After reading the latest X post from No Laying Up this morning, well, there was nothing else for it… time to hit the keyboard and fire up the ol’ website.
There’s been plenty of hot takes around LIV, but this one was a doozy.
It’s so wrong on so many fronts, it’s almost hard to know where to start.
LIV Golf may be many things, but it’s been nothing but a success in Australia and great for the game down there.
As for finding a better way to get the PIF involved in professional golf, well, perhaps we need to go back to the start & see just how we’ve ended up here.
Where to start?
OK, let’s start at the beginning.
PIF did want to get involved with the traditional organisers of men’s professional golf and were involved with the European Tour for a number of years.
You may remember an event called the Saudi International.
That started life as a fully sanctioned European Tour event. The Saudi International from 2019 to 2021 was presented by the Saudi Golf Federation (SGF) as part of the European Tour ‘Race To Dubai’ schedule. Since 2022 it’s been presented as an Asian Tour event but that’s another story.
You may be interested to know who was the chairman of the SGF at the time.
Here’s a quote from a European Tour press release announcing the new event:
H.E. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Chairman of the Saudi Golf Federation commented: “This is a very important weekend for us as we mark the opening of our new world-class golf facilities at the Royal Greens Golf and Country Club. At the same time, we are very proud to announce that our inaugural Tour event in January 2019 will welcome both the number one player in the world, Dustin Johnson and the champion of the year’s first Major, Patrick Reed. Together with Paul Casey, we already have three of the World’s top 15 players confirmed, along with Ryder Cup Captain Thomas Bjorn, which is only the start of our player announcements!”
Read more at http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/news/newsid=346396.html#4Z73xI4UBwwdQOXq.99
H.E Yasir is the same Yasir who runs the PIF, and by default LIV, but you may know him as Andrew Waterman.
Keith Pelly, head of the Europen Tour, was quoted in the same release as saying:
Keith Pelley, Chief Executive of the European Tour, said:
“We are a global Tour and this is an exciting opportunity for us to play in a new country which has a strong focus on golf as part of its vision for the future. Our thanks go to His Royal Majesty, Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud for this vision, and to the Saudi Arabia General Sports Authority, the Saudi Arabian Golf Federation and everyone at the Royal Greens Golf and Country Club and the King Abdullah Economic City for their commitment to this inaugural tournament.
Read more at http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/news/newsid=346396.html#4Z73xI4UBwwdQOXq.99
Everything is sounding pretty cosy & unified in 2019, so what went wrong?
Keith & Yasir back in 2018, yukking it up after agreeing to work together…
The Saudi International event was just the start of their involvement in professional golf, the Saudi’s wanted more.
As part of a larger push to diversify their economy away from oil, much in the same manner as the UAE, the Saudis wanted to become a larger part of professional golf, both men’s and ladies’, and by default, the European Tour.
At a three-day Future Investment Forum held in Riyad in 2019, the Saudi’s unveiled their plans for a deeper involvement in the profession game.
During the FII event (the Saudis really do like acronyms), Pelly was quoted as saying “Golf Saudi wants to use the game to transform the country and there is no question that Saudi Arabia is at the forefront of helping us to develop the game”.
From here, we get into rumour and innuendo as not much has been commented on publicly, but there were backroom negotiations taking place around this time
From reliable sources with knowledge of events, the Saudi and European Tour management teams met to discuss a deepening of the relationship with the European Tour.
SGF, via the PIF, would invest in 10 tournaments on the European Tour played around the globe, creating a ‘tour within a tour’ concept. Players would be able to move freely between each ‘tour’, and qualify to play in the big-money Saudi events via good play on the Euro Tour. Oh, and a team element was proposed also.
Basically, we’re talking about a proposal for a 10-event LIV-type schedule incorporated within the structure of the European Tour. The Saudi International event would be the centrepiece, with the other events fanning out over the year from there.
Word on the street (from a couple of players with knowledge of the situation) was that the European Tour management were very bullish on the deal. It is/was well known that the European Tour derived much of their revenue from the Ryder Cup and in non-Ryder Cup years was struggling to pay the bills.
The potential funding from the Saudis was seen as a lifeline and a way to ensure the financial stability of the European Tour for several years (a 10-year partnership was proposed).
Around the same time, an investment group called Raine Capital were floating the idea of a Premier Golf League and also held discussions with European Tour management. The PGA Tour decided enough was enough and stepped in to announce a joint funding arrangement under what it called a ‘Strategic Alliance’. According to Golf Week,
The historic alliance announced Friday between the PGA Tour and European Tour came after months of tense negotiations, and fended off a rival bid to take a stake in the European circuit by the private equity group fronting the Premier Golf League, multiple sources have confirmed to Golfweek.
After 2 (maybe 3?) years of negotiating with the European Tour only to be left out in the cold, what would you do if you were the head of a $700Billion investment fund?
