Midweek Musings - Battle Stations Edition

A mid-morning start for the Wednesday game allows just enough time to blog the one story....

As discussed extensively in recent posts, a conventional wisdom emerged that the PGA Tour would issue the necessary releases to its members to play in the LIV London event in early June, because of its recent history of doing so, assuming that it would defer its defense until it was on more favorable ground.  As if Portland, OR is favorable ground for anything beyond bombing Federal courthouses.

Fortunately, one lonely blogger said, "Not so fast", or words to that effect.  Of course, I didn't know what Jay would do, I just didn't see those release as inevitable.  In fact, I included some detail on the decision criteria and even speculated that he would have the ability to treat players differently based upon their specific schedules.

Late yesterday Phil and Sergio got their answers:

"We have notified those who have applied that their request has been declined in accordance with the PGA TOUR Tournament Regulations. As such, TOUR members are not authorized to participate in the Saudi Golf League’s London event under our Regulations," PGA Tour Senior Vice President Tyler Dennis wrote to players in the memo. "As a membership organization, we believe this decision is in the best interest of the PGA TOUR and its players."

A model of brevity, it makes Geoff play with PhotoShop:

 Not one he might want on his tombstone, but the guy was on deadline...

Eamon Lynch makes the obvious point:

The PGA Tour has denied its members permission to play in the Saudi-funded golf tournament in London next month. The denials were sent to players who had sought permission late Tuesday afternoon.

It had been expected that the PGA Tour would grant waivers for the LIV Golf Invitational event near London because of a precedent allowing players limited releases for overseas events. (All members are required to seek a conflicting event release to compete in non-Tour events.)

However, it is thought the decision is based on a belief that the event in the U.K. is effectively part of a rival series. LIV Golf, which is funded by the Saudi Arabian regime, has announced a schedule of eight tournaments — the second of which is due to be played July 1-3 in Portland, Oregon — with plans for more to come.

A series you say?   LIV provided the following details on their intentions yesterday:

• Norman announced a new “infusion of $2 billion from the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia that will help launch its eight-tournament schedule this year, a 10-tournament slate in 2023 and the league, which in 2024 and 2025 will have 14 tournaments that include 12 four-man teams. Norman is in London for a promotional event tied to the first tournament.”

• This is new money on top of the initial investment that appears appears meant to show a commitment beyond this year and next but also comes with players needing to commit to a league concept starting in ‘24.

• A league concept sure goes against any kind of independent contractor situation, potentially undermining LIV’s legal case when coupled with previous Norman admissions that players are under contract.

Dylan Dethier has taken to using a call-and-response format in these matters, so let's see what he's got:

WHAT WAS LIV’S RESPONSE?

The full statement from Norman came just after 8:30 p.m. ET and reads as follows:

“Sadly, the PGA Tour seems intent on denying professional golfers their right to play golf, unless it’s exclusively in a PGA Tour tournament. This is particularly disappointing in light of the Tour’s non-profit status, where its mission is purportedly ‘to promote the common interests of professional tournament golfers.’ Instead, the Tour is intent on perpetuating its illegal monopoly of what should be a free and open market. The Tour’s action is anti-golfer, anti-fan, and anti-competitive. But no matter what obstacles the PGA Tour puts in our way, we will not be stopped. We will continue to give players options that promote the great game of golf globally.”

I'm not a lawyer, nor do  play one on TV, but it's an organization that the guys belong to at their discretion, so it's gonna have rules.  Lost in the shuffle is this bit of reality intruding:

The Tour’s article on the subject noted that the Centurion event conflicts with the PGA Tour’s RBC Canadian Open, which is being held for the first time since 2019.

LIV also sent out the Shirtless Shark to make the rounds, and we'll have some fun with that in a bit.

WHAT’S NEXT

Several things are going to happen at once.

PGA Tour pros who have been denied releases will have to determine whether they’ll respect the Tour’s decision and stay, ignore the Tour’s decision and leave or pick some sort of middle ground where they explore legal options that would allow them to play both places.

The PGA Tour itself will have to determine its specific plan for sanctioning pros who follow through on plans to play a LIV event — and ready its defenses as its non-profit status and alleged “anti-competitive” nature come under fire.

Given LIV’s particular choice of words, it seems prepared for a legal battle. The organization also needs to determine whether it can move forward with plans to announce its list of committed pros, which was expected to come as early as next week. The waivers may have once again delayed that date.

And other parties including the DP World Tour still need to determine where they stand on the matter and decide whether they, too, will deny members the ability to play at Centurion.

It’s all happening quickly now.

That means the lawyers are already hard at work.

Gee, thanks for nothing, The question was good, but a little light on details after that... In fact, to the fundamental question of what happens next, good luck finding anything above and beyond the daring, "Time will tell."

