Editorial: Forget Legacy; The PGA Tour Is All About Money and Monopoly

 

Editorial: Forget Legacy; The PGA Tour Is All About Money and Monopoly 

 

“We’re all about legacy.” That’s what PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan told reporters earlier this year while attempting to differentiate his tour from the Greg Norman-helmed LIV Golf league, which promised players guaranteed money and bigger purses than the PGA Tour, and is making its Chicago debut at Rich Harvest Farms golf club in Sugar Grove this week. According to Monahan, history, tradition, and legacy are far more important than money on the PGA Tour. Unfortunately, even the most casual observer can see the commissioner is full of what makes the proverbial Bermuda grass grow.  
 
It's clear that money, and maintaining their monopolistic control over professional golf, are the only things that the PGA Tour cares about. For starters, even Monahan’s own players don’t subscribe to his “legacy” theory. Look no further than Golf Digest’s recurring “Undercover Tour Pro” column, in which unnamed PGA Tour players are given anonymity to share their true feelings about the game.  
 
“There are maybe 10 guys out here playing for history,” opined the anonymous pro. “I'd say the vast majority of us are playing strictly for the money.” So much for legacy, Mr. Commissioner. The same player doubled down later in the piece, saying that he’d rather win a FedEx Cup title, and its $18 million bonus, than almost any legacy-building major championship.  
 
The PGA Tour should understand this motivation because, at the end of the day, they prioritize money over legacy too. Just ask the folks at Firestone Country Club. Starting in 1962, the PGA Tour hosted one of its most prestigious, legacy-making events at the historic Akron, Ohio course. For more than half a century, Firestone was a signature tournament on the PGA Tour calendar, its status cemented by Tiger Woods’ incredible eight wins at the event.  
 
But the Tour tossed Firestone’s legacy and tradition on the scrap heap in 2019 when FedEx, the Tour’s biggest sponsor, wanted the marquee event moved to Memphis near their global headquarters. And just like that, after nearly 60 years at Firestone, the PGA Tour picked up shop and moved the tournament to Tennessee to appease their biggest sponsor. So much for legacy.  
 
Or take the PGA’s disregard for the fate of Chicago’s historic Western Open. Founded in 1899, the Western Open is believed to be the third-oldest golf tournament in the world, behind only the Open Championship (1860) and the U.S. Open (1895). Played throughout the Midwest in its early years, the tournament was held primarily in the Chicago-land area starting in 1962, with occasional forays to other Midwest destinations like Missouri or Indiana.  
 
Yet the PGA Tour once again abandoned the roots of this historic event, presumably due to profit hunting and sponsor demand. Three of the five most recent iterations of the historic Midwest tournament were played in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware, which I suppose qualifies as “Western” if you live in Bermuda.  
 
The PGA Tour’s legacy-destroying homogenizing of this historic tournament elicited headlines like “Whatever Happened to My Western Open?” from the Chicago Golf Report, and even prompted the usually Tour-friendly Golf Channel to write, “If the Tour and the Western Golf Association are married to the event’s vagabond existence, may we suggest the circuit not stray too far away from the 312 area code. The [tournament] should rotate, but only within the confines of Chicago-land, nothing else makes sense.” 
 
But to truly understand how the almighty dollar trumps all when it comes to the PGA Tour, you simply have to look at the Tour’s hypocrisy in  terms of banning its own players for playing in LIV Golf tournaments that are funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund while simultaneously accepting millions in sponsorship deals from companies like FedEx, AT&T, Citi, and Boeing, and dozens others who take investments from and do business with Saudi Arabia as well.   
 
It is clear that rather than helping professional golfers maximize their earning potential and earn their fair share of the tremendous value they generate – which, let’s not forget, is the reason the PGA Tour receives non-profit, tax-exempt status to begin with – the Tour is solely concerned with maintaining its monopoly control over pro golf and the riches that go with it, even if that means suspending players for playing in Saudi-funded golf tournaments while also doing business with Saudi-funded sponsors.  
 
Which brings us back to the PGA Tour’s total hypocrisy; a for-profit sports league disguised as a non-profit charity that pays no taxes on $1.5 billion in revenue claiming that it somehow prioritizes tradition and “legacy” above all else, all while suspending players for making the same business decisions as its invaluable corporate sponsors. The PGA Tour is focused on one thing – making as much money as they can, and they should stop criticizing and banning golfers for wanting to do the same.  
 
  

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