PGA Tour deters members

 PGA Tour deters members

The governing organization of the PGA Tour recently emphasized its stance of permanently stripping a member's card if a member golfer attends the opposing Super Golf League (SGL) arena.

The warning was issued by Special Envoy Jay Monahan during a mandatory 50-minute internal meeting before the Honda Classic in Florida from February 24-27.

"Jay confirmed at the beginning of the meeting that anyone planning to attend SGL should be asked to leave the room," a player who asked to remain anonymous shared on Golf Channel. This person said the most powerful leader of the PGA Tour spent nearly the first 10 minutes talking about SGL invested by Saudi Arabia.

"He talked as if that arena was going to be inoperable and it was time to stop talking about it," he said, adding that Monahan had changed the content of his speech because of the events of last weekend. At that time, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau officially committed to the PGA Tour, while Phil Mickelson vehemently criticized the governing body and SGL in an interview on the Fire Pit Collective site.

Monahan and the PGA Tour take a tough stance against member golfers who want to attend the Super Golf League. Photo: AP

Monahan and the PGA Tour take a tough stance against member golfers who want to attend the Super Golf League. Photo: AP

SGL is backed by abundant money from Saudi Arabia's public investment fund (PIF) through LIV Golf Investments, founded and CEO by the legendary Greg Norman. Up to now, LIV has remained tight-lipped about this arena.

After Monahan, a number of PGA Tour bosses answered questions from the players. They discussed many issues, but the most prominent was the possibility of changing the schedule with the roadmap to apply from 2023. This is part of the proposal to organize an international series that brought together the top 50 FedEx Cup last season, and the competitors. Outside of this group, they will play a separate tournament group but do not count the points to compete for the championship of the whole arena next season. In addition, PGA Tour golfers also require more time to relax at the end of the season.

They also expressed their desire to better understand the financial situation and transactions of the PGA Tour. In this regard, the owners said that the bonus fund will continue to increase, such as the tournament The Players Championship from 20 million USD this year to 25 million USD in 2025. That will indirectly pull the majors up. reward.