Iain Carter of the BBC has been covering golf for decades, and he provides his expert opinion on the fractured state of professional golf between high rolling investors like the Saudi PIF and the Strategic Sports Group vying for dominance.
And couldn’t the argument be made in that the game of golf at its highest competitive levels has actually improved not necessarily from the product that is being offered to the people because the the stars are on various tours but from a players’s perspective have they not
Benefited from a Liv coming on the scene with increased purses in these Signature Events oh in financial terms they certainly have there’s no doubt about it but the one word that kept coming up certainly in the last three or four months has been sustainable how sustainable is this level of
Remuneration on both sides of the fence because Liv ultimately will need a return on their massive investment they’ve got very very deep pockets as we know and they can wait longer than than most investors can but nonetheless you know the billions that are going in from
SSG into the into the PGA Tour uh present another question as well because there will be a demand for return on that investment and it’s hard to see how that can be maximized when the game is fractured and that applies to both sides of the equation to the Liv side and
Certainly the PGA Tour as well you know notwithstanding one’s opinion of Saudi Arabia and The Sovereign fund the public investment fund has the sting of those who would be against it for whatever reasons they have but has that sting diminished by the fact that this public investment
Fund is diversifying and is investing in so many of the world’s major sports at the highest tier well it goes across the board doesn’t it it goes across you know if you depending on which taxi you decide to to ride in that that could well have Saudi Arabian investment in it
As well and that diversification certainly uh I I think does kind of dilute that that potential feeling of of unease at doing business with Saudi Arabia but from just the gulf point of view the very fact that the PGA Tour have decided to try and do a deal with
Saudi Arabia that changed the landscape massively and we’ve heard John Ram talk about that in the wake of his move to to live I think it made it easier for him to do that and do that in the hope if not the knowledge that potentially there could be a coming together that would
Allow him somewhere down the line to return and play the PGA Tour events that he would want to to play so as I say the the landscape has changed it was changed massively by June the 6th and the aftershocks have continued and have continued to an extent that has profoundly changed the
Landscape going forward the problem that the game has is that we don’t know definitively what that landscape is yet and and I think there are a more aftershocks to come
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LIv brought more money to the players. And while the players are separated —not that they weren’t on the pga tour before LIv— the innovation is worth the fracture for now.
I enjoy LIv very much. And it feels like it’s only a matter of time before the next big guy comes. Then another. And another.
The pga tour can get back some entertainment value by simply letting LIv players come back. But they choose not to because they care more about power than the players or the fans or even the media partners; whom for whatever reason are extremely loyal.
I think this is all needed and worth it. Golf is actively being refreshed, which is what it needed.
That stuffy stuff is not going to change over nite. But the wheels are a turning… so we got that going for us.