How do you spell Premier Golf League: GREED.
It’s that simple. This is a corporate raid on a well established, thriving business. 
A group of moneyed men (most identities still unknown) have pooled their resources and tied them to a new and exclusive pro golf format that would upend the pro game as we know it.
The principles and founding premise of the proposed Premier Golf League are:
- Make money for the investors.
- Make money for some TV broadcast outlets.
- Make money for a small grouping of elite professional golfers.
And the hell with anyone else.
I’ve got nothing against the basic notion of entrepreneurial capitalism but that impulse must be aimed and committed to delivering value while improving upon the status quo in a meaningful way.
If successful, the PGL would likely fill the coffers of it’s investors, Fox Sports and a handful of players.
But what about improvement of the status quo?
And what would be the effect on the PGA Tour, the European Tour and the other professional golf associations around the world?
Right now the best players in the world have playing opportunities every week of the year. Many players shuffle schedules with a mixture of PGA Tour and European Tour events. All of the four majors are co-sanctioned by the two major tours and combined with the co-sanctioned World Golf Championships, the best players on all tours are showcased to the world on a regular basis.
Both major tours have expanded significantly in recent years. Purses are much higher in the post Tiger Woods Era. Geographical diversity is far flung, as tournaments are held on six continents. New venues and sponsors are regularly added, as there is some inevitable churn in a such a high stakes enterprise.
Yet, there remains, as a core entity, a huge body of familiarity in the pro game. The continuity of returning year upon year to many of the best courses in the world is a great attraction and builds fan loyalty.
And this continuity fits into the greater need of historical perspective that the game of golf has in spades. This game hails from the Middle Ages and although it’s changed and adapted through the years, this connection with the past is a vital and enduring element in our allegiance to the pro game.
Golf is a game of numbers. 72 is par, a grail all we hackers pursue, mostly in an unrequited fashion.
18 is a standard of excellence that defines the best of the best, a champions standard set by our greatest sportsmen and one that has spurred on the greatest talent the golf world has ever seen.
83 is a record of endurance that ties this current generation of players to a great of the game who was born in 1912.
These numbers will lose their significance going forward if the very vehicles that established pro golf in the past century and a half are pillaged to fatten the pockets of some banking magnets and Saudi oil sheikhs.
As Jaime Diaz stated on Saturday’s edition of Morning Drive, players are in a position of “choosing money over legacy.” Diaz went on to characterize the PGL challenge as “This is war.”
It is war, a direct challenge to pro golf as we know it.
Some players are now speaking out, among them Rory McIlroy and Bubba Watson. Both of these stars have opted out of the PGL. Bubba was quite eloquent in stating his affinity and affection for the PGA Tour as a place that has been extremely good to him. Rory’s statement centered on his ability to rule his own career and not be dictated to by some governing corporate entity.
To date, most of the games elite players haven’t committed, in public, at least, one way or the other. I assume that a well orchestrated campaign is now underway to persuade a critical number of top pro’s to jump ship.
My guess is that the PGL plunderers need to get a handful of the top 10 players in the world to defect en masse.
Players that make that jump will be doing so in a straight financial calculation.
They’ll be turning their backs on organizations that have created a wonderfully lucrative forum for their particular talents to make a great living.
They’ll be dismissing the need and relevance of the charitable giving bedrock that is the PGA Tour.
They’ll be discarding the rich competitive history of the world’s finest game.
And they’ll be signing away their ability to govern their own professional lives in exchange for a guaranteed pay check.
It’s a bum deal for golf and golf fans.
My hope is that the players see it that way.
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