Breaking - PGA Tour and LIV MERGE

and it appears we weren't the only ones kept in the dark

 
Shocking as all hell, I wouldn't have thought this remotely possible nor plausible.
 
Smart. Nothing good was going to come from open warfare with each other. Everybody wins.
 
And just to clarify my drive-by post, I'm only talking from a pro-golf standpoint. The PGA won't be able to escape criticism - given that they themselves tried to use 9/11 and the families of victims as pawns to shuttle the whole LIV effort. So those calling out the utter hypocrisy of now embracing them in a partnership are justified.

But the whole 'doing business with the Saudi's is evil and an affront' thing is a little simplistic. It's not that different from arguing other countries should shun the US because of all our school shooters and serial killers. Our own 9/11 commission did not find any evidence that the Saudi government sponsored or supported the 9/11 attacks - at least that's my understanding.

The analysts with all of the faux outrage and grandstanding on sports radio and TV are engaging in quite a bit of hyperbole as if 'The Saudi's' is some monolithic group. If there are LIV owners who there is evidence sympathized, supported, or funded the 9/11 attacks, that's entirely different, but I haven't seen anything like that - just a lot of innuendo and, for lack of a better word, what sounds to me like xenophobia.
 
It’s only about money. It’s always only about money.

‘Some defenders of LIV golfers have pointed out that the players were only making a choice to prioritize personal interests over moral ones in partnering with the Saudis – a calculus that mirrored decades of US foreign policy. Indeed, President Joe Biden had called on the 2020 campaign trail for the kingdom to be treated as a “pariah” because of Khashoggi’s murder only to travel to the kingdom as president to fist-bump MBS when he needed a spike in oil price production to bring down American gas prices.’
 
It’s not just about greed though. It’s becoming apparent that the PGA both in terms of having to compete with astronomical LIV purses and the exorbitant costs of continuous litigation, was not going to be sustainable. From accounts I’m reading they were being bankrupted. It was find a way to work with LIV or potentially fail. In that context it may have been the only real option regardless of how unpopular it was.

If the PGA failed it was probably not recognizing over the past decade that ignoring the desires of your most important assets - star players - would put you at risk for something like this. Then once the threat became real, demonizing your rival and any players lured away by them. That strategy was always going to be doomed.
 
Golf is losing popularity and a pissing match which could potentially divide fans between leagues is a lose/lose. While I find this surprising based off the press releases and lawsuits, at the end of the day, this may have saved the sport as a whole.
 
This deal is in essence a hostile takeover of the PGA Tour with the skids being highly greased by it’s commissioner. How does one in good conscience employ emotional blackmail against it’s participants, including it’s greatest assets, and then roll over 180° on those same players? Jay Monahan is now the PGAT pariah and has lost his kingdom. I hope is was worth it to him.
 
Yeah, he may be toast but I’ll take it back to your original point. I suspect the emotionally blackmailed players who stuck with the PGA will get over their trauma in a hurry once they see what’s on the checks they cash in the future. The hypocrisy will likely run pretty deep before all is said and done.
 
Some will, some won’t. Rory (500m) and Tiger (800m) won’t. Though they will both be just fine, I suppose.😉
 
Serious question- since the contracts and purses of the LIV tour were not furnished by any sort of known business practice (advertising, gate, sponsorship, television) and solely funded with Saudi monopoly money…what is the chance that in the not too distant future players are in a worse position? I guess that as long as there is still oil to pump all will be okay. Hopefully no players are openly critical of the PIF.
 
Not a big golf guy, this tends to be me whenever I do go out on the course haha:

go-to.gif


But in all seriousness, this os obviously all about money; don't wanna hear their BS about unification or whatever else. PGA players who put up a fuss will shut up quickly as Boone eludes too when their prize money comes in.
 
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