“This is hypocrisy”: What is behind the earthquake in the Persian Gulf

DThe peace treaty came as a complete surprise. Jay Monahan, commissioner of the PGA Tour, and Yasser al-Ramayan, manager of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF, which owns 93 percent of LIV Golf, announced Tuesday in an interview with US broadcaster CNBC that bitter rivals are joining forces with DP World Tour. New global commercial company.

It also marks the end of disputes in American courts. It has not yet been decided whether the US Department of Justice will continue to investigate the PGA Tour for antitrust violations.

Message full of ambiguity

“After two years of crashes and distractions, this is a historic day for the game we all know and love,” Monahan wrote in a statement. “This transformative partnership recognizes the immeasurable power of the history, heritage and professional competitive model of the PGA Tour and combines it with the DP World Tour and LIV, including the concept of team golf, to create an organization dedicated to players, commercial… and will benefit philanthropic partners and golf enthusiasts. “.

For nearly 18 months, the “civil war” between the PGA Tour and the LIV dominated golf headlines, with players from both camps battling each other in press conferences and on social media. Now, almost exactly one year after LIV Golf hosted its first invitational tournament in England, a bitter dispute has erupted between the traditional American series and a rival company that has paid out hundreds of millions of dollars to many PGA Tour stars and big winners such as American Phil Mickelson. , Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Reid and Australian Cameron Smith.

Johnson, for example, received between $100 million and $150 million just for his move to LIV. In addition, huge prizes have sometimes been played out in individual tournaments: little-known golfer Peter Uylein, for example, who never managed to celebrate success on the PGA Tour, last year received $ 12.5 million in LIV golf tournaments, which is more than double what he had previously earned in his ten years as a professional. This year, LIV planned to distribute a total of $405 million in prizes across 14 events.

The PGA Tour banned the Renegades for life. The DP World Tour, formerly known as the European Tour, hit the switchers with heavy fines and disqualifications. That’s why a number of professionals, including Düsseldorf’s Martin Kaimer, who alone paid a €450,000 fine and was suspended for four weeks from the start of June, left their home tour. It is still unclear when these players will be allowed to participate in the DP World Tour again. Monahan announced that after the 2023 season is over, all “renegades” will be allowed to return to the PGA Tour, which will be a surprising twist. At last year’s player meeting, Monahan indicated that those who switched to LIV should never compete on the PGA Tour again.

The name of the new company has not yet been named, and the details of the contract should also be agreed in the coming weeks. Only four or five top leaders of both organizations met secretly in different parts of the world. According to al-Ramayan on the TV show, LIV Golf’s CEO, former world number one Greg Norman, only learned of the new deal on Monday night. The 68-year-old Australian, who has been loudly promoting his concept (54-hole tournaments with loud music and only 48 entrants), has yet to comment, although he has always advocated a merger between the two.

The PGA Tour press release and Monahan’s letter to the players are riddled with ambiguity and open to multiple interpretations. So far, it has only been announced that the three tournament series will operate together as strategic partners, but all three tours will continue to operate as separate companies. LIV will definitely play the remaining seven tournaments this year. The three tours will be organized under the auspices of an umbrella company funded primarily by the Saudi Arabian government. The board of directors of this company is chaired by Al-Ramayan, but most of the members of this body are nominated by the PGA Tour. Monahan will lead the company as CEO.

On Tuesday afternoon, before the start of the RBC Canadian Open in North York, a suburb of Toronto, Monahan answered questions from the players at the meeting. The 63-year-old American, who has led the PGA Tour since January 2017, has come under fire from most of the roughly 80 professionals in attendance. Some players called him a hypocrite and a “fake Pentecostal” who repeatedly spoke out against Saudi Arabia and its human rights violations. Many professionals consider the new collaboration a victory for LIV Golf.

So far, only LIV pros like Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka have commented positively on social media. American pro Dylan Wu tweeted: “Explain why Jay Monahan was appointed CEO of all golf in the world despite having retracted everything he said for the past two years. This is hypocrisy. I think money always wins.”