGA Tour will also reportedly have the right to decline subsequent investments as part of the agreement.
On Tuesday, 21-time PGA Tour winner Davis Love III addressed an open letter to commissioner Jay Monahan in which Love, a five-time member of the PGA Tour’s policy board, preached patience to players in the aftermath of the agreement. The letter, obtained and published by Golf Channel, comes the same day as the players meeting at TPC River Highlands.
“I am confident and trust that any decisions — in the future as in the past — will have the same due process and player input, “Love wrote. “Jay, as you have said, Rules made by the Players, for the Players. If we are patient and work together we will achieve the best result for our Tour, and our partners and fans. As always, you, the players and the Policy Board have my full support.”
Much of the golf community — PGA Tour members included — have been left asking questions about leadership as a potential ramification of the deal. Monahan faced backlash from players in what was reportedly aheated meeting the day the agreement was announced June 6. Monahan remains away as he recovers from an undisclosed medical condition.
The agreement came after the PGA Tour and the PIF, the latter of which funds LIV Golf, were embattled in a professional golf power-struggle that saw many notable players — major champions Phil Mickelson, Brooks Kopeka and Dustin Johnson among them — forced to resign from the PGA Tour in order to play in the new circuit as they chose to take millions of guaranteed dollars. Monahan preached loyalty to remaining PGA Tour members before the sides ultimately reached the agreement, one he said was influenced by the PGA Tour’s inability to compete financially with the PIF.
The new entity’s board of directors will reportedly feature an executive committee that includes both Monahan and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan. Also set to be included are PGA Tour policy board members Jimmy Dunne and Ed Herlihy, both of whom had considerable roles in forming the framework of the new agreement.