Last year, the golf world was hit with some rather shocking news that the PGA Tour was forming a sort of alliance with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf. But after a new partnership, one PGA Tour star doesn’t think that alliance is necessary anymore.
A new partnership with Strategic Sports Group could funnel $3 billion into the newly-created PGA Tour Enterprises, Jordan Spieth thinks the alliance with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund – and by extension, LIV Golf – is no longer necessary.
“I don’t think it’s needed,” Spieth said Wednesday according to ESPN. “The idea is that we have a strategic partner that allows the PGA Tour to go forward the way that it’s operating right now without anything else, with the option of other investors.”
The new “first-of-its-kind” program would allow 200 PGA Tour members to become equity holders in PGA Tour Enterprises, which Spieth seems to think is a game-changer for the Tour.
“The players are now owners,” Spieth said. “So not only do they benefit with the tour, they now are equity owners, so they want to push it themselves. They want to make the product better themselves. Not that they didn’t before, but you directly benefit from owning a piece.”
So there’s a chance that the alliance with LIV Golf might not need to happen after all.
