Rory McIlroy has already said he’s not interested.
So did Bubba Watson:
“It doesn’t matter to me, I’m playing on the PGA Tour,” Bubba Watson said. “Why go anywhere else, we have the best tour in the world?”
PGA Tour Commish Jay Monhan has declared war on the upstart Premier Golf League — basically telling tour members “it’s either them of us.”
Tiger Woods says his people “are looking into it.”
Phil Mickelson said he’s studying it.
Well the formerly faceless PGL now has a face — British financier Andrew Gardiner, who is purported to be the new CEO of the would-be league.
The PGL now has a Twitter account as well.
“A true test of the best,” said Gardiner, the current director of Barclays Capital, whose vision sees the PGL one day sitting at the top of the golf-competition pyramid.
Gardiner offered many details of the world-tour concept, some of which have already been reported. The league, which is aimed to launch in January 2022, will feature 48 players competing among 12 four-person teams (similar to the Formula One racing circuit) in 18 no-cut, 54-hole tournaments with purses of $10 million each. The events will be played in four continents: 10 in the U.S., four in Asia (including one in the Middle East), three in Europe and one in Australia.
“We want as many people to watch this sport as possible because we believe that there is a connection between the number of people who will watch (golf) and the number of people who will actually play it. This is in the best interest of the game,” Gardiner said.
Gardiner said the proposed league as financial backing and has built relationships with many people in the game. Of course he didn’t give any specifics on that.
Then he said what everyone suspects:
“This only happens if everybody wants it to happen, and that includes the best players in the world,” Gardiner said.
“This could be forgotten in a few weeks’ time,” Gardiner said, “or this, 30 years from now could be looked back upon as the change that was good from the game and made it stronger.”
