www.bunkered.co.uk
Slightly odd letter from DLIII (I thought)
Seems like open letters are in fashion at the moment!
Davis Love III calls for patience from PGA Tour players over Saudi merger | bunkered.co.uk
Davis Love III is calling for patience from PGA Tour players following the shock so-called merger with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
Never been tempted to book your holiday and use Netjets for your private flightsDon't know anything about them to be honest! Sponsors on golfers shirts in general don't really relate to little old me
Never been tempted to book your holiday and use Netjets for your private flights
Slightly odd letter from DLIII (I thought)
Seems like open letters are in fashion at the moment!
Davis Love III calls for patience from PGA Tour players over Saudi merger | bunkered.co.uk
Davis Love III is calling for patience from PGA Tour players following the shock so-called merger with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
He did make a rod for his own back with previous statements. It will be interesting to see what happens.
nolayingup.com
I’m really surprised that the LiV PR team hadn’t already posted this given the jubilation a few weeks ago when the
First look at the PIF, PGA Tour framework agreement | No Laying Up
A few takeaways from the framework agreement signed by the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi PIF
A key thing - looks like the PGAT will be the controlling body
The part about the PGA Tour retaining control of the NewCo appears to be correct.
Much was made about Jimmy Dunne’s claims that the deal struck was one that would bring a cash infusion to the PGA Tour and DP World Tour without the tours giving up control over how the money was spent. Based on language in the framework agreement, that appears to be what the PIF has signed on for.
“The PGA Tour will at all times maintain a controlling voting interest in NewCo and PIF will continue to hold a non-controlling voting interest, notwithstanding any incremental investment by PIF or exercise of its right of first refusal.”
I guess that’s why Norman hasn’t been involved
And also their take on the future of LIV
“
We still don’t know what’s going to happen to LIV Golf.
The framework agreement spells out that the three golf entities will continue to co-exist. Let’s look at the exact language:
“NewCo will undertake a full and objective empirical data-driven evaluation of LIV and its prospects and potential and will make a good faith assessment of the benefits of team golf in general, and PIF, the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour will work together in an effort to determine how best to integrate team golf into PGA Tour and DP World Tour events going forward.”
In our opinion, this could be taken three ways. After the 2023 LIV Golf season:
• The NewCo will evaluate the P&L of LIV Golf – an entity that pays for TV coverage, costs hundreds of millions of dollars a year and brings in almost zero revenue – and decide to kill it and fold the players back into the PGA Tour/DP World Tour.
• The NewCo will decide that the team golf model – now with all of the world’s best players at its disposal – would unlock untold amounts of new revenue and serves as a better way to run men’s professional golf. This would require totally blowing up the existing Tour system and all of its infrastructure, including the billions of dollars in committed contractual revenue from title sponsors and media partners, which stretches into the next decade. This seems unlikely.
• Due to the P&L exercise above, the NewCo decides to shutter LIV Golf and comes up with a totally different team concept. Picture a mini team event series in the fall (which has been talked about in the past), a reviving of the World Cup of Golf (which has been dormant since 2018, when the likes of Gary Woodland and Matt Kuchar were the players willing to travel to China to represent the United States. A worldwide event like that, free of the constraints of the Olympic committee’s love of stroke play, with purses to draw the best players from each country, seems like a far more interesting option than much of what else has been presented.
What seems least likely based on the framework agreement and the statements made the past few weeks by most key stakeholders, would be that LIV and the PGA/DP World Tours continue to operate independently and run concurrently as they do now. There is perhaps a chance that they run separately in different times of the year, but with the top players' continued pleas to consolidate the schedule and play fewer tournaments, it seems next to impossible to get enough critical mass to make both products successful.”
I agree they have not merged.
