Documents Show How the PGA Tour Sought to Strengthen Alliance With DP World Tour and Push Back Against LIV Golf
Before shockingly entering into an agreement last month to foster peace, the PGA Tour vigorously fought the LIV Golf League by seeking to strengthen its alliance with the DP World Tour, thereby gaining more access to Ryder Cup profits while also using strategic talking points to push back against what was viewed as Saudi Arabia’s threat to golf.
In documents spanning 357 pages that were part of a Florida lawsuit and recently made publicly available were revelations that the PGA Tour tried to facilitate the buyout of sports agency IMG’s stake in the European Tour Group by seeking private loans to cover a forecasted loss at the start of the deal.
First obtained and reported on by the Twitter account @desertdufferLLG, the documents were viewed in their entirety by Sports Illustrated via the 15th Judicial Circuit Court in Palm Beach County, Fla.
They provide insight in the Tour’s fierce fight against LIV Golf—including providing talking points to Tiger Woods as part of a town hall meeting in which it hoped to have him speak to players—but stand as a contrast now to the Tour's attempt to work with the backers of LIV instead of against them.
The PGA Tour declined to comment. The documents were made public as part of an antitrust suit brought against the PGA Tour by attorney Larry Klayman, who has been seeking class-action status on behalf of golf fans who he believes were being denied access to the best golfers competing against each other due to the Tour’s restrictions placed on LIV golfers.
Despite finding the European Tour Group an "underinvested and borderline distressed asset," the PGA Tour wanted to enhance the relationship in order to further strengthen itself against the LIV Golf threat while also seeking monetary gain through the Ryder Cup, of which the DP World Tour (formerly European Tour) holds an 60% stake in the half run by Ryder Cup Europe. (The PGA of America owns the other 50 percent of the Ryder Cup.)
"Eighteen months ago we entered into our Strategic Alliance with the European Tour Group (ETG) and successfully blocked the then Saudi-backed PGL (Premier Golf League) from gaining control," said one Tour member in June 2022, referencing the agreement reached with the European Tour in late 2020.
"On the opportunity front, the PGA Tour is now in position to simplify and streamline the flow of talent through a coordinated global schedule. It is also poised to gain ownership of (and the substantial financial upside related to) the European plays of the Ryder Cup—one of the most prestigious and prospected events in all of golf."
The PGA Tour and DP World Tour last year announced that the top 10 players on the DP World Tour’s season-ending "Race to Dubai" points list—not otherwise exempt—would gain exempt status on the PGA Tour. Because the PGA Tour plays for considerably more money than the DP World Tour, the move was viewed as setting up the London-based circuit as a feeder tour for the American-based circuit—but thus depleting the European circuit of talent.
As recently as June 2021, DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley was talking to Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, despite the alliance with the PGA Tour, in order to facilitate more cooperation. This was less than six months before LIV Golf was announced.
The PGA Tour and the DP World Tour had an agreement on schedule changes before players on either circuit were informed of them, including the move to make the Genesis Scottish Open—played the week prior to the British Open—a co-sanctioned event. Some players on the PGA Tour Policy Board resisted some schedule changes, including the one for the Scottish Open, that also saw the Barbasol Championship become co-sanctioned. Monahan drafted emails for each of the independent directors on the Policy Board in an effort to get the players to agree.
By gaining control of the European side of the Ryder Cup, the Tour would be in for a hefty revenue boost; the Ryder Cup all but subsidizes the DP World Tour over a four-year period for each biennial event played in Europe; the circuit loses money in non-Ryder Cup years.
As it stands, the PGA Tour is paid a percentage of the television rights negotiated by the PGA of America, but has been largely left out of the lucrative event.
A little more than a year ago, LIV Golf played its first event outside of London, the first of eight to be staged in 2022 offering $25 million purses (with $50 million at the season-ending team event) after poaching several past major champions including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia. It later added Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Cam Smith.
Those players were given equity stakes as captains in LIV’s team structure as well as, in many cases, nine-figure up-front bonus payments.
