Most of the golf world wants to know what is happening in the PGA Tour-LIV deal, or if there is even going to be a deal. PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, in his State of the Tour press conference Tuesday at THE PLAYERS, even broke the ice by starting with just that.
“The talks are real, they’re substantial, and they’re being driven at the top levels of both organizations. Those talks have been significantly bolstered by President Trump’s willingness to serve as a facilitator,” Monahan began. “President Trump is a lifelong golf fan. He believes strongly in the game’s power and potential, and he has been exceedingly generous with his time and influence to help bring a deal together.”
Additionally, Monahan continued, Trump wants to see the game reunified, just as the PGA Tour does.
“We appreciate Yasir's (Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund) innovative vision, and we can see a future where we welcome him onto our board and work together to move the global game forward,” Monahan added.
He said the PGA Tour is doing everything it can to bring both sides together and that the Tour is committed to reunification.
While conversations are good, creating a new “wing” or a new part or even a second season of golf that would include PIF ideas, still has to happen on a timetable that includes the planning in place on the PGA Tour.
The PGA Tour, after all, has contracts with numerous tournaments that are in the middle of five- and 10-year spans. Those can’t just be upended. Certainly Yasir Al-Rumayyan understands that. They have contracts for LIV tournaments and players that have to be honored as well.
For example, the PGA Tour has been busy, as always, with sponsorships. In the last three weeks, the Tour has signed agreements with Valspar, 3M, Anheuser-Busch, Delta and Morgan Stanley. Valspar, 3M and Morgan Stanley are for renewed tournament sponsorships. Truist (replacing Wells Fargo) and Baycurrent (replacing ZoZo) came on board as sponsors when other organizations dropped out.
In addition, there were also extensions signed with Coca-Cola, which is a presenting sponsor for the Tour Championship. And RSM and Hero MotoCorp added to their current agreements.
“The strength in those announcements and the commitment that they’re making says an awful lot about the complete platform of the PGA Tour,” Monahan said. “I just want to say that, on behalf of the players, we're all very grateful for that.”
New sponsorships aren’t the only topics that fill Monahan’s calendar. They are taking a look at the format of the Tour Championship, as some people still seem unsatisfied with the way outcome is reached. If there’s a golf god, we have to hope she doesn’t allow match play as the result. It never turns out the way you want it to. Phil Mickelson never plays Tiger Woods. Jack Nicklaus never plays Arnold Palmer. Sam Snead never plays Ben Hogan.
Other items on the commissioner’s plate include S—L—O—W play. The Tour is preparing to get a handle on measuring players, but what will happen as a result remains to be seen. It will only be on Korn Ferry and PGA Tour Americas for starters.
Mark Russell, a longtime rules official for the Tour, now retired, explained it the best way in an interview for The Golf Show 2.0. Summarizing, he said that the reason play is slow is that the fields are too big to fit on a golf course. The 144- and 156-player fields leave golfers waiting after they play nine holes. In addition, a lot of golfers can reach the par 5s in two, causing back-ups as groups wait for the green to clear ahead of them.
Russell also pointed to what he called the dance players do on each green before putts are hit, which means the amount of time it takes for Aim Point or other putting analysis before each stroke.
However, one improvement may happen after use of rangefinders, which will be allowed at PGA Tour events between the Masters and the PGA Championship. The results should be interesting.
There was much discussion on commercial interruption in telecasts, which, when you think about it, is silly. It is commercial TV. The telecasts as pay-per-view are probably economically unreasonable. People would object more to that. Commercials, sponsors, tournaments, etc., it’s all a part of the whole ball of wax that is televised sports. One just hopes that the producers of each telecast pick the best time for an interruption.
So, while we will all have to wait a little longer for the answer to the potential LIV merger, once it is done, or once people in charge decide not to do it, the topic can be closed. That, at least, is something. And in the interim, the PGA Tour is heading down the road to its future, with or without LIV.
