The historic alliance announced Friday between the PGA Tour and European Tour came after months of tense negotiations, and fended off a rival bid to take a stake in the European circuit by the private equity group fronting the Premier Golf League, multiple sources have confirmed to Golfweek.
The announced partnership includes collaboration on issues like media, playing opportunities, scheduling and prize funds and is widely seen as the first step toward an eventual merger of the two bodies.
Negotiations between the world’s two largest professional golf circuits had been taking place for months but had been complicated by a rival proposal submitted to the European Tour by The Raine Group, a private equity firm that has fronted the proposed Premier Golf League. The PGL concept—a breakaway circuit featuring brand-name players in highly-lucrative, limited-field tournaments with a team element—emerged in public earlier this year.
The proposed splinter Tour was dealt a blow in March when Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka — at the time the top three ranked players in the world — all publicly rejected the PGL, with McIlroy saying he objected to its source of financing, which was an investment fund controlled by the Saudi Arabian regime.
On November 26, Golfweek asked the European Tour’s communications director, Scott Crockett, to confirm the existence of both the Raine Group proposal and that of the PGA Tour. “We have no comment to make on this at this time,” Crockett replied by email. Hours later, the tentative deal with the Tour was announced.
Specifics of the partnership agreement between the Tours remain vague, but multiple sources told Golfweek it is likely to eventually include some marrying of schedules, most likely in the period from September to November, after the conclusion of the FedEx Cup, with a number of prestigious European events awarded FedEx Cup points to attract U.S.-based players to compete. It’s also believed a deal would include a pipeline to allow European Tour members to play their way on to the more lucrative PGA Tour.
All five sources who spoke with Golfweek about this story over the last week requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
An alliance with the PGA Tour offers financial stability to an old-world circuit that was struggling even before the pandemic upended the global economy. Aside from the Rolex Series — eight events with higher profiles and higher purses — most European tournament prize funds are dwarfed by even run-of-the-mill PGA Tour stops.
“The current ship is sinking,” insisted one source familiar with the inner workings of the European Tour. “Gravy days are over. $7 million for mediocre golf? Those days are gone.”
Specifics on the Raine Group offer have been kept under wraps. Several sources say it involved guaranteed financing for a number of regular Tour events, with the potential layering-on of a version of the PGL concept involving only elite players. It’s unclear if the Raine proposal still involved Saudi financing.
The prospect of Raine Group — and by extension, Premier Golf League — gaining a foothold through the European Tour caused dread among executives at the PGA Tour, which views the PGL as a potential existential threat should it successfully lure major stars away with the promise of huge paydays. A number of sources said the Raine Group proposal was always unlikely to win favor with the European Tour’s board and was being used as leverage to secure better terms from the PGA Tour, which was keen to ensure the PGL did not secure the infrastructure and tournament network from which it could launch its own rival operation.
An alliance — and a possible eventual merger — between the Tours also brings into play a compelling subplot: the Ryder Cup. A merger would give the PGA Tour effective control of Europe’s side of the Ryder Cup business, in addition to enormous sway over all 24 players on the teams. Armed with that, the Tour could then seek a greater share of the substantial revenue the Cup generates, potentially leading to a showdown with the PGA of America, which owns the other half of the event.
“If you’re the PGA Tour, why wouldn’t you want to flip those economics in your favor?” said one veteran golf industry executive who has been keeping tabs on the merger talks.