Let's make a slight digression, because the Euro Tour is yet to be heard from.  John Huggan dives into that existential decision that faced Keith Pelley in 2020:

Add all of the above together and one can understand why, according to multiple sources, Monahan has yet to speak directly with anyone authorized to represent the Saudi proposals. That

reluctance is, of course, a byproduct of the PGA Tour’s inherent strengths. It has money in abundance; it has most of the world’s top players. All of which is in compete contract to the status and strength of the DP World Tour. When, three years ago, the Raine Capital Group came close to an agreement with the European Tour on behalf of the then-Saudi-led Premier Golf League, Pelley had no alternative but to listen and seriously consider what was on the table.

In essence, that was a fork in the road for the Old World circuit. Raine came with a massive proposal, one that would have re-structured the tour and aimed to re-invent professional golf. Armed with hundreds of millions of dollars, they wanted Europe to take on America.

There were reservations about that aspect of the deal, however. Direct competition with the PGA Tour would have meant “world war” in the words of one insider. But European Tour officials were duty-bound to at least consider it, which they did, looking at it “up and down and inside out.” But they were also transparent. The PGA Tour was told what had been offered and asked to come back with a proposal that could align the two existing tours.

Monahan was quick to act. Asking for time, he took the situation to his board and came back with a counterproposal that the European Tour board accepted. The desire to avoid divisiveness and create cohesion at the sharp end of professional golf beat out the dollar signs. And the strategic alliance was born, with Monahan taking a seat on the DP World Tour board of directors. Three years on, according to more than one insider with knowledge of the new dynamic, relations between the two tours are better than ever.

Quite the bind, for sure.  Now clear is that fact that said World War will not be avoided, though the military alliances were somewhat reconfigured.  But, while Jay's hand is clearly strengthened by having the Euros in his camp, was Pelley's the best call for his tour and its members?  Kind of a tough case to make given that they are now a feeder tour for the Corn Fairy guys...

And his members seemingly get it:

The Telegraph’s James Corrigan reports that 40 players asked the DP World Tour for releases to the forthcoming London event. The deadline was Monday, May 9th and the number appears to be higher than expected.

But given the slow movement strengthening the “strategic alliance” should anyone really be surprised? We learned last week the PGA Tour is still devoting excess energy to its fall slate and and rehashing many of the same issues that have weakened their product in the wraparound/FedEx first era. The Tour was weakened trying to save those fall events and now appears to be vulnerable devoting more time to saving events that attract tiny audiences.

Forty is a staggering number, given that it's only a 48-player field.  But what's to stick around for in the House of Pelley:

“I’m 41 and I don't want to be playing golf for the rest of my working life,” says another tour player who asked not to be named. “This week [at the Betfred British Masters] we’re playing for €2 million, which is the basically the same as 15 years ago. And I have to finish in the middle of the pack to clear maybe £1,000. That’s not much, when expenses have quadrupled in that time.

“So I’m tempted. The tour doesn’t care about me. They say they do, but they don’t. If I disappeared tomorrow, it would make no difference to them. Plus, there is hypocrisy here. The Saudi event was OK for three years and now it’s not? I worry for the future of this tour. It might be here in 10 years time, but I can’t imagine it will look like it does now.”

For a top fifty player, there's only one reason to maintain Euro Tour membership, and that's to play in the Ryder Cup.  But their Ryder Cup stalwarts, Lee and Ian and Sergio, don't seem to have the slightest hesitation in spurning captaincies in order to cash those big checks.  An irony alert is required here, because didn't we copy their system?  Thanks, Phil!

As noted, they sent the Shark out to put a good face on it.  But, really, the Shark?  Yanno, Golf Channel runs all those Zip Recruiter ads, you'd think they'd have gotten better resumes:

Norman explained that his initial Invitational Series is just a beginning. "Twenty-two and 23 are our baiter years. We are a start up, basically," he said.

"I think people will realise the platform we have out there, the ability of the fans to get a better experience for the players, the stakeholders. Our production budget is mind-blowingly impressive."

Baiter?  Are you sure that's what you want to go with....  It's got all sorts of negative tinges to it, and that's before we get to the alternate spellings...

Then this, which should come with subtitles translating it as, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain":

Norman said that he understood people's concerns about the source of the money funding the tour and the human rights violations in Saudi Arabia, but added that the country was making a "cultural change from within" and that he specifically has no ties to the government.

"100 per cent [I understand]," Norman said. "And it's reprehensible what happened with [Jamal] Khashoggi. Own up to it, talk about it.

"But if you go back into Saudi Arabia, they're making a cultural change from within to change that. They don't want to have that stigma sitting over there.

"The generation of kids that I see today on the driving range, they don't want that stigma going on into generations and their kids. They want to change that culture and they are changing it.

"And you know how they're doing it? Golf."

You see, we can learn so much from Greg.  For instance, your humble blogger is a simple sort, and I'd have said that if you don't want the stigma of cutting up peoples bones, then you should perhaps stop cutting people's bones.  But golf?  Didn't see that coming...

