Increase in endowments, overhaul of the calendar: the boss of the North American Golf Tour (PGA), Jay Monahan, made several proposals on Tuesday to counter the emergence of the lucrative dissident league LIV financed by Saudi Arabia.
After issuing a memo to players discussing increased prize money for eight big events and an improved schedule starting next year, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said made another strong statement Wednesday during his press conference ahead of the Travelers Championship. “As I said to the players (Tuesday), let me be clear, I’m not naive. If this is an arms race, and if the only weapons here are dollar bills, the PGA Tour can’t compete with a foreign monarchy that’s spending billions of dollars trying to buy the golf gameMonahan told Cromwell, Conn. referring to the LIV Golf Series.
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«We welcome good and healthy competition. The LIV Saudi Golf League is not that. It’s an irrational threat, unconcerned with ROI or true game growth.The PGA Tour has opted to reduce the number of members receiving full exemptions each season and added a three-stop series of international events.
The memo sent to players includes purse increases for the Sentry Tournament of Champions ($15 million), Genesis Invitational ($20 million), Arnold Palmer Invitational ($20 million), Players Championship ($25 million). million), Dell Technologies WGC-Match Play ($20 million), Memorial ($20 million), FedEx St. Jude ($20 million) and BMW Championship ($20 million). “These increases will be financed by the support of sponsors and supplemented in the short term by the operating reserve.», Monahan said in the memo. Please note that these resource allocation plan changes do not affect previously announced prize money increases for other events.»
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In addition, the memo outlines a return to a calendar year schedule, with the FexExCup contested from January through August, culminating in the playoffs and fall events to determine the top 125. The first full year of this system will be 2024.
Under the current system, the top 125 qualify for the first elimination round. The top 70 in the standings move on to the next event, and the top 30 in that event participate in the elite Tour Championship. Next season, the top 70 players by FedEx Cup points will qualify for the first play-off tournament, the FedEx St. Jude Championship. The top 50 will then qualify for the BMW Championship, and the top 30 will go to the Tour Championship at East Lake.
The torch has been burning for several months in the world of golf around the creation of the LIV circuit. Backed by Saudi Arabia and former champion Greg Norman, the LIV Golf, with an extraordinary budget, aligns unprecedented endowments on the greens ($25 million per tournament for only three days of competition instead of four) and has already attracted several renowned golfers such as Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau.
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