For all of the anticipation, the only constituency actually comforted by the U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing on the PGA Tour’s deal with the Saudis were those already convinced as to the piss-poor quality of elected officialdom in the Republic. Anyone eager for a scintilla of clarity on golf’s future was left disappointed, and with about as much faith in their leadership as the nation at large.
That was apparent in comments by Tour members who are congenitally serene. Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth were pointed in expressing their impatience with the pace at which members are being informed in what is nominally a member-led organization, while Xander Schauffele only just stopped shy of voting no confidence in Jay Monahan. The commish returns to his job July 17 after a four-week medical leave, but how long he can keep it is a matter of feverish speculation.
Trust is a precious commodity in commerce, but in the present-day PGA Tour it’s more scarce than snow in the Sahara. There isn’t much among Policy Board members, most of whom were oblivious that a sleeper cell was negotiating such a consequential deal. Still less exists between players and executives, as anger about the blindside calcifies into resentment about the absence of detail and apparent failure to consider alternatives. Even among players, factionalism has taken root, shaped by personal disappointment, a loss of confidence in those entrusted with running things, or simply a loss of leverage masquerading as a loss of confidence. None of those sentiments augur well for Monahan.
Ron Price and Jimmy Dunne, who testified in the commissioner’s stead on Capitol Hill, offered two impetuses to explain the accord with the Saudi Public Investment Fund: financing litigation was unsustainable, and LIV Golf would continue to pick off key players in perpetuity. Both assertions are really assumptions. People familiar with Tour finances insist it is far from penury, while most top players — those who really matter, rankings be damned — seem to have already made their decision on where to compete. To shore up the rationales presented during the hearing, frequent references were made to the PIF’s $700 billion war chest, as though the entire resources of the regime are designated to underwrite its ambitions in golf.
A more plausible explanation for the Framework Agreement is that both parties were incentivized to end the invasive legal discovery process, so they crafted not a roadmap to a…
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