PGA Tour board member Jamie Dunn goes on to explain the details of the partnership between the tour, DP World and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.
According to Dunn, players who stick with the tour rather than defect from LIV Golf will receive shares in the new for-profit company.
” the new [company] will grow and [current PGA Tour] “The players will receive a portion of the capital that will improve and increase in value over time,” Dunn said in an interview with ESPN. “There has to be some kind of decision made on how to do that. It will be a process to identify a fair mechanism that would really benefit our players.”
This follows barbs that the partnership will essentially reward players who leave the round for LIV, while players who stick with the round will have no way to make up for the money they have left at the table by choosing to decline offers from LIV. .
Players such as (to name a few) Hideki Matsuyama, John Rahm, Patrick Cantlay and Cameron Young have reportedly turned down contracts worth $100 million guaranteed to stay on tour, if not more.
Players who leave the round at LIV Golf will not be eligible to participate in the company’s new stock ownership plan.
Dunn said tour commissioner Guy Monahan will oversee LIV Golf under the new deal, which will allow him to determine whether the 54-hole premiership continues beyond this season. Mr. Manahan will assume the position of CEO of the new entity, while Yasser Al-Rumayyan, Governor of the Public Investment Fund, will chair the board.
If LIV Golf ceases to exist, Dunn said a panel of current tour members and officials will determine potential penalties for players who left for LIV but wanted to return to the tour.
“I think we will set up a committee, including players on tour, to assess the terms,” Dunn said. “Don’t forget that they are back on tour, so they need to make sure they will be good enough to continue playing, and they need to be prepared to incur a penalty for leaving.”
According to ESPN, the penalty will likely be considered on a case-by-case basis. For example, 11 players who continued the round after surrendering the LIV could face a heavier penalty than those who calmly jumped the opponent.
Leaf players [tour] Anyone who wants to return to the PGA Tour will have surgery [and] “Whatever the punishment is, they have to decide if they want to do it or not, and then they can play,” Dunn said.
