The biggest news (in my judgement) from last weeks European Tour stop in Saudi Arabia centered around Phil Mickelson and his band of pro-am partners in the Wednesday fund raising round prior to tournament play.
Phil was hooked up with some money men who are reportedly the principals in a new move to establish a brand new professional golf entity that would directly compete with both the PGA Tour and the European Tour.
My first thought upon reading this was that Phil has come to the realization that he’s no longer competitive on the regular tour and that he was looking for a new revenue stream other than moving up (or down) to The PGA Champions Tour.
Regardless of the state of Mickelson’s game, this concept of a compact schedule, with an elite field, guaranteed money (as in no cut) and some kind of team play format has piqued the attention of a number of the game’s best current players.
As far as I understand, the PGL would enlist 48 players (determined by OWGR?) in a schedule of eighteen 54 hole, no cut tournaments. Each event (save the final championship) would have a $10 million purse with $2million going to the winner. If you’re in the lucky 48, then you automatically qualify for a nice pay day, irrespective of the quality of play.
Bob Harig, senior writer at ESPN, has a good piece on the PGL at ESPN.com.
There are always money men looking to get into the world of sport since sports marketing is such a lucrative global enterprise. But I doubt they would get much traction in pro golf if they didn’t have the ear and interest of a number of elite players and their agents. And it seems they do have that.
Unbeknown to me, there appears to be a strain of thinking going round that the top pro golfers in the world are under compensated. Also, some seem to object to the play-for-pay format of the PGA Tour which prohibits appearance fee payments and requires a player to make the cut each week or go home empty handed.
“Top Players” might only earn compensation on a par with an average, nobody knows his name touring pro in the current PGA Tour structure if they have a less than stellar year. This apparently offends some of those “Top Players”. But not me. I think it’s one of the truly unique aspects of pro golf – you need to bring it every week, no coasting if you want a payday.
Jay Monahan and Scott Pelley, the directors of the two most important, powerful professional tours have given notice to their members that they see the PGL as incompatible with membership in either the PGA Tour or the European Tour.
So the gauntlet has been thrown.
The intricacies of how this would all work – how players qualify for inclusion, how that changes during the season, how it effects world golf rankings, etc.- are a mystery now. I’m sure with the commitment of a proven nucleus of golf’s shakers and movers, all those details would be worked out.
The world of pro golf would be incredibly altered if this goes ahead. There are many questions that would be raised concerning the history, traditions and legacy of the game and it’s great players.
The founding of the Premier Golf League could be the most disruptive development in pro golf since touring pros split from the PGA of America and subsequently formed the PGA Tour.
One major difference in the intent and effect of that move compared to the PGL is that the PGA Tour was committed to providing an opportunity for a large number of touring pros to make a decent living while the PGL is focused on a relatively small number of already elite players.
That elite group would become an investment vehicle for a a small band of one per-centers.
There are many other aspects of the PGL/PGA Tour conflict worth debating. We’ll come back to the subject in the coming days.
So, do we need a Premier Golf League? Some might think so. I don’t.
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