The PGA Tour’s commissioner, Jay Monahan, has seen his stock fall as he tries to deal with the threat of LIV Golf. Photograph: John David Mercer/USA Today Sports..full details below
LIV has served a purpose but is also the baby of a Saudi regime who will not be easily convinced to cut it off. The PGA and DP World Tours must determine how players who switched to LIV can, if they choose, return without causing ructions among members who stayed loyal.
The path towards redemption is a rocky one. The DP World Tour’s chief executive, Keith Pelley, has been conspicuously quiet but must be working to ensure the strategic alliance he formed with the PGA Tour bears fruit as the sport plots its next few decades. Professional golf in Europe is too important to be left behind.
Monahan finds himself in such an invidious position it is difficult to foresee him remaining in post for too long. Before LIV’s arrival, he was broadly regarded as the finest leader of a US-based sporting entity. His status has been horribly undermined by the staunch position that no player should be dealing with the rebel tour – including on moral grounds – immediately before the PGA Tour jumped into a bunker with PIF.
Do as I say, not as I do” leadership will never prevail. Similar intrigue surrounds Greg Norman, who has clung on to his role front and centre at LIV despite routine speculation he would be moved on. Norman could legitimately ride off into the sunset at any point while stating he had done his job in respect of taking a wrecking ball to the traditional and complacent ecosystem. It just helped that the Australian had bottomless pits of money to do so.
A group of rank and file PGA Tour players remain unhappy with their lot. Apparent secrecy from those on the tour’s board has irked some. The gripe is a strange one: no organisation the size of the PGA Tour can reasonably be expected to involve every member in decision making. Directors are elected for a reason.
Yet this speaks to a broader picture, where entitled players demand more, more and more. The prize funds they compete for, especially on the PGA Tour, are wildly high.
The PGA Tour will emerge from cold storage in Maui this week. Ludvig Åberg, keen to continue his rapid rise to prominence, is among the headline acts. Endearing stories such as Åberg’s still exist, it is just that they have been overtaken by dollar signs and boardroom machination. Golf remains in a state of flux.