Golf Today discusses the meeting in the Bahamas between PGA Tour members and Saudi Arabia’s Yasir Al-Rumayyan, including what it could mean for the sport’s future and more. #GolfChannel #GolfToday #PGATour
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Is PGA Tour meeting with PIF in Bahamas a good first step to a decision? | Golf Today | Golf Channel
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Hey there welcome into this one-hour edition of golf today I’m George savz with aan Lynch before we turn our Focus to this week’s event we got to kick off with the big meeting that happened in the Bahamas wasn’t exactly a fishing trip they did play a little golf though
With the public investment fund chief governor yasur Al remay going down to meet with pga2 commissioner J Monahan and the player directors big picture for the game of golf is this a positive or A negative I suppose it depends what angle you come from it on for fans who
Consider it a moral issue with Audis it’s never going to be seen as a positive for players and people within the game who see this strictly in commercial terms they’re probably leaning towards the positive on that but so much depends on what the terms of any future discussions are going to be on
And I think we’re still a long way from that I’m actually just amazed more information hasn’t come out about it yet because you know what PGA Tour players are like they’re they’re about as tight lipped as Town criers George but eventually it’s going to come out as some sense
Of what the meeting was not necessarily the particulars of the discussion but at least a sense of of how the players reacted to the the piff representatives in the room and what they think the issues might be going forward they’re going to have a better idea of what the
Goals are on the other side and whether that’s reconcilable with what the intent is on the PGA tour players side we’re going to ding in this a lot more during this hourong edition of golf today let’s get you to the details of what exactly transpired it was members of the PGA
Tour Enterprises board including player director Tiger Woods they were Onan in Bahamas on Monday for what was for many of them the first inperson meeting with piff chief governor yaser Al rayan by Monday evening Monahan had updated PGA Tour members via memo saying that he and the six player directors which is Woods
Patrick kentley Webb Simpson Adam Scott Jordan spe and Peter Mady did indeed visit with Al rayan on Monday the memo continued to say the conversation throughout was constructive and represents an important part of our due diligence process in selecting potential investors for PGA Tour Enterprises this mirrors the approach we employed earlier
This year as we evaluated an investment offer from the Strategic Sports Group during the session yaser had a chance introduced himself to our player directors and talk through through his vision priorities and motivations for investing in professional golf as we continue these discussions with the we will keep you updated as much as
Possible but please understand that we need to maintain our position of not conducting negotiations in public to that end we will provide no further comment to the media at this time here K Dixon who is on site this week at ensbrook Resort for the valpar championship Kira you had a chance to
Catch up with the players what are the general sentiments about Monday’s meeting in the Bahamas well George there are several player directors in the field this week at the valpar championship that were able to uh make the trip to the Bahamas and then up here to the Tampa Florida
Area I was able to speak with one of the player directors that was in the meeting and he said that first of all it was nice to just demystify who yaser Al ramayan is the the chief governor of the public investment fund of Saudi Arabia
And you know this has been a figure that they’ve mostly just seen pictures and videos of so to get into the actual room put a face to a name humanize everything was very much important for them he also said that you know yasur came into this meeting with his ideas of where
Professional golf should go and of course the PGA Tour side and the players have their ideas of where professional golf should go and he said that you know they’re they’re pretty far away from actually coming to a place where they’re going to make steps to unification
Together but it was very much a positive meeting and that the relationship is quote very open from here on out I was also able to catch up with a few players that were not in the meeting to see what their reaction was to the news of the meeting taking
Place yeah I wasn’t too uh privy of of everything that was going on uh this morning I read some articles uh about how they met and um yeah I mean I think they’re they’re moving along is is what it sounds like and you know I’m glad all
The guys were able to make it I know some guys were playing this week that had to go down to Bahamas but um you know I think it’s in negotiations it’s good for all our directors or play directors at least to show up in in good
Faith uh for for for some sort of agreement so I’m sure they’re going to try and iron something out I have no clue as to what it would look like but um talks are talks are ongoing Yeah Yeah you mentioned that you’re not privy to the discussion firsthand but what would
Be your hope of of what comes from this initial meeting yeah I mean I’m sure some some sort of unification I’m sure that’s sort of the biggest topic of bringing the game back together um so I have no idea how what or how that would look like um especially just with you
Know think big picture you have a lot of rookies coming up on tour here making making names and stories for themselves and then you got to bring in bring in some some of the familiar faces that we’ve seen for for many years so um I’m
Not I haven’t really put a whole lot of thought honestly into that hole on on how that would look but um you know with Fenway in and and and our directors and our team here I’m sure I’m sure they can put their minds together and get something done I thought it was about
