Immediately following The Players Championship, PGA Tour Policy Committee members met for the first time with Yasir Al Rumayyan, President of the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF).
PIF, which funds LIV Golf, signed a framework agreement with the PGA Tour last year in hopes of reuniting professional golf. However, discussions and negotiations towards a larger agreement are still in the early stages, as this first meeting served as a kind of “ice-breaker”.
Either way, Chris DiMarco, a three-time PGA Tour winner and runner-up to Tiger Woods at Augusta National in 2005, has an idea.
he I want LIV Golf to buy it. The PGA Tour Champions is a circuit for players age 50 and older.
“We expect LIV to acquire the Champions Tour,” DiMarco told Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz. substandard Podcast.
“Let’s play for a little bit of real money here. I mean, we’re getting $2 million and this is kind of a joke. Last week we had like seven people from TPC. [Sawgrass] It generated more money than our wallets. ”
Last week at the Hogue Classic, Padraig Harrington won on the final hole, finishing one stroke behind Thongchai Jaydee and winning $300,000.
Meanwhile, on the PGA Tour, Peter Malnati won the Valspar Championship, a full-field non-signature event, for $1,512,000.
Last week, The Players had a purse of $25 million, and Scottie Scheffler won $4.5 million for finishing at the top of the leaderboard.
Sam Ryder, Doug Zim and Sepp Straka all tied for 16th place and took home $406,250 in prize money. That was more than $100,000 more than Harrington earned for his seventh PGA Tour Champions victory.
Knowing this, DiMarco is frustrated by the relatively small purse size on the Champions Tour. But the problem is that a PGA Tour champion doesn’t have the same recognition or sponsorship as the PGA Tour. Therefore, the wallet size cannot match what we see on the PGA Tour, which has inflated significantly in recent years to counter the rise of LIV golf.
PIF has $770 billion in assets and has reportedly already committed nearly $2 billion to fund LIV Golf. Athletes received millions of dollars for participating in the Saudi-backed circuit. The most notable is Jon Rahm, who received more than $400 million.
Still, DiMarco understands why some players jumped at LIV Golf to receive guaranteed money.
“They wanted to play for big money and they deserve it. They’ve had great careers. Why not go get the money?” DiMarco added.
“I met Graeme McDowell in the Old Memorial Pro Membership and he said, ‘Listen, I’ve been there.’ [PGA Tour Commissioner] Jay Monaghan told me that I love the tour, but I’m having a hard time keeping my card, and they’re giving me all this money and playing less golf. Sorry, I’ll go. ‘And I don’t blame him one bit and I said I would too. ”
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.
