PGA Commissioner Goes On Rant Following Latest Defection To LIV Golf

The stream of players defecting from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf has been continuous. From Phil Mickelson to Brooks Koepka, it’s been a busy month for the golf leagues, and PGA commissioner Jay Monahan has seemingly had enough.

“As I also said to the players, let me be clear: I am not naïve,” Monahan said during a news conference at the Travelers Championship, as transcribed by ESPN. “If this is an arms race and if the only weapons here are dollar bills, the PGA Tour can’t compete. The PGA Tour, an American institution, can’t compete with a foreign monarchy that is spending billions of dollars in an attempt to buy the game of golf.

“We welcome good, healthy competition. The LIV Saudi Golf League is not that. It’s an irrational threat, one not concerned with the return on investment or true growth of the game.”

Those are strong words from the commissioner, but there’s little doubt the PGA feels their hands are tied, as Monahan used that press conference to unveil increased purses, a revamped schedule and dramatic changes to the FedEx Cup Playoffs, where the PGA Tour will revert back to a calendar-year schedule, with the FedEx Cup season taking place between January and August. They have added three events per year in the process.

“Currently, no one organization owns or dominates the game of golf,” Monahan said. “…But when someone attempts to buy the sport, dismantle the institutions that are intrinsically invested in its growth, and focus only on a personal priority, that partnership evaporates, and instead we end up with one person, one entity, using endless amounts of money to direct employees, not members or partners, toward their personal goal, which may or may not change tomorrow or the next day. I doubt that’s the vision any of us have for the game.”

It’s safe to say the ongoing power struggle between the two leagues has no end in sight.