The PGA Tour has a tee time.
That point is now.
After the appreciable and rising noise that the Greg Norman-led LIV Golf Worldwide Collection has been making because it prepares to start its first match, Thursday exterior of London, the silence coming from the PGA Tour is deafening.
Envelopes are being pushed by gamers. And the PGA Tour, up to now, has stood by and watched in silence — though sources have informed The Submit that disciplinary motion may very well be introduced as quickly as Thursday by the PGA Tour.
Dustin Johnson, who publicly pledged his allegiance to the PGA Tour in February, was the primary large domino to fall when he signed a contract with LIV Golf for a reported $125 million final week.
Then got here Phil Mickelson, who inked for a reported $200 million on Monday. Each Mickelson and Johnson are within the LIV subject this week.
Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed reportedly additionally shall be making the leap, as first reported Wednesday by United Kingdom newspaper The Telegraph, however they seemingly received’t play till the second occasion, at Pumpkin Ridge exterior Portland, Ore., from June 30-July 2. Sources informed The Submit that DeChambeau signed for $100 million.
A supply accustomed to the negotiations informed The Submit earlier this week that LIV Golf is “very shut’’ to finishing a cope with Rickie Fowler. The extra prime gamers observe Mickelson, Johnson, DeChambeau, Reed and others to a spot the PGA Tour considers the darkish facet, the extra it makes you marvel what number of extra will observe.
As a result of there shall be extra.
And the extra gamers that make the transfer the extra it turns into clear that commissioner Jay Monahan and the powers on the PGA Tour, who're all undoubtedly plotting their subsequent step, are going to have to melt the hard-line stance towards gamers leaping to LIV Golf.
Monahan has been very public and really assertive about his stance towards gamers who decide to play within the Saudi-backed enterprise, threatening sanctions towards them, although not specifying what these sanctions shall be.
There’s perception all that Monahan has been ready for gamers to truly tee it up in an LIV Golf occasion earlier than he dishes out punishment. Some burning questions await when and if the PGA Tour does punish gamers.
First: What is going to the sanctions be?
Second, Will the Tour, which as a coverage (a silly one at that) doesn’t publicly announce participant fines or suspensions, announce the sanctions?
Third (and most significantly): Does the PGA Tour have the authorized proper to punish — and probably banish — gamers in the event that they’re thought of unbiased contractors?
The Norman-led LIV group believes it has the reply to that third query, and that reply is a powerful “no.’’
Final fall, at an LIV Golf summit hosted by Norman in Manhattan, I used to be amongst a small group of journalists invited to hearken to Norman and different key figures concerned with LIV Golf. They offered an in depth have a look at what their plan was for the tournaments and groups as they ready to launch.
After the assembly, we convened for dinner at a midtown restaurant and I sat throughout the desk from Norman and LIV Golf’s chief lawyer, who spoke with absolute certainty that the PGA Tour wouldn't have a leg to face on in court docket to forestall gamers from competing on one other tour or to ban them from its tour.
An fascinating and ironic aspect to this story is the truth that years in the past, over time, the PGA Tour primarily gutted what was referred to as the European Tour and is now named the DP World Tour.
As a result of the PGA Tour provided the biggest purses and essentially the most status and had tournaments that handled the gamers like royalty, the perfect gamers from the European Tour migrated to the US to play on the PGA Tour.
That considerably weakened the European Tour to the purpose at which the 2 excursions have since aligned in enterprise — largely as a result of the DP World Tour wants the PGA Tour.
The apparent adverse to this tug-of-war is the division of prime gamers that’s happening. However the PGA Tour can put an finish to that division by not banning the gamers who decide to play LIV Golf occasions and permitting the unbiased contractors to play the place they wish to play.
There’s a notion that Mickelson, Johnson, DeChambeau and the gamers who’ve signed on to play LIV Golf occasions not wish to be part of the PGA Tour, however that’s not the case in any respect. Many have merely made the idea that they’re not welcome to play on the PGA Tour due to the general public stance Monahan has offered.
For the great of golf — and isn’t that what all of those governing our bodies are always pushing on us? — it’s time we hear from the PGA Tour. That point seems to be Thursday.
Hopefully, the PGA Tour isn’t late for its tee time.
— Brian Wacker contributed to this report
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