The launch of LIV Golf and the subsequent defection of some top players prompted the PGA Tour to set up strict rules prohibiting any player from doing both. The Tour said that players who participated in LIV Golf events were in violation of the conflicting events rules that required members to seek permission to play in events opposite PGA Tour events; the Tour has never granted such releases for domestic events.
Players who remained members were immediately suspended and eventually memberships were rescinded. An original group of 11 players ended up suing the PGA Tour on anti-competitive grounds, which LIV Golf later became part of and the players eventually dropped out.
The documents include talking points for PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan that were to be part of a June 21, 2022, player town hall at the Travelers Championships in which he was to "explain how the LIV Golf Series is a threat to your livelihood, your business and the game of golf as a whole" and how punishments for those who went to LIV Golf would be handled.
"You should know, I’m fielding the same calls from across out industry and beyond—our media partners, our corporate partners, our title sponsors, host organizations, politicians from both sides of the aisle—everyone is with us," Monahan was to say in the meeting. "They’re all raising their hands and offering to do whatever it takes to see the PGA Tour through this threat."
Among Monahan’s talking points are his conversation with Tiger Woods, who according to the plan for the meeting was to talk to the players personally.
The Tour put together talking points for Woods as if he were to be there to address the players. He was to ask Tour staff to leave the room before delivering his remarks. Among them, it had Woods saying that "I think that Jay is working his ass off" and that "he’s the right guy for this war. He’s a fighter."
"But this is a dire situation," Woods was scripted to say. “LIV Golf is trying to take down the PGA Tour and take over golf."
And later: “We have to actively participate in defending the PGA Tour. It’s time to join the fight. Some of you are doing that. I love Rory (McIlroy) sticking it to (LIV commissioner) Greg Norman in Canada ... but that’s what our fans need to hear—that we are not going to give this Tour away—not to a group that thinks 54-hole shotguns are something to be proud of."
The scripting then has Woods saying that the PGA Tour cannot compete in an "arms race" and that no strategic alliance or higher purses can "match the Saudis’ endless buckets of money."
And: "Unfortunately, 20 of our former members have given them a head start. They’ve chosen a sh-t-ton of money over this Tour, everything it’s given them and everything it stands for. It makes me sick and I hope it makes you sick, too."
Later, Woods is scripted to ask the group what they can do. "First, do what I did: tell the Saudis to go f--- themselves. And mean it. Second, tell the world—over and over any chance you get—that you will be sticking with the PGA Tour because you are part of something bigger than yourself."
Tiger Woods said Sunday on social media that he did not attend the players meeting at the Travelers and had never seen the talking points until Sunday.
Now, the Tour is in position be partners with the same people who funded LIV Golf. The surprising announcement on June 6 of a "framework agreement" between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia caught everyone off guard.
Only Monahan and PGA Tour Policy Board members Ed Hirlihy and Jimmy Dunne were in on negotiations with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the PIF which funds LIV Golf.
McIlroy was unaware a deal had been made until just before it was announced. Woods has yet to comment. Many PGA Tour players have expressed their concern about such an arrangement being discussed without their knowledge.
Later last year, Woods was part of a player-meeting that he and McIlroy led in Wilmington, Del., site of the BMW Championships. It was there that they outlined a plan for a series of designated events with bigger purses and, eventually, no cuts.
It was viewed as a way to keep PGA Tour players from leaving and also seen as a nod to LIV Golf, which forced the PGA Tour into action.
Now it appears the PGA Tour overreached. The $20 million purses for designated events are a strain on title sponsors. The $140 million that was paid out last year and this year via the Player Impact Program (PIP) has been a drain on Tour reserves. So was the some $50 million in legal fees that Monahan said the Tour has needed to fight the LIV threat.
The framework deal calls for the PGA Tour non-profit entity known as PGA Tour Inc. to remain as-is. A separate for-profit organization called PGA Tour Enterprises would have both DP World Tour and PIF involvement. What remains of LIV Golf—which will play its ninth event of the year this week outside of London—remains to be determined.