I fear he might actually believe this:

Norman added: "I'm not going to get into politics, I don't know what the Saudi government does. I don't want to get into that. Every country has a cross to bear.

"They're not my bosses. We're independent. I do not answer to Saudi Arabia. I do not answer to their government or MBS [Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud].

"I answer to my board of directors, and MBS is not on that. Simple as that. So that narrative is untrue."

And who controls your Board?  More to the point, that $2 billion large came without any strings?  Yeah, just one word of caution, Sharkie, if you get invited to a meeting at their Istanbul embassy...

So, he's in charge, except when he's not:

Throughout the interview he insisted the primary objective is to "grow the game" and deferred to ticketing agencies for ground pass prices that start at £69.22 per day and £52 for students. By way of comparison, ticket prices for last week's British Masters at The Belfry started at £40.

"Ticket people make those decisions," he said.

So, they need you why?

What happens now?  Well, I think you'll agree that time will tell....  hey, if those getting paid for pecking at a keyboard can get away with that, why not your favorite blogger?

First, is there anyone that thinks Phil and Sergio won't be in London?  You might well add Westy and Poults to that list, but the point remains the same.  they thought they had one more Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card before Portland, but the dynamics remain the same.  We're quite obviously headed to court for some sexy antitrust litigation, so I look forward to amusing myself with that for the next decade.

There are some technical matters of whether the litigation is initiated by LIV or an affected player, but Mickelson v. Monahan has a nice ring to it, no?  But the first important issue in any litigation like this is whether there's cause for injunctive relief, i.e., will a court order the Tour to desist.  The test for that is typically based upon whether there's a likelihood that the party will succeed and whether such claims can be satisfied with cold cash, both of which seem a stretch in these circumstances.

I assume that Phil's decision about whether to show in Tulsa was deferred until we had the Tour's response here, and I'm guessing this makes him less likely to endure the circus.  This is arguable for sure, but had the Tour granted him a waiver the inevitable questions would be easier to deflect.  If he plays, not only do I need to speed read Shipnuck's bio when it drops on Tuesday, but that presser will be appointment TV.  

But on the larger issue, it seems pretty clear to this observer that Jay is winning and the Saudis are losing.  In fact, from day one, I've not actually seen a way that this effort succeeds, but it's still way too early for gloating.  I watched some of the Golf Channel coverage and this was a point that Eamon Lynch made effectively, to wit, who have they attracted?

Looks like that London event will come off with a handful of familiar names in the field.  But, while familiar, those names are hardly relevant to elite professional golf, as they're all in the twilight of their careers.  This was Norman putting a brave face on it, but notably before the rejection of the waiver requests:

According to Bob Harig at Morning Read, “LIV Golf Investments received 170 entries for the June 9-11 event at the Centurion Golf Club outside of London, with 36 ranked among the top 150 in the Official World Golf Ranking. Several amateurs, who have apparently worked out NIL (name, image and likeness) deals, will also be part of the 48-player field.”

Not a single player name was released. Norman said 19 of the top 100, and six of the top 50 are committed. Again, before releases were granted.

So, the big roll-out is upon us, and the carts take the 48 players to their assigned holes for their shotgun start, and the Saudis offer a twenty-million purse to five Champions Tour players and a bunch of rabbits and/or amateurs.  That just screams "Sustainable business plan" to me, how about you?

I think it's great that they've got fourteen events line dup for 2024, except....

On Monday afternoon LIV Golf announced its 2023-2025 schedule, with 10 events planned for next year and 14 events slated for 2024 and 2025 in the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Europe and North America. Official dates and locations were not announced.

Details, details!  Pretty funny, actually, because the entire announcement consists of Greg Norman making up two numbers.   

At this point I see a few old guys showing up in London, creating a certain kind of train-wreck press buzz.  But then they actually have to hold a golf tournament, and how does that work out?  Other than wondering whether Phil shows up with that Rancho Santa Fe beard, there's precious little to interest a golf fan, no?

So, I'm spitballin' here, but people seem to believe that these LIV events will just happen, because they're on a schedule.  While the Saudi Public Investment fund might treat that $20 million purse like I treat loose change that I find in my couch cushions, there's gonna be quite a high level of humiliation attached to the weak field in London.  I've been a skeptic about the efficacy of sportswashing, but I suspect we'll agree that it doesn't work when the event in question is laughable.  Unless the Saudis have a much better sense of humor than I sense...

My non-prediction prediction is that they don't even make it to Portland.  I'm not even 100% sure they make it to London, but the Shirtless Shark might soon have his chain of command clarified.  And, really, it couldn't happen to a more deserving chap.  Well, Phil maybe, but that's the beauty of this twofer.

I'll see you next on Friday morning, when I'm sure we'll have more on this evergreen topic.