What PGA Tour/PIF merger success looks like, according to Jay Monahan

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan stepped to the rostrum on Tuesday morning on the Tour Championship and delivered the reply everyone already knew.

“We remain confident that we will reach a positive outcome for the PGA Tour,” he mentioned of the framework settlement with the Saudi PIF — a shapeshifting piece of legalese that now dominates most of his waking hours as Tour chief.

The downside was that he’d deftly prevented the reply everyone wished to know: what does a “positive outcome” even appear to be?

“What is a positive outcome? It’s what I said earlier,” Monahan mentioned, sidestepping the direct query in a fashion so spectacular it ought to have introduced a tear to the attention of the PR flaks in attendance.

And what, precisely, had Monahan mentioned about 10 questions earlier a few “positive outcome” for the PGA Tour? Well, nearly nothing.

“Our commitment [is] to moving from the divisive nature of the relationship we had to a productive one, for us to be able to make a fundamental transition to our business with the formation of NewCo, to have an investable entity for PIF to believe able to invest in that previously didn’t exist, for the PGA Tour to be in control of the future of men’s professional golf and for us to be partners.”

This, it appeared, was as shut because the world would get to gleaning specifics from the PGA Tour on the state of the framework settlement with the PIF — a non-answer referencing a earlier non-answer. Never thoughts that the settlement guarantees to dramatically change the state of the Tour and the panorama {of professional} golf. Never thoughts that Monahan is one in every of a small handful of individuals with the requisite data to share such info publicly. It wasn’t taking place.

But then, as if propelled by some divine drive, Monahan continued his reply — revealing for the primary time a collection of small however extremely notable particulars concerning the form of the settlement with the PIF.

“For fans, [a positive outcome is] for us to be able to use the capital to be able to invest back in our product,” Monahan mentioned. “You know, to do things like further reduce commercial inventory in our broadcast, to further invest in our data businesses, to further invest in our media business, to potentially invest in entities and companies that we think are going to help us grow and diversify our fan base and the game.”

Whoa — now that counts as notable. Commercials throughout golf broadcasts are one of many greatest gripes shared by golf followers. An settlement permitting the Tour the money to present fewer of them throughout the common event broadcast can be an enormous enchancment to the viewing expertise. Other potential “media partner” enhancements — like each shot reside, the wholesale growth of ShotLink or the growth of the Tour’s weekly broadcast manufacturing price range — would solely serve to compound these constructive adjustments felt by followers.

These adjustments aren’t superior right this moment for a myriad of causes, however essentially the most distinguished of them is cash. In brief, the Tour is overleveraged, working on a fragile steadiness of appeasing each sponsors and gamers, each of that are important items of its total monetary puzzle. In order to maintain purses rising (and TV contracts growing), the Tour has been compelled to squeeze each penny from its rights agreements and event sponsors, which has meant adjusting the telecast’s business mannequin to promote extra promoting and, by extension, generate extra income. The margins are nonetheless snug for the Tour, sure, however the Tour has deemed the margins aren’t snug sufficient to forfeit cash so as to put money into the Tour product or the game extra broadly.

But if one other entity have been to present the Tour with an enormous money infusion — say, $3 billion from a overseas sovereign wealth fund — to use because it sees match, these margins would start to shift. There can be much less strain on the Tour to preserve its present monetary mannequin so stringently, and extra freedom to make enhancements.

“We’re not an organization that has the capital to invest, so to be able to be in that position and do that productively and constructively for the Tour and our players, but also for the game,” Monahan mentioned. “I think the thing that I’m thinking about is you get the question about 2025, but it’s also, you know, where are you going to be in 10 or 15 years?”

This, for the primary time, reveals a number of the true motivation behind the Tour’s abrupt choice to companion with the Saudis. Yes, these different pesky points (litigation, friendship, management) have been key in pushing a deal nearer to the end line, but it surely was these upsides (and, one presumes, many extra which might be nonetheless being negotiated) that made the settlement definitely worth the vital draw back.

Of course, there’s a cogent argument to be made that fewer commercials, glitzier broadcasts and greater paydays don’t essentially equate to the worth misplaced by cozying up to a rustic with an abhorrent document of human rights violations and violent therapy towards marginalized teams. And, there’s one other cogent argument to be made that in 10 or 15 years, the broader, extra numerous viewers turned away from the sport by these selections would possibly show unreachable even with all the cash on the earth.

But it’s no less than helpful to hear Monahan clarify the advantages of the brand new settlement in phrases extra particular than platitudes. And it’s useful for him to define a number of the imaginative and prescient for the pot of gold promised to skilled golf on the opposite facet of this deeply divisive rainbow.

“We have a responsibility to [grow the sport] in addition to making this the strongest Tour it can possibly be,” he mentioned. “I think it allows us to do both. So that to me is a successful outcome.”

As he completed that thought on Tuesday morning, Monahan paused as soon as extra, and silence fell over the press room on the Tour Championship for a beat.

For only a second, the PGA Tour had offered extra solutions than questions.

James Colgan

Golf.com Editor

James Colgan is a information and options editor at GOLF, writing tales for the web site and journal. He manages the Hot Mic, GOLF’s media vertical, and makes use of his on-camera expertise throughout the model’s platforms. Prior to becoming a member of GOLF, James graduated from Syracuse University, throughout which era he was a caddie scholarship recipient (and astute looper) on Long Island, the place he’s from. He could be reached at james.colgan@golf.com.