PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA | Wind-whipped but smiling after a Wednesday practice round at Pebble Beach, Adam Scott walked off the famous 18th green as a sea spray carried on the gusts.
As a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board, Scott has been integrally involved in the negotiations that led to the announcement of the tour’s transformational multibillion-dollar partnership with Strategic Sports Group, almost instantly reshaping the tour’s future.
“I don’t know what chapter this is for the PGA Tour, but it has certainly become a new chapter in the tour taking on an investor, an incredible investor group at that,” Scott said as an approaching storm blew in from the Pacific.
“This is a partnership that takes professional golf into the future. It’s excitement. There are great things happening for all involved in it.”
While there are many details still to be clarified, the essence of the deal is this:
Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of professional sports owners, is making an initial investment of $1.5 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises, with another $1.5 billion potentially coming. The group, led by Fenway Sports Group, also will take an active role in plotting strategy for the tour on and off the course.
The Policy Board, which includes Scott, Jordan Spieth, Tiger Woods, Webb Simpson, Patrick Cantlay and Peter Malnati, voted unanimously in favor of the deal.
The initial investment will go toward giving approximately 200 players an equity share in PGA Tour Enterprises, a for-profit entity. The player grants will be based on several factors, including performance, and will be vested over time. It’s a way of rewarding players who turned down lucrative offers from LIV Golf as well as others, including future players.
The Policy Board, which includes Scott, Jordan Spieth, Tiger Woods, Webb Simpson, Patrick Cantlay and Peter Malnati, voted unanimously in favor of the deal.
In theory, the better the tour does, the better the players will do financially, thereby creating a further incentive for the tour to focus on appealing to fans.
“It’s huge,” Justin Thomas said. “We’re the first organization where the players have equity. It doesn’t happen in other sports. It’s a pretty cool day for golf. It really feels like we’re a part of a team, if you will, or more a part of the tour, and everybody is involved.”
The agreement with SSG is separate from the tour’s ongoing negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which runs LIV Golf. In announcing the SSG deal, the tour said in a statement that it is continuing to make progress in its negotiations with the PIF, but the new deal does not necessarily hasten any potential agreement between the two groups.
Whereas the SSG deal was about underpinning the tour’s financial viability going forward, the PIF deal is about eliminating or at least reducing the chaos created by LIV’s arrival.
“The deal with the PIF, we’ll just have to see how that plays out,” Scott said. “I don’t sit at that negotiating table. It’s something to play out over the next weeks, months, I don’t know.”
There have been indications that PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan may be open to working with the tour and SSG without being the biggest investor.
However, there have been suggestions that LIV’s recent signings of Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton are a sign of dissatisfaction with the tour since it pursued the SSG infusion after the June 6 framework agreement with the PIF was announced.
There have been indications that PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan may be open to working with the tour and SSG without being the biggest investor.
LIV is beginning its third season this week in Mexico, and while there has been talk of finding a way to bring the best players together again, it does not sound imminent.
Spieth suggested the tour will take its time working with SSG before making a deal with the PIF.
“I don’t think that it’s needed,” Spieth said. “I think the positive would be a unification, but … I just think it’s something that is almost not even worth talking about right this second given how timely everything would be to try to get it figured out. But the idea is that we have a strategic partner that allows the PGA Tour to go forward the way that it’s operating right now without anything else with the option of other investors.”
PGA Tour Enterprises, which will be home to the tour’s business and rights operations, will allow the PGA Tour to retain its 501(c)(6) tax-exempt status while SSG will serve as a commercial adviser to the new company. Should the PIF be involved, it would invest in PGA Tour Enterprises, which the tour values at $12 billion.
“You talk about the funding, but really the strategies that they can have in navigating that space will be very important,” Spieth said.
SSG is made up of the owners of, among others, the Boston Red Sox (Fenway Sports Group led by John Henry), Atlanta Falcons (Arthur Blank), Boston Celtics (Wyc Grousbeck), Milwaukee Bucks (Mark Attanasio) and New York Mets (Steven Cohen). Four SSG members will serve on the board for PGA Tour Enterprises along with the six Policy Board members, a seventh tour player and commissioner Jay Monahan, who will serve as its CEO.
“I’m excited,” Keegan Bradley said. “This is going to be great for us. It’s so nice to hear some positive news and hear that a lot of guys are excited about it. You have stability now. Some of the unknowns are gone.”
Another potential byproduct of the new agreement is smoothing the path with the Justice Department in regard to antitrust concerns and Saudi Arabia’s possible investment.
SSG is made up of the owners of, among others, the Boston Red Sox (Fenway Sports Group led by John Henry), Atlanta Falcons (Arthur Blank), Boston Celtics (Wyc Grousebeck), Milwaukee Bucks (Mark Attanasio) and New York Mets (Steven Cohen).
It is a path-altering moment for the PGA Tour, which is fundamentally changing the way it operates.
“At the moment, we should celebrate what is really a monumental deal for the PGA Tour and let it settle in and take some shape,” Scott said before heading inside and away from the swirling weather.
“This really stabilizes the PGA Tour and hopefully is the start of stabilizing the professional game of golf.”
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