Time you know as a pack member and was on the board was on the ballot for pack chair one the first things I said was I think we need to talk to Yasir here and see what his intentions are what are his Visions with professional golf clearly
He’s got the uh Financial backing to make serious moves and and they have and um as the my concern is for the the Integrity of the PGA Tour the future of the PGA Tour and it’s something that’s been my dream for 40 years since I was 5
Years old to be out here and to compete against the best to play the historic venues and to win trophies that have real real meaning to them so as long as we keep that integrity um as priority number one we’ll see what happens I have not spoken with anyone yet um but I
Think it was good um listen I’ve said my you know what I’ve thought of the guys that have gone over and the way they you know they they left and and I would say somewhat trash to PJ tour and that was my main issue my biggest issue um I
Think you can go back and look at all my comments over the last couple years I’ve never had any issues with with piff or Saudis um so I’ve always felt that uh I thought a deal would come I thought it would be you know maybe 5 Years From the
Start you know we’re two and a half years from that now or two years in um I thought it’ be a little bit further down the road but I think looking at the game of golf and as a golf fan and which I love the game of golf and I love
Watching it I think I’m I’m like golf fans I’m tired of all this bickering back and forth um you know somehow we got to figure out how to get rid of that whether you know we we have a truce and they do their thing we do our thing or
Or whether we come together um you know as one entity uh so I think uh you’ve seen what the Saudis do in in other sports and I think listen they’re going to be a power throughout this world for many years to come for decades to come
Um because of the the money that they have so um I think if if there was a deal that was in favor or player directors were in favor of and Jay and the board were in favor of I think that’d be really good but we have to see
How it plays out but I think it’s it’s a good first step to at least have our player directors talk to yazer uh see what they want see what uh his intentions is um and then and then they can figure something out and then having
With SSG you know part of the PJ tour Arthur Blank John Henry two great people uh many other people involved in that group um they’re going to make sure that the PJ tour is protected as well so guys of course plenty of strong opinions in the room in the Bahamas but
Also still plenty of strong opinions just here out on the Range on the PGA tour when you start talking about things like Signature Events what are we doing about Cuts what are we doing about uh limited Fields guaranteed money are the Live players going to come back to
The PGA Tour those are the questions that a lot of folks out here are asking and want answers to it and it almost seems like there’s a bit of fatigue and and perhaps some resignation when it comes to answering all those questions and and waiting for what happens next so
Perhaps this meeting in the Bahamas is rounding the corner towards getting some of those answers all righty Kira at least a kickoff point for a lot of these uh a lot of these people involved to have a face-to-face conversation and let’s continue the convo with Golf Channel
Senior writer Rex hogard Rex now that they had this introductory meeting for a lot of the stakeholders what’s next I think the next step is obviously going to be you get further down the line in the negotiations and I like the way aan started this conversation and
You talk about it strictly in commercial terms and that’s kind of where we are right now it seems to me they can come up with a deal that would include piff in PGA Tour Enterprises because the market has already been set the deal with SSG it gave the PGA Tour
Enterprises a valuation it gave everyone an idea of what a minority investment would look like in the case of SSG that was $1.5 billion in initial investment those are pretty easy to start with you can sit down and start having conversations I think what happened yesterday was the next logical step as
Kira just pointed out this isn’t just about the numbers this isn’t a normal merger that you would have between companies trying to come up with some sort of multi-billion dollar deal you have hurt feelings you have players on both sides that have strong feelings on this how do those players who join live
Golf how are they welcome back to the PGA Tour how does team golf fit into all of this I think yesterday is a really really good first step in that conversation and it probably gives the player directors a really a better idea where piff and yasier are coming from is
It fair to say Rex at this stage that one of the many unknowns in all of this is the internal tour politics because on one side you’ve got the PGA Tour guys versus the live guys that’s the obvious one but you have PGA Tour players the elite players kind of against the rank
And file at the moment as well you have what seems some weeks all of the members against the executive side of the PGA Tour as well there seems to be a lot of bruised feelings a lot of bruised egos that are still very much in play in this
Conversation I think p uh PJ tour commissioner J Manan is going to come up with a t-shirt that says not going to negotiate in public based on how many times he has said it over the last few weeks and I certainly understand where he’s coming from it’s a very very
Difficult process and you’re not going to be able to do that uh if you’re constantly battling headlines however to your point it’s a member organization with 250 Plus members they all have opinions they all have ideas and you’re right the internal politics are going to come into play in this you’re not going
To be able to negotiate in public but you’re also not going to be able to negotiate this in a vacuum because everyone is ultimately going to want their voices heard and as we’ve seen as we continue to see those voices keep getting louder and louder as we seem to
Get closer to some sort of deal with the piff I was texting back and forth with a player this morning and his first comment was a deal is good for all and I think that’s where a lot of players are starting to land but this player was