LIV Golf was launched as a stand-alone tour just 18 months later.
What about Australian Pro Golf then?
Australians are probably the group of people most easily aligned with LIV.
There’s none of the angst you see in the US around ‘where’s the money coming from?’ and Australians are generally happy to see a great sporting event in their backyard. Plus, they really like sticking it to the rest of the world.
There’s a myriad of reasons for this position as it relates specifically to pro golf, and I’ll try and explain here:
1. We used to have a Tour
The Australian Tour was traditionally played in the summer months, from October to February, and was anywhere from 12 to 15 events. There was also 3 ‘majors’… the Australian Open, Australian PGA and Australian Masters.
Events were scheduled to mainly cover the months the PGA Tour & European Tour weren’t playing, so all the local boys could come home & play & there’d also be a smattering of international stars making the journey for a couple of the larger events (usually with the lure of a hefty upfront appearance money fee). All events were televised on free-to-air TV, too.
The Aussie Tour was big in the 1980’s and 90’s. No, really, it was.
In 1988, Australia’s Rodger Davis held off Fred Couples in a playoff at Royal Melbourne to win the Bicentennial Classic and take home the $500,000 winners cheque (yes, you read that correctly)
By comparison, only one event on the PGA Tour had a bigger purse that year.
The order of merit was a who’s-who of talent and Australian major champions. And all played a full schedule of event
That continued for the better part of two decades, until the wheels kinda feel off around the mid 2000’s.
Here’s what the Order of Merit looked like in 2006.
I dunno, but $500K for playing pro golf in OZ seems OK to me.
There’s an idea that get’s floated around that there’s ‘no money down there’ which is, quite frankly, bullshit.
The Australian Tour was predicated on a couple of big names returning for the larger events, padding the field out with a couple of well-known international players and allowing the local talent to develop and flourish.
Greg Norman was obviously central to that, and brought with him eyeballs, interest and dollars for the better part of two decades.
Because the events were (mostly) televised on free-to-air TV, local guys had the chance to become stars in their own right and all this developed a healthy roster of emerging Australian ‘stars’.
The tour was strong enough that guys could develop their games and earn a solid living playing in Australia, then push out to the international tours when time allowed. It was a ladder… play well in Australia, go to Asia, then Europe and hopefully onto the US.
Here’s a list of Aussies who won on the US Tour from 1980-2006:
David Graham, Greg Norman, Wayne Grady, Ian Baker-Finch, Steve Elkington, Craig Parry, Brett Ogle, Robert Allenby, Stuart Appleby, Adam Scott, Geoff Oglivy, John Senden
Several more won in Europe too:
Graham Marsh, Terry Gale, Roger Davis, Mike Harwood, Noel Ratcliffe, Mike Clayton, Mike Harwood, Peter Fowler, Wayne Riley, Stephen Leaney, Nick O’Hern, Jarrod Mosley, Scott Strange, Terry Price, Richard Green
As well, Australian pros won in Asia, Japan and the Ben Hogan/Nationwide/Korn Ferry Tour.
2. What changed?
In a word, money.
Professional golfers play the game for money, and will play wherever that money is greatest.
As the prize money in the US has grown through the Tiger era, that meant the US became the most desirable place to play professional golf.
Tell me all you want how it’s all about the legacy, depth of field, and the history and the prestige of the events that made the US so desirable, but bottom line, no one from Australia is that interested in the historical significance of winning the Westchester Classsic… it was for the big cheque and the doors that win would open.
If the lure of legacy on the US PGA Tour was so strong, they wouldn’t have had to match the prize money offered by LIV, and certainly, TGL wouldn’t exist. This was only done to stave off what those running the PGA Tour know only too well… without matching the purses, most of their stars would have already left for LIV and the higher purses on offer.
The reason Australian events could get the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Arnold Palmer, Tiger, Jordan Speith, etc. to play in the past was simple… the appearance money fee was a great way to top up yearly earnings and made the trip worthwhile. It wasn’t about legacy either.
Once the big prize money came into play, it became harder to make those appearance money cheques big enough to make a difference, so no one wants to travel.
There’s plenty of financial support in Australia for pro golf, but it has to make sense. The current environment makes that difficult.
3. What about a PIF-sponsored Australian Open then?
Chris ‘Soly’ Solomon suggested that the Saudis should fold up LIV and just pour some money into the Australian Open.
Interestingly, LIV CEO Scott O’Neil mentioned on the recent broadcast that they would like to have a discussion with Golf Australia about supporting the event and potentially moving the date to follow LIV (thereby making it easier for some of the LIV players to play).
What hasn’t been widely reported is that PIF’s original plan for Australia was to have one LIV event and play an International Series event in Australia in the weeks before & after.
Makes sense.
In a similar story to that of the European Tour from a few years earlier, LIV’s the PGA Tour intervened and asked the PGA Tour of Australia not to co-sanction the International Series events.
