Mr. Monahan, sir, there are Barbarians At The Gate, what do you want us to do?
Maybe that wasn’t the exact message passed on to PGA Tour Commish Jay Monahan (aka The Sheriff Of Nottingham) but it’s a pretty accurate description of what’s going on with not one, but two rival golf leagues wanting what the PGA Tour has — the best players in the world.
You may or may not recall that Andy Gardiner was roaming the grounds of the PGA Tour headquarters this past march, seeking a personal audience with The Sheriff (aka Commish Jay Monahan) to present his case for a friendly alliance between the PGA Tour and his upstart Premier Golf League.
A quick note — the Premier Golf League idea actually preceded this proposed LIV Series backed by the dirty-money Saudis and it was, indeed, an idea stolen by those evil Saudis.
Well, you may or may not recall that poor Andy, the Premier League CEO, got the bum’s rush from Monahan — there would be no meeting.
So Andy took matters into his own hands and decided to do an end run around The Sheriff. He constructed a letter to those player/members of the PGA Tour Policy Board, which he titled: “Call To Action.”
First, perhaps CEO Andy didn’t take into consideration that the fellas from the Tour on the policy board are pretty loyal soldiers, their Chairman is Colonel Rory McIlroy. Rory read and acted upon this request in CEO Andy’s letter:
“As a member of the tour, I instruct you to obtain and publish an independent valuation of the PGL proposals.”
So Colonel McIlroy undertook CEO Andy’s challenge.
“We had Allen and Company (third party, independent evaluation team) present to the board in Orlando about the PGL proposal. They don’t think $10 billion by 2030 is feasible at all. They said you’d need to create 20 Ryder Cups a year from now until then to get to that number,” said Colonel McIlroy.
Board member Kevin Kisner added to McIlroy’s response with this observation: “the results were presented to us: not feasible.’’
Well, CEO Andy and his cronies had a one word response:
“Bull-Shit.”
Actually, that was the phrase used in a letter of response to the Allen and Company study . The letter in part, read:
“This is technically known as ‘bullshit.’”
The letter went on to state that Allen & Co, an investment bank, has never spoken to the group, nor had access to the information it would need to produce an accurate valuation. To counter the claims, the group suggests hiring independent experts to produce an independent valuation, and asks members to contact the PAC to force it to do so.
Hmm, sounds like The Barbarians are ready to gather their barristers.
Appears as though there’s an argument over who can and who cannot be deemed an “independent evaluator” for this situation.
And yes, it’s now a situation, adding to the already existing “situation” that being headed by The Lamest Commissioner In The Land (aka Greg Norman).
The problem now is that there is perhaps only room for one Band Of Barbarians.
And it’s not like The Lamest Commissioner In The Land (aka Greg Norman) wants to or would even consider becoming an ally of Andy Gardiner and his Premier Golf League.
So perhaps The Barbarians can first duke it out amongst themselves and let the winner continue pounding at the gates of the PGA Tour castle.
Perhaps the best suggestion:
Bring lawyers, guns and money.
Breaking News: Seems Phil Mickelson had gambling losses in the neighborhood of $40 million over the four-year period from 2010-2014. It’s one of the revelations in Alan Shipnuck’s upcoming book “Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar.” Lefty’s gambling losses were revealed back during the Billy Walters insider-trading investigation when the Feds conducted a hard look at Lefty’s finances.
The excerpt from Shipnuck’s book reads:
“According to a source with direct access to the documents, Mickelson had gambling losses totaling more than $40 million in the four-year period (2010–14) that was scrutinized. In those prime earning years, his income was estimated to be just north of $40 million a year. That’s an obscene amount of money, but once he paid his taxes (including the California tariffs he publicly railed against), he was left with, what, low-20s? Then he had to cover his plane and mansion(s), plus his agent, caddie, pilots, chef, personal trainer, swing coaches and sundry others. Throw in all the other expenses of a big life — like an actual T. Rex skull for a birthday present—and that leaves, what, $10 million?”
It was also inferred that money was part of the equation that ended the Phil-Bones, Player-Caddie team. The two split in 2017 — here’s the excerpt from Shipnuck’s book on that break-up, one that Phil described as “amicable”:
“That was nonsense. Bones had fired Phil at the ’17 Memorial, over a series of simmering grievances, including hundreds of thousands of dollars in overdue back pay.”
