It is not clear when the investigation will conclude, much less whether the government will try to force any changes in golf. officials have interviewed Mickelson, DeChambeau and Sergio García as a part of their inquiry. Department officials have been especially interested in whether the PGA Tour’s threats of discipline undermined the integrity of golf’s labor market and in the ties between the tour and the organizers of major tournaments.
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In addition to the lawsuit LIV is waging against the PGA Tour, the Justice Department is conducting an antitrust investigation into men’s professional golf. That decision did not leave American golf organizations in the clear, though. In April, an arbitration panel in London upheld the DP World Tour’s right to punish players, a decision that will affect the European roster for this year’s Ryder Cup, which will be contested this autumn in Italy, and for years to come. The DP World Tour, formerly known as the European Tour, is closely aligned with the PGA Tour, and it imposed fines and suspensions on its players who appeared at LIV events. So moments after the players hit their first LIV shots, the tour dropped the hammer. The punishments were not a surprise: The tour had clearly signaled that it would take action against any of its players who joined. The PGA Tour, which is now mired in litigation against LIV, suspended players because it requires members to request and receive releases to play in events that conflict with those on its schedule. How have the established tours responded?
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Not that pro golf’s existing power structures, including the PGA Tour, have always held the moral high ground.
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One of LIV’s biggest signings, Mickelson, provoked outrage when he praised the series as a “ once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” even as he called Saudi Arabia’s record on human rights “ horrible” and used an expletive to emphasize a description of the country’s leaders as “scary.” Norman made things worse soon after later when he dismissed Saudi Arabia’s murder and dismemberment of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi by saying, “ Look, we’ve all made mistakes.” In February, though, a federal judge in the United States said she had concluded that the fund was “ the moving force behind the founding, funding, oversight and operation of LIV.” consultants privately told the wealth fund that a golf league could be earning revenues of at least $1.4 billion a year by the end of the decade - or be losing hundreds of millions of dollars.įor its part, the wealth fund has insisted it is nothing more than an investor in LIV. In addition to LIV, the wealth fund has acquired the Premier League club Newcastle United, and Saudi money has poured into Formula 1 racing and boxing.īut documents obtained by The New York Times show that Saudi officials know that their golf foray may have limited financial payoff. Through its sovereign wealth fund, Saudi Arabia has been around the forefront of the movement. Saudi Arabia is among the resource-rich Persian Gulf states that have turned toward sports to raise their profiles, reshape their reputations and develop their economies in new ways. So, is this a vanity project for Saudi Arabia? The PGA Tour has since increased the purses at some of its events, but the blend of guaranteed money and LIV prize funds has kept the young league writing the biggest checks in golf. Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed and Cameron Smith are among the players who appear to have received multimillion-dollar inducements to surrender their PGA Tour careers. Open champion, was said to have been tempted by an offer worth $150 million. Phil Mickelson, a six-time major tournament winner, is being paid a reported $200 million to take part, and Dustin Johnson, a Masters and U.S. (For context, the winner of the 2022 Masters Tournament received $2.7 million, a prize bumped up to $3.24 million in 2023.)Īnd LIV’s prize money was on top of the appearance fees and signing guarantees accepted by individual players. The winner’s share at each stop was $4 million, and the last-place finisher was guaranteed $120,000.
When LIV debuted in June 2022, its tournaments were the richest in golf history, with regular-season events boasting purses of $25 million. LIV’s critics, which include some of the world’s best players, have labeled it an unseemly money grab that is diminishing golf as a sporting test.
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