Also quick to point out that four of the top 10 players on Sunday at the Players Championship went head-to-head at the tours Flagship event on a really really difficult Golf Course all the way down to the 72nd hole that’s a really good product and this player’s take was yeah
I’d like to see a deal but the PGA Tour product is still strong with or without those players who join live golf but Rex the player says that the ratings for the players were down by a sizable amount every event since the American Express the ratings have been down so far this
Season so while players tout what was the theater of the 50th edition of The Players which we agree was a great watch the market reaction to it has been some general Mala compared to where ratings were a year AG go it is a problem and I think that’s probably the bigger problem going
Forward for the PGA Tour wherever it is they land with piff and PJ tour Enterprises and whatever the product is going to look like I think the bigger issue is going to be bringing those fans back who have clearly become disenfranchised with the idea that players are just chasing money and that
We end up with a situation where the game is fractured and we have people asking us as journalists which one should I watch which product on a Sunday afternoon is the better product I don’t think anybody appreciates that at least not from the fan perspective we pointed
This out time and time again a fractured game’s not good for most of the players involved it’s not good for the Media Partners but most importantly it’s not good for the fans and I think that’s the backlash and that’ll be the challenge that the PGA Tour is going to have to
Overcome yeah certainly the case he is Rex hogard aan we’ve been kicking around just amongst ourselves say that this is a step toward some type of unification reconciliation however you want to phrase it at what point could golf fans forecast in the future that we could have some equilibrium where
Whatever The New Normal is that’s where we’re at not anytime soon because it’s a long road to get there and I traded messages last night with someone who was intimately familiar with what was going on in the Bahamas yesterday and the response I got was partly sunny with scattered but significant clouds which
Would suggest that the player directors and the PGA Tour people in the room thought there’s something to potentially work with but there are immense hurdles between now and then and that’s before you even get into the idea of a deal being reached over these thorny issues and Rex
Highlighted some of those thorny issues there and you can’t really underestimate them I me you’re going to talk about the fate of Live players do they have to earn their status back are they backed by right that’s a huge issue in the locker room on the PGA tour you talked
About the the the robustness of the PGA Tour product right now that’s an issue with all of the tour’s Media Partners there are tournaments and sponsors that are feeling squeeze as well there are an immense number of issues that they have to work through that aren’t really core
To any kind of financial terms with with the Saudis at all if you figure that as J Manan told the board recently that it would be end of year as a target for a deal with piff you’re probably looking at a year by their own estimate of doj
Scrutiny of that so by the time you actually see in Practical terms what that deal looks like optimistically you’re looking at Q4 of 26 more likely I would suggest into the 27 season now what kind of DET Hunt is reached between now and then is another matter but in terms of what the
Longer term future of this game looks like that’s still probably a couple of years away more concerned by just the the current status of the negotiation where it seems almost advantageous for piif to extend this Horizon given what the PGA Tours facing in this kind of
Short-term run to kick off the season or the internal seemingly Strife between the rank and file on the PGA tour with the top 20 players and just how disjointed the messaging has been so far yeah there’s there’s no sense of urgency on on either side right now but you can
Tell from some of that player reaction there’s no great urgency on the PGA Tour player side either they’re not they don’t want to do a deal so badly that they do a bad deal and that’s what a lot of them think happened on June 6th and I
Don’t think they’re in any rush to do that right now so it’s going to play out it’s going to take time but no one’s in a particular hurry to do anything right now
27 Comments
Golf today is the cnn of sports news. The pga is a minor league to LIV and the majors. A moral issue? What a f joke! The US has bombed and occupied hundreds of countries.
No way this goes to 2027
Guys think about the product – LIV coverage is better. An exciting finish with the TPC was good but winning the Waste Management? not one to tell the grand kids. Think product, end of! The major target audience is retired older guys – the PGA coverage allows us to nap………zzzzzz
PGA gets $1.5 billion infusion, big whoopee. The SSG will be expecting a serious return on that. LIV has BILLIONS available. Not sure why people ignorantly say they're going " broke ". The PIF has a bottomless supply of funds. The PIF is not trying to dick measure cash wise, that's a done deal, the PGA is a cocktail frank by way of comparison. PIF is legitimately trying to grow the game mutually advantageous to all tours, not do a complete takeover. Monahans is the fly in the ointment, and a handful of miffed players who are truly jealous of the limited schedule/high purses LIV has that they regret not going for thinking LIV would be a total bust. The ONLY reason Monahans is still involved is due to his connections to SSG. He is not a savvy businessman , he is not a visionary, he is a dinosaur trying to keep the PGA as an AMERICAN heavy entity, while PIF is wanting the game to be truly global. The smaller schedules, more variety with team competitions, and bigger purses, and beefing up the various world tours while adding others is the goal of PIF, not breaking up the PGA and being the shot caller.
