PGA Tour gamers have been blindsided by news of a merger with the insurgent Saudi-backed LIV Golf on Tuesday that left them, followers and politicians demanding solutions.
A bitter feud that had divided the game for nearly two years ended with out warning when the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf introduced a shock settlement to merge and type one unified business entity.
The bombshell announcement prompted golfers on the Canadian Open to name a gamers’ assembly on Tuesday to get particulars of a deal that many solely discovered about on Twitter or a later electronic mail.
“I’m guessing the liv teams were struggling to get sponsors and pga tour couldn’t turn down the money. Win-win for both tours but it’s a big lose for who defended the tour for last two years,” tweeted South Korean An Byeong-hun.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan described a closed door assembly on Tuesday with gamers who had stayed loyal to the Tour as “intense” and “heated.”
“This is an awful lot to ask them to digest, and this is a significant change for us in the direction that we were going down,” he instructed reporters.
But he insisted that the gamers who rejected thousands and thousands of {dollars} to hitch the Saudi enterprise will see that they’d made the proper monetary choice.
“They’re going to win,” he stated.
“They’re going to continue to grow, and we’re in a control position on their behalf as we move forward in this structure.”
Rickie Fowler, Will Zalatoris and Hideki Matsuyama have been all reported to have been provided over $100 million to leap to LIV Golf till Monahan pleaded with them to stay with the PGA Tour.
“I think one of the big things will be, moving forward, is how are players re-integrated back into the system,” stated Canada’s Adam Hadwin. “If they are. We don’t even know if they will be.
“I mean, so that being one of the big talking points throughout this year and a half from the commissioner about how these guys will never play on the PGA Tour again, it will be interesting.”
Monahan stated LIV golfers will be capable to reapply for Tour membership in 2024.
Almost precisely a yr in the past Monahan got here to Canada declaring struggle with LIV Golf, saying gamers leaping to the breakaway league can be banned from the circuit.
Branding defectors like Hall of Fame golfer Phil Mickelson, former world primary Dustin Johnson, reigning PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka as free-riders, Monahan declared golfers remaining loyal would by no means need to apologise for being a member of the PGA Tour.
“I recognize that people are going to call me a hypocrite,” Monahan stated.
“Anytime I said anything, I said it with the information that I had at that moment… I accept those criticisms. But circumstances do change.”
The LIV Golf sequence is bankrolled by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund and critics have accused it of being a sportwashing enterprise for the nation to aim to enhance its status within the face of criticism of its human rights file.
The followers and politicians additionally questioned the explanations for the sudden about-face.
“So weird. PGA officials were in my office just months ago talking about how the Saudis’ human rights crimes should disqualify them from having a stake in a major American sport. I guess maybe their concerns weren’t really about human rights?” tweeted Democratic US Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut.
Golf followers took to social media, many blasting the PGA Tour for its hypocrisy.
The 9/11 Families United group, which has protested at LIV Golf occasions within the United States over Saudi Arabia’s connection to the assaults on the Twin Towers, issued a scathing assertion accusing the PGA Tour of utilizing them when it suited their trigger solely to show their backs on them and aiding the Kingdom’s sportwashing efforts.
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers concerned within the 9/11 assaults that killed almost 3,000 folks have been from Saudi Arabia. A US authorities fee discovered no proof that Saudi Arabia immediately funded al Qaeda.
“PGA commissioner Jay Monahan co-opted the 9/11 community last year in the PGA’s unequivocal agreement that the Saudi LIV project was nothing more than sportswashing of Saudi Arabia’s reputation,” stated 9/11 Families United Chair Terry Strada.
“But now the PGA and Monahan appear to have become just more paid Saudi shills, taking billions of dollars to cleanse the Saudi reputation…”