PGA Tour boss on Premier Golf League: It's either us or them
PGA Tour commissioner makes things very clear to Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and co...
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has sent out a detailed letter to players addressing the circuit's thoughts about a proposed new Premier Golf League interfering with their FedEx Cup schedule.
News first broke over the weekend via golf journalist Geoff Shackelford that British-based World Golf Group has announced its structure for a new professional Tour - the Premier Golf League - comprising of 18 annual events for 48 players.
According to a Golf Channel report, Monahan outlined that the PGA Tour had not been in contact with officials from the Premier Golf League, and that the proposed world golf tour would be going against the Tour's lucrative season-long FedEx Cup.
"The schedule for the Team Golf Concept [Premier Golf League] is designed to directly compete and conflict with the PGA Tour’s FedExCup schedule, and to not conflict with [and would be in addition to] the Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open and The Open Championship," read Monahan's statement.
It also stated: "If the Team Golf Concept or another iteration of this structure becomes a reality in 2022 or at any time before or after, our members will have to decide whether they want to continue to be a member of the PGA Tour or play on a new series."
It also reads: "We understand that Team Golf Concept is focused on securing player commitments first as they have no sponsorship or media offerings or right."
The stance from the PGA Tour would appear to very much echo what Ernie Els explained to the media earlier this week, when revealing he experienced something similar when Greg Norman attempted a breakaway world golf tour back in 1995.
It is understood that the PGA Tour will be making "significant increases in prize money and comprehensive earnings over the next decade" as a result of media rights deals and other revenue streams.
Now it remains to be seen what the likes of the world's best will decide to do should the Premier Golf League go ahead with its plans to tee off in either 2021 or 2022.
