Jordan Spieth, Scottie Scheffler Voicing Their Frustrations About Being 'In The Dark' On Golf Merger Puts Things In An Even Fuzzier Perspective | Mark Harris
Tuesday's U.S. Senate Subcommittee hearing about the proposed merger between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF) didn't provide the golf world any clarity. It was an opportunity for politicians to draw opposing lines in the sand about doing business with Saudi Arabia while exposing how poor of shape the PGA Tour appears to be in.
The one overarching takeaway from the hearing - and the hundreds of pages of documents about the proposed deal - is that the players have had absolutely nothing to do with any of it. The re-shaping of professional golf as we know it is in the hands of a few businessmen and women with exceptionally deep pockets.
We of course already knew this given that Rory McIlroy, the most-influential golfer on the planet not named Tiger Woods, said he only heard about the merger hours before PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan sat with PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan on MSNB to announce it.
Jordan Spieth knows no details about the PGA Tour - LIV merger, which is telling. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
Jordan Spieth, Scottie Scheffler Don't Have The Slightest Clue Of What's Going On
The subcommittee hearing only made that point that much clearer, and the likes of Jordan Spieth and Scottie Scheffler aren't exactly pleased with this new reality.
What seems to be grinding the gears of many players is that the PGA Tour was once a player-run organization, but has quickly turned into an organization where deals get done behind closed doors, in a secret meeting room, at an undisclosed location.
"Honestly we're very much in the dark on it. I don't sit on the board and I'm not on the PAC either. You talk to a lot of other players, it's been quite a shock from the get-go," Spieth said.
"I mean, it's a member-run organization with a voluntary board that's supposed to look out for the interests of the PGA Tour players on the board. I don't believe that these decisions had to be made without involving, call it players on the board and other board members."
Scottie Scheffler is frustrated about the 'player-run' PGA Tour abandoning that model. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Scheffler had a similar takeaway after watching a bit of the subcommittee hearing from Scotland.
"I just think that yesterday we didn't really learn a whole lot again," Scheffler explained. "As a player on Tour, we still don't really have a lot of clarity as to what's going on and that's a bit worrisome.
"They keep saying it's a player-run organization but we don't really have the information that we need. I watched part of yesterday and didn't learn anything."
It goes without saying, but these are unprecedented times in the world of professional golf. The fact that two of the biggest names in the entire sport, two faces of the PGA Tour, are admitting to the media that they feel completely in the dark is beyond telling. These comments from both golfers also come a full five weeks after the initial announcement, to put things into a timely perspective.
At this point in time, it's hard to imagine the proposed merger not making its way through the U.S. Government hoops and becoming a reality, what that reality looks like however is a complete and total mystery. The handful of people in the room making the decisions may not even know what it looks like.
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