Outgoing DP World Tour Boss Says Golf's Focus Needs to Be Global
The outgoing head of the DP World Tour said golf needs to embrace the idea of being a global sport as it heads toward an agreement that unifies the game and suggested that PGA Tour players and administrators might have been slow to embrace that strategy.
Keith Pelley, the CEO of DP World Tour who last week announced that he would be leaving to take a job with Maple Leaf Sports in Toronto, reiterated Tuesday that he believes a deal with the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia—which backs LIV Golf—is imminent.
But in comments to reporters at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, including those from the Guardian and Golf Digest, Pelley said that such a coming together requires American golfers to look beyond the United States.
The PGA Tour, which is negotiating with Strategic Sports Group, a private equity consortium that includes Fenway Sports Group, is looking to bolster its bottom line via investment in a new for-profit company that would include the PIF.
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The June 6 "framework agreement" negotiated between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF would see all of this come together.
"The growth of the game is global," Pelley said. “I think that’s where the focus needs to be. I think with the emergence of FSG, which owns Liverpool (a Premier League soccer club), they understand the importance of global. PIF certainly understands the importance of being global. This is a global game. Every business now that is growing wants to be global. What I would like to see is the game becoming unified with a global strategy.
"I think the PGA Tour is coming to the realization is global is the key for the growth. They have heard me say it once or twice."
Pelley said that while it is not part of the initial talks that will lead to an agreement, he can foresee a time when players might have to give up their independent contractor status or at least commit to a minimum number of events as part of the new entity.
"That’s what the aspirational goal is down the road," Pelley said. "That’s what the game is moving towards. Look at last week. The Dubai Invitational was a success because Rory (McIlroy) and Tommy (Fleetwood) produced a magical performance on Sunday. Tournaments are different when Rory plays. Tournaments are different when Tommy and Tyrrell (Hatton) are here and all the top players play. That concept of having all the top players play, and knowing when they play, is a great model for success.
“I used to run the Toronto Blue Jays. We had a shortstop by the name of José Reyes. José never once came up to me and said: ‘I'm not playing in the Baltimore series.’ He never said, ‘You know what I'm not going to play in Philadelphia because I'm going to go away with my family for the weekend.’ That is one of the biggest challenges the game faces. The top players need to be playing with top players more. And that’s where we're moving towards.”
The original concept of LIV Golf and its forerunner, Premier Golf League, was to bring the top players together in small fields with guaranteed money. The PGA Tour has now added signature events in which the top 50 from the previous year’s FedEx Cup standings are guaranteed spots in eight $20 million events.
For the game to come back together with the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf players all competing in the same events, some sort of similar format will be necessary—all still to be determined.
“Our goal is to unify the game,” said Pelley, who asked to stay in his role until April as he sees the negotiations coming together before then. “I don’t think all of the dialogue that has happened has been positive for the game and I think that the game is growing at a rapid pace coming out of COVID. The professional game needs to be unified to capitalize on the growth of the amateur game. There’s so many wonderful things happening in our game.
“That’s what the whole concept was behind the framework agreement, and I think some of the top players in the U.S. are starting to realize that that’s exactly what the purpose of the framework agreement was. It was to unify the game.
“Unfortunately after that framework agreement, some of the top players in the United States didn’t support it, which we needed them to support. I think they are realizing now that the best way forward is to unify the game. I think we will know the direction of travel over the next couple of months.”