It seems probable the PGA Tour’s ‘framework agreement’ with the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF), the backers of LIV Golf, has turned out to be nothing more than that. A frame. More of a trellis, perhaps. It was announced on June 6, 2023, and it has now seemingly broken up. The PGA Tour hoped President Trump might be able to strike a deal but it appears not. Maybe it’s just me who thinks it’s more than mildly concerning that, in relation to the Ukraine/Russia conflict, Trump suggested that the golf situation “is much more complicated”.
Also, of course, much more trivial. But given that this is a column about golf and that we should care that TV viewing figures are reportedly down by around 20% since this spat started, what should happen? A possible solution has been proposed by Pascal Grizot, president of the French Golf Federation, the man who organised the 2018 Ryder Cup in Paris. He even wrote to Trump about the matter just before Christmas.
To keep his idea simple and comparatively brief: he thinks the PGA Tour should run from January to August; that LIV (which has ploughed over $6 billion into its project) should cease to operate tournaments in the United States; that the PGA Tour should co-sanction five tournaments on a new ‘International Tour’ outside the US, events which would be sponsored by LIV and held during September to December. These would in the main be existing tournaments in Europe, the Far East, Australasia, Africa and, of course, Saudi Arabia. “After maybe four years,” Grizot said, “when the leaders in golf may have changed and there is therefore not so much ego in play, there could perhaps be a merger into a fully global tour.”
I think Grizot’s suggestion is a good one but I think the odds right now are that it will not fly. While Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Cameron Smith and others might relish playing outside the US during those four months, it will likely be harder to lure the leading American players who aren’t Billy Horschel to do likewise. Their absence might not completely derail the plan but their presence would certainly enhance it.
And there’s this. The present major-championship calendar is shocking: there are four of them, all held just over three months apart. In 2013, the PGA of America, which runs the USPGA Championship, spoke about possibly taking the event out of the US “once or twice a decade” to help give it distinction other than being the fourth of the four majors. That could be interesting, especially if it was held outside the US say every other year. If it were held in late October in maybe Saudi Arabia (on other occasions in Japan, Australia and/or South Africa), it would not only provide a much better balance regarding golf’s major championships, it would mean live TV coverage would not conflict with the NFL schedule in the States. It would also be a huge incentive for the top American players not effectively to give up on the current season as early as late August in a case of the post-FedEx Cup blues; to entice them to carry on giving of their best on the ‘International Tour’, in part as preparation for the final major of the year.
Mind you, given the way things seem to be in the White House lately, if this happened I wouldn’t rule out Elon Musk having designs on taking the championship to Mars.
You can follow Robert Green on Twitter @robrtgreen and enjoy his other blog f-factors.com as well as his golf archive on robertgreen-golf.com