Lynch is awful how he has a job is beyond me, complete hypocrite
Wait until SSG starts asking/demanding their ROI from their investment, shit will really hit the fan…
Stop using fans as a chess play. We don’t like what PGA did. Stealing Doral bc they were pushed to do it. Then lo and behold surprise that event is now in Mexico. So YOU journalists speak for yourself not us, the fans.
LIV is a TOTAL FLOP. They have their own league and yet they’re still BEGGING to have their cake and eat it too by wanting some unification. NOBODY and I mean NOBODY cares about team golf. The Players Championship didn’t miss the LIV guys. The LIV guys were missing out on The Players Championship. The SUCCESS of any sport comes from FAN INTEREST and the revenue that the fans bring. LIV has neither of those. It’s all propaganda when they keep acting like the PGA Tour is in jeopardy. Name one LIV event so far that will be remembered years from now as significant. LIV has a few guys at the top but even DJ is not in his prime. The shelf life of a top golfers winning prime is 5 years and during that time the best of the best win 7-10 percent of their tournaments. After that they just play decent. Tiger has the best percentage at 22% and he is the exception to the rule. Liv has a lot of no name guys, borderline senior citizens, has been, Pat Perez come on man Pat Perez. Even Bubba is past his winning prime. LIV is a farce. Anthony Kim c’mon man, he doesn’t even tie his shoes, he looks like a slob out there.
Lol, the LIV players don't care about coming back. It's hilariously proud for those who depend on the PGAT to be saying different. The Tour let the players down except for the top 10%. That's obvious.
Immoral? How many tour sponsors deal in Saudi Arabia . Time to drop the moral spotlight. Lets move on.
Most of the hate comes from the golf channel & other networks & publications. They all bend over for the PGA tour over fear of someday being on the outside looking in . The first thing they should do is stop the LIV smearing & shaming – they ain’t going anywhere ! Golf channel won’t even show scores or highlights from LIV because of fear of repercussions from the PGA tour . It’s one thing to say let’s settle things but another to actually do so .
Imagine, having DJ, Bubba, Jon Rahm and Brooks on your tour and still failing. That just can't be, so it has to be the management and business model that is the real problem and guess what? It is. LIV golf is a failure. However, the way it came about and the nefarious means as to which it evolved was even more of a failure. Norman is as transparent as the glass on your house. He HATES the PGA Tour and will do ANYTHING to kill it. I ask you: How can the PGA Tour forget all of that and seriously consider a deal? Are you nuts? Finally, add the MILLIONS of loyal golf fans who want nothing to do with LIV, PIF or Saudi Arabia. I don't care how you try to hide it or talk it away. This is a real attempt to destroy professional golf along with the PGA Tour. So again, why are we talking to these folks?
Now that the pga is now for profit, pif can be an instant majority owner.
We, who love the game and history, are all tired of this. Is the PGA going to let the Saudis dictate the future of the game? The PGA is in a bad negotiating position and it is not going to get any better.
The viewer ratings being down feels like when MLB and other leagues went on strike, the fans got angry about all the money talk and just boycotted watching the game for a bit
Moral issue, there are no morals or we would not allow Saudi Arabia to invest in US companies. We would throw away all plastics. Never ride in a car or fly in a plane. We are all hypocrites! So drop the moral talking points.
Billy Ho has a bad memory
The difference is PIF have a vision for global pro golf and PGAT has none
If LIV players are to be punished then they won't come back..thats a given
If LIV is so great why do the players want to play in PGA affiliated events so bad. It's because of the prestige and the Legacy the PGA holds. Their championships are actually worth something.
Very informative. What did we find out about the deal? Nothing. Not quite Woodward and Bernstein levels of investigative journalism going on here.
Jay getting fired would be a good first step.
The PGA needs to be independent of the PIF
Private negotiations, not meeting in the U.S… a lot of shady stuff… 😂
Hi im Yassir, you’re fired.
‘First step’ 9 months on from the Framework Agreement! That’s shockingly slow considering the SSG deal was tied up in a few short months. Someone is not trying very hard.
Money Talks Bullshit Walks!!!