Commissioner of Golf
Spent half of July in Stamford hosting both Golf Central and Golf Today for two separate 7-day stretches. Doing seven in a row presents a packing challenge. The quarter-zip look preferred by Golf Today is contrasted by the jacket and tie for Golf Central.
Having been on the desk in June for both Golf’s Longest Day and the next day’s PIF-PGA Tour announcement — what we now refer to simply as “June 6” — I should not have been surprised that I would be on duty when the Tour went to Washington on July 11. Seems I cannot avoid Golf Emergencies.
Truthfully, the hearings before the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s investigations subcommittee provided little in the way of fireworks, but did lay out the Tour’s thinking. Tour COO Ron Price and policy board member Jimmy Dunne insisted that furthering the dispute with LIV Golf would endanger the Tour’s long-term financial health; the only way out was to jump in. Rumors had circulated for months that the Tour’s increased investment in ‘designated events’ and the Player Impact Program was unsustainable. Price and Dunne confirmed it.
Notably silent since June 6: Tiger Woods. That changed exactly one day after I returned to Orlando from my latest trip.
Woods’ silence was broken with the August 1 announcement that he would join the PGA Tour’s Policy Board as a sixth “player director,” effectively giving Tour players a voting majority heading forward. It’s the first time in his 27-year-career that Woods has served on the Board. The arrangement means that Commissioner Jay Monahan and the non-player board members can no longer act unilaterally, as they had when negotiating with the Public Investment Fund.
Said Woods: “The players thank Commissioner Monahan for agreeing to address our concerns. We look forward to being at the table with him to make the right decisions for the future of the game that we all love.”
More: “I am honored to represent the players of the PGA Tour. This is a critical point for the Tour, and the players will do their best to make certain that any changes that are made in Tour operations are in the best interest of all Tour stakeholders, including fans, sponsors and players.”
According to reports, 41 players signed off on a letter to Monahan outlining their concerns. Only one name mattered: a 47-year-old with eight starts in the last three years, currently ranked 1,144th in the world.
Tiger’s silences are as impactful as his words, if not more so. At 47, he is acutely aware of his influence, and is therefore cautious. If you are reading a statement from Tiger Woods, you are reading a carefully crafted message. His willingness to take a spot on the Policy Board is monumental. His public comments regarding Monahan — which amount to a withering vote of conditional confidence — represent the boldest step Woods has ever taken into golf politics.
As of August 1, nothing happens between the Tour and the Public Investment Fund without player approval — without Tiger’s approval. He asked the PGA TOUR to make him the de facto Commissioner of Golf, and Ponte Vedra acquiesced, willingly. Anything to keep him on board. It was probably a relief.
What this means for the ‘framework agreement’ remains to be seen, but it doesn’t portend well for LIV. Woods has repeatedly chirped about his disdain for the league. His own ‘TGL’ studio golf concept is set to launch in January, in partnership with NBC and the PGA TOUR. One of Woods’ partners in TGL is Rory McIlroy — the same Rory McIlroy who Woods now joins as a Tour player director, the same Rory McIlroy who is rightfully pissed after months of unwitting public service as the conscience of the PGA TOUR. It seems unlikely that a board led by Woods and McIlroy would sign off on any ‘team golf’ entity that might compete with TGL for dollars and eyeballs.
The PGA TOUR owes its very existence to disruption. In the late ’60s, a handful of touring pros lassoed their grievances about how the PGA of America handled its finances, and chose to depart. The “American Professional Golfers” eventually became the PGA TOUR.
A group of players may have created the Tour, but in 2023, only one player could keep it together. A player who rarely plays. The most powerful voice in golf. The new Commissioner of Golf.
