The golf world for the most part has remained relatively inconspicuous and conservative compared to other sports. Professional golfers traditionally (upon membership) participated on the PGA Tour – the primary organizer of main professional golf tours in the United States, with its history dating back to 1916. In October last year, however, the announcement of the LIV Golf Invitational Series sparked the arrival of a new era (and divide) in the sport. The PGA Tour, with a swift response, have now partnered with TMRW Sports to introduce their own innovative series, TGL golf league. What is going on and how did we get here?
PGA Tour vs LIV Golf
The PGA, golf’s preeminent tour has strongly opposed the newly established LIV circuit. This is for a host of reasons. From a moral perspective, the tournament is owned by the government of Saudi Arabia, which constantly faces heavy scrutiny for its human rights violations (similar opposition was met during the takeover of English Premier League side Newcastle United). When it comes to the financial implications (rightly and wrongly) these are not in the PGA’s interests either. LIV Golf have offered astronomical contracts to lure golf’s biggest stars. Dustin Johnson, for example, received a $125 million payout to join LIV Golf, which, for context, is almost double of his total career earnings with the PGA tour! The payouts at LIV Golf are exponentially larger than those the PGA offers, and with a smaller pool of players in the field, everyone gets a slice of tournament money as opposed to the PGA format – where only players who make the cut are paid for the event. The PGA simply cannot compete with LIV Golf regarding finances, further threatening the former’s ability to retain its best players. The commissioner of the PGA tour, Jay Monahan, has been vocal about his disapproval of the new league, calling it an “irrational threat” to the growth of golf. This was followed up with levying lifetime bans to those who resigned their Tour membership in order to participate in LIV Golf tournaments. The divide couldn’t be any clearer-you’re either on one side, or the other.
The Saudi-owned league unsurprisingly has managed to persuade a host of top golfers to join the circuit irrespective of the backlash. The standout acquisition of six-time major winner Phil Mickelson, who was once vocally in objection to LIV Golf, claiming the Saudi Arabian government were “scary motherf-ers to get involved with,” marked a change in tides for the series. Other major winners who have joined include the aforementioned Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Graeme McDowell and Patrick Reed. From a golfer’s perspective, it’s a lucrative opportunity to play fewer rounds (and holes) of golf, for a vastly greater sum of money than what the PGA Tour offers. It could be argued that it’s too good to turn down, unless you’re Tiger Woods of course, who reportedly turned down a mouth-watering $800 million contract to join LIV Golf! The billionaire athlete is a renowned critic of the Saudi-backed series, claiming that those who joined “turned their back on what allowed them to get into this position.”
Former golfer Greg Norman, commissioner for LIV Golf, naturally holds a different view, portraying the tournament as an ‘alternative’, rather than a rival to the existing PGA Tour. In fairness, the series offers a different framework to that of the PGA, with 54 holes as opposed 72, and a no-cut, team-play format operating in a draft-like manner, while the PGA Tour is almost exclusively individual player-based.
The optimism of this purported ‘alternative’, however, isn’t shared by the PGA Tour, who are watching their heritage league slip away at the hands of the newcomers. In their efforts to compete with the financial titan that is LIV Golf, Monahan announced on August 24th that the PGA Tour would increase the prize money at 12 events to match those of LIV Golf, with an average prize money of $20 million. A win for the players ultimately, but it may not be enough to convince them to stay with the Tour long-term.
INTRODUCTION OF THE TGL
Further steps have been taken by the PGA Tour to limit the exodus of star players to the LIV Golf Series. On August 24th they announced the launch of a new ‘high-tech golf league’ labelled the TGL, born out of a partnership between the PGA and TMRW Sports – a technology related sports company launched by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlory. The league, which debuts in 2024, will feature exclusively on Monday nights, consisting of 6 three-man teams competing in a host of stadiums, which according to McIlory, will “widen the appeal of golf to younger and more diverse fans.”
SUMMARY
As always, competition begets innovation, and from innovation, inevitably growth. Which brings us to the obvious bonus in all this: the added cash injection pumped into the sport. Professional golfers are taking home record-breaking cheques and that will only trickle down into other aspects of the sport.
With regards to the game itself, between the proposed formats by the TGL and LIV Golf, a transition from the traditional golf model to a fast-paced, data driven element to the sport, has been sparked. Admittedly a more attractive game to the younger generations, will this contemporary shift be worth the potential cost of losing the existing fans of the sport?