No wonder Lefty’s eyeballing the LIV Series.
’
6 Comments
jjgjr41
Edrington = Shipnuck, 2 losers.
Tom Edrington
Let’s see, Alan is one of the most decorated golf writers ever, I’ve got two national championships — pretty good for “losers” — how many national championships have you garnered in what you do for a living?
baxter cepeda
Tom I appreciate your responses as much as anyone but you don’t need to respond to these childish comments from people with really weird names;
Aka anonymous trolls.
Hey but at least he belt it short.
baxter cepeda
Stole the idea? Like the pga tour stole the idea of tournaments from the traditional golf organizations that hold the majors? Only for the pga tour to saturate the calendar with their tournaments? And then like some sort of gang or something threatening their peeps if they ever try to get out?
This is the most obvious business in the world. There has been threats on the pga tour for a long, long time as we know. Greg Norman has been pushing for decades.
The difference is the former commissioners of the pga tour have been able to hold the proverbial Barbarians at the door by being one step ahead.
Under this commissioner—whom as Finchems minion is now of a bygone era — doesn’t have the ever evolving barbarians at the door, they are in the door. They are starting to eat from his giant turkey.
As Tom describes in the story both Greg Norman/LIv/Saudis and this Andy/premier thing have tried to work with Monahan. But Monahan too fattened from his big turkeys didn’t have the vision of if you can’t beat them, let them joint you—along with their endless loot.
If Monahan just opened the door he could have still kinda been the leader of this whole thing; Stuck in the last he passed on all that.
Its not who had the idea first
To charge this weak sheriff — it’s about who put their money where their mouth is first.
And in a few weeks that’s going to be the Shark and LIv and the Saudis.
But for me it’s mainly the Shark, whom when this first actual tournament goes down in London next month, it will have started the culmination of a vision he imagined long ago of a tour designed to improve on the pga tours shortcomings.
Now I believe the pga tour can still align strategically with both these parties of barbarians. For their own good, imo, The sooner they do the more terms they will control, which would be a good thing. Eva use everyone wants the pga tour to remain extremely successful.
Ultimately it is about what is better for the players, which is the slogan the pga tour sell along with the charity thing. And the best thing fir the players is that anyone whom wants to throw fortunes at them to play golf should be entertained.
Imo There really is a way here for everyone to work together to bring astronomical amounts of new riches into the sport; allowing them all to continue getting richer and richer on the backs of professional tour golfers; just as the original kings of golf have been doing for centuries now.
Tom Edrington
The LIV Series will simply be a “PRE-Senior” Tour with over-the-hill guys like Westwood, Sergio, Luke Donald and such who are losing their ability to compete with the under 40 guys — too early for the Champions Tour so this is a 40-something money-grab — answer this Baxter: Would you pay $125 a day to go see those guys compete against a bunch of amateurs? Norman is “filling” his fields with amateurs —
baxter cepeda
I don’t pay for anything. But if my wife gets it I would rather watch the sergios (still my stars) and future stars of the world than the Corey conners.
Imo the world ranking is a young mans chart, but not necessarily a reflection of the sport stars that can still win majors. I think Sergio can still win majors. I think Phil can still win majors. I think these star amateurs can still min majors.
Ideally we see everybody strategically as often as possible.
Only one man and his organizations is trying to threaten to take away the possibility to see everyone if players ever play with someone else.
We paid over 100 $ for us opens, men and women. I get it it’s the us open. Like I said before I think Liv will adjust their prices accordingly depending on exactly what talent they have …for now. But in time some, as more and more stars come in for these epic money shootouts, people will pay, maybe even my wife. But probably not me no. I’m extremely proud of myself for getting two women mothers days gifts this year; which only happened because I found myself in a Maui mall while on trip to states; not a great performance but only two sisters and two girls from the same school in the top 10 (a school which will have a reality show on hbo about its famous high school football team; whose coaches “run” the golf team comprised mostly of my keiki).
All they needed was one more score to be in the team championship. But the big school that Obama and wie went to won the chip with only one chick in the top 15. But that young lady set the state champs record. And I know my girls can beat her. They have. And they will. Aloha.