If Plato is right, numbers are the highest form of knowledge. But they are also the lowest for social media gobdaws, whose fanciful, yet now reliable figures are considered repeatable. Consider the $600,000,000 widely “reported”, as the contract value for Jon Rahm with LIV. This sum was nothing but speculative slobbering that was amplified anonymously by aggregators. Then, traditional media outlets were happy to use unsourced rumor for traffic. It’s a shame that historians will have to differentiate between eyewitnesses and ‘I heards’ in the future.
Even though golf media is fading, headlines that are dominated by commas only tell us the approximate cost of weapons and not how the landscape will be after the truce. Despite the uncertainty in golf as we close the curtains on 2023, the year ’24 will reveal its future shape. It will be largely defined by a number which is unarousingly low: 25, or somewhere around that number — the number of weekly hours that elite players will work every year.
The PGA Tour’s negotiations with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia focus more on practicality rather than philosophy. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of PIF and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia is known to be passionate about team golf (and not just LIV) in general. He wants it to play a major role in the future. The structure that emerges must be global and include Saudi Arabia. Al-Rumayyan will not pay to be bypassed, and he’ll need to show the Crown Prince what he’s got.
The ramifications are huge. If you want to accommodate all the desired components — four majors and the Players Tour, a few premier PGA Tour events, a scattering outside the United States, and a couple of team events — then it’s necessary to create a circuit above the existing tours. Regular tournaments will have a hard time attracting elite fields. Sponsors paying penthouse rates for events that may appear to be ground floor. Media partners are expected to spend another $6 billion through 2030 on a Tour product that will no longer exist. Players who want change don’t have to wait for years to reap their rewards. Even if a reimagined version of the product was improved, the Tour would still lose a huge amount of revenue. This loss will be felt by the entire membership. It’s no wonder that journeymen are circulating a petition to demand accountability from executives, who now only have to answer to the highest strata of stars.
What if players and Saudis want more? Who says that the PGA Tour is where elite men’s sport will end?
Viktor Hovland recently criticised the Tour leadership, saying “the management hasn’t done a great job.” They almost see players as labor. What happens if stars feel empowered to expand the definition of “management”, beyond Jay Monahan?
They may believe that their sense of entitlement and power will allow them to change the majors, as well as demand a larger share of revenue. According to multiple sources, a leading player told Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley that the Masters should pay more money to its competitors last year. It is not impossible that a new entity with capital would buy the Ryder Cup away from the PGA of America. This is what the DP World Tour does with legacy associations on the other side of the pond. The Ryder Cup represents the most important asset that Europe can bring to the table. The addition of ownership for the American side would be very attractive, since the players who make up the teams are likely to have equity in the joint venture. If the players decide that they should receive ownership in the Cup instead of being paid, the long-running dispute over whether or not team members should get paid for their labor could be moot.
It is a generous assumption to think that al-Rumayyan wants nothing more than a seat at the top table of golf. Al-Rumayyan could end up having a significant stake in all major events if players continue to assert themselves, backed by his billions.
The men’s golf power dynamic has changed irreversibly and profoundly. In the coming months, we will learn more about the structure of the new system. But it is clear that the dominant players will like the changes. It might be worthwhile at some point to consider whether this is a positive change.
