Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy are currently not on the same page as they relate to the PGA Tour, which is affiliated with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF).
McIlroy believes the tour should continue discussions with PIF, the sovereign wealth fund that funds LIV Golf, but Spieth doesn’t see a need for that.
Spieth’s comments came on the same day the PGA Tour announced a partnership with Strategic Sports Group (SSG). SSG is made up of a consortium of American professional sports owners who will work together to invest up to $3 billion in a new for-profit entity called PGA Tour Enterprises.
“I don’t think that’s the case. [an agreement with PIF] I needed it,” Spieth said ahead of this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
“At this point, if the PIF is interested in agreeing to terms that its members prefer, and/or whether the economic terms are beyond the SSG…I think discussions will start from there.”
According to Sports Illustrated’s Alex Miceli, Spieth called McIlroy after making those comments Wednesday. Removed myself from group text Comprised of the top players on tour.
“I just want to get out of contention a little bit,” McIlroy said. “I talked to him about his comments. And we had a pretty frank discussion.”
Spieth replaced McIlroy as a member of the PGA Tour’s policy committee this fall after he resigned.
“If I had been the original investor, I would have thought they would have closed this deal in July, but now I’m hearing board members say they don’t really need them. But what’s going on with them?’ If you think about it, how do they feel about it? ” McIlroy said of his phone call with Spieth.
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“They’re still sitting there with hundreds of billions, if not trillions of dollars, that they’re going to pour into it.” [our] Sports.and what do i know [Spieth] I absolutely know what he was saying and what he was trying to say. But if I had been his PIF and heard about it from here the day after I made the deal with SSG, I wouldn’t have been so happy, would I?
Earlier this week, McIlroy completely changed his tune regarding Saudi PIF and LIV Golf. Quite simply, McIlroy wants to see golf reunited.
“I changed my mind because I realized what golf was all about,” McIlroy said Tuesday.
“For the PGA Tour or LIV Tour or any other event to be scaled back is not good for both parties. For the benefit of the game, it would be much better to stay together and move forward together. That’s my opinion. .”
Spieth doesn’t want to see the sport divided either. He just has a different perspective on the tour’s current negotiations.
But these differences of opinion represent the whole tour. Multiple players at Pebble Beach acknowledged that. But in the coming months, the PGA Tour must keep its members informed, engaged and informed. Otherwise, you will continue to lose your LIV membership, reduce the value of your products, and ultimately disappoint your new investment partners.
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through.Be sure to check it out @_PlayingThrough Cover more golf. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko In the same way.
