The world of sports never sleeps. At a time when we would normally be talking about the NBA and NHL Finals, the world is talking about yesterday’s shocking announcement regarding the LIV/PGA Tour merger. There is a lot to unpack here and we will cover it all for you as it unfolds. Let’s first cover the winners and losers so far in the shocking announcement.
Winners:
- The Sport Of Golf: After a year and a half of separation, it looks like the best players in the world will compete against each other under one umbrella starting next year. That is good for golf. While it was entertaining to follow the bickering between both golf tours, fans of golf have to be excited that the most skilled players on earth will again compete against each other on a regular basis. That’s good for golf fans and for the sport.
- Jay Monohan: There’s nothing like making an announcement that automatically promotes yourself. Jay Monahan is essentially the czar of global golf starting next year. The new golf entity, which is for-profit and has not been named, will be led by the former PGA Tour commissioner. Details will emerge about his responsibilities and the increase in salary, but Monahan just became a lot more important in the world of professional sports.
- The LIV Tour Players: Like an early-stage venture capital investor who just struck it rich, the LIV Tour players are no doubt celebrating today. They were paid immense sums of money to join the LIV Tour, but the trade-off was they were no longer PGA Tour members. Essentially, they left a monopolistic blue-chip company for a new start-up. They got paid handsomely, and are getting reabsorbed into the PGA Tour. They look like very smart investors as we stand here today.
Losers:
- PGA Tour Players: The PGA Tour players were clearly blindsided by the announcement yesterday. Although a lot of the public bickering had died down in recent months, there was still some animosity and more than a little jealousy at the amount of money the LIV Tour players were making. This was exacerbated by the dominant success of the LIV Tour players in the two most recent majors. Essentially, the PGA players who remained loyal to the tour missed out on a massive liquidity opportunity only to find out that their loyalty was not honored. My sense is there will be some kind of restitution made to these players, but as of now, they look like the biggest losers in this merger.
- Greg Norman: As it appears today, Greg Norman will not likely be included in the new venture, but let’s call this a TBD. If Norman is included, he has no doubt made an enormous amount of money and will keep payroll within the new entity. If this merger causes his outsing, Norman will likely be out of a job and find himself on TV talking a lot over the next six months.
This is obviously a developing story and we will cover it all here on Only Players.
Photo credits: Brooks Koepka’s Instagram, Shutterstock
