Chubby Chandler thinks Rory McIlroy has been “hung out to dry” by the PGA Tour and says “it’s unbelievable” that Jay Monahan is going to keep his job as Commissioner after the shocking u-turn to merge with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF).
Chandler, the founder of International Sports Management and former agent to some of golf’s biggest names, was speaking to Golf Monthly after the news that the PGA and DP World Tours had agreed a framework merger with the PIF. He believes the reason for the merge may have been due to the ongoing court cases, with litigation between the two parties now over, as well as a potential hole in the PGA Tour’s future finances in trying to keep up with the Saudi riches.
The Englishman believes that LIV Golf will continue “in some guise” but it won’t be Greg Norman running it.
“The fact that they managed to keep it secret from the people they kept it secret from is amazing to me,” Chandler said.
“That Rory only got to know on the Tuesday morning four hours before it became public is quite staggering I think. And Norman didn’t know at all I don’t think, that shows where he’s going.”
“I would think massively deflated and let down by the PGA Tour I would think,” he said on how Rory McIlroy must be feeling now. “Because he’s been hung out to dry hasn’t he? No matter how much money they give him, which they’re bound to. I think they’re bound to pay some sort of a fee under some sort of a guise to the guys they persuaded not to join the LIV Tour. ‘Stick with us and we’ll do this, we’ll do that etc.’
“If you’d have asked me two weeks ago, I’d have said this is exactly what’s gonna happen but it’s gonna happen in another year. I thought it was going to happen, I thought they all had to come together but I think one of the things that has hustled it along is the fact that the court case was gonna discover so much on both sides, not just one side but both sides.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund
(Image credit: Getty Images)
“I’m sure the PGA didn’t want their inner workings coming out, and I’m sure Yassir and the Saudis didn’t want theirs coming out. It was pertinent that Amanda Stavely was involved because I guess if everything come out with the Saudis, some of the Newcastle stuff comes out. So it was advantageous for everybody not to go to court wasn’t it. If they went to court, there were no winners.”
The PGA Tour’s main motivations for the merger may…
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