Lawyers representing 21 golfers, including the former Masters champion Danny Willett, have written to the PGA Tour to demand “full disclosure” on ongoing negotiations aimed at securing the organisation’s future. The sport remains mired in civil war, and dissatisfied low ranking players claim they have been “kept in the dark about this process.”
The PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund remain locked in talks aimed at launching a new, collective future for elite golf by a proposed deadline of 31 December. It is likely that cutoff will be pushed back. The Fenway Sports Group, owner of Liverpool FC, is now a key part of those discussions as it hopes to invest in the new business model. It is expected Fenway, which saw off a challenge from another US-based private equity group to gain approval from the PGA Tour’s board, would work in collaboration with the PIF.
The rank and file, though, appear unimpressed. A letter from the New York law firm Susman Godfrey to the PGA Tour board seeks to “obtain information about the PGA Tour’s consideration of several proposals that will alter the structure of the PGA Tour and may have a profound impact on our clients’ lives and the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of other tour players”.
In a swipe at the decision-making process, it adds: “The board has recently received multiple bids by prospective capital partners that will potentially transform how the PGA Tour operates, who controls it and who owns it.
“All but a handful of PGA Tour players have been kept entirely in the dark about the prospective transaction, how it will impact them, and what conflicts of interests may impact the decision-makers. We demand full disclosure of the details and analyses of any proposals by prospective capital partners, which should be shared properly with all tour players.”
Willett has joined the likes of Dylan Frittelli, Lanto Griffin, Grayson Murray, Scott Piercy and James Hahn in putting his name to the correspondence. Hahn was once a member of the PGA Tour’s policy board. Wesley Bryan, another signatory, posted on social media on Tuesday that he is “not confident in how things have been handled by the organisation which I ‘work for.’” Whether golfers are employees or independent contractors has always been a point for debate.
The board currently includes Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth and Patrick Cantlay. Rory McIlroy stepped back from his own directorship role last month, citing time constraints.
The legal letter demands “a meeting with independent directors on the policy board to understand the process that has been followed and will be followed going forward.” It adds: “Importantly, we seek assurances that all conflicts of interest will be disclosed.”
