Scott Rabalais: Stunning PGA Tour/LIV Golf/DP Tour merger may endanger Zurich Classic

Who needs to watch “Succession” when you’ve got the cloak and dagger machinations of professional golf?

On the 79th anniversary of D-Day at Normandy, the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf announced their armistice day Tuesday. The three entities plan to merge and create a huge men’s golf global entity, bringing to an end the most contentious year in the game since feathery golf balls were replaced by Gutta-Percha.

Sort of.

Sports Illustrated’s Michael Rosenberg called it one of the biggest stunners in sports history. It would be hard to argue. But the blowback, from the PGA Tour’s own players to 9/11 Families United to some faction of disgusted fans and golf media (position me just to the right of Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee) means this isn’t over yet by a long shot.

“There’s going to be a little bit of carnage along the way,” PGA Tour player Geoff Ogilvy said after a heated players-only meeting with PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan at this week’s Canadian Open in Toronto.

That sentence, to borrow a golf phrase, becomes the leader in the clubhouse as the sports understatement of the year.

Players from Ogilvy to Tiger Woods to Rory McIlroy and others were blindsided by the agreement that took shape over the past seven weeks, according to a timeline publicized by Monahan and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) that bankrolls LIV Golf. So were people like Steve Worthy, CEO of the Fore!Kids Fondation and tournament director of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

Worthy released this statement Tuesday morning:

“We are as surprised as everyone else by this announcement. We have received no information beyond what is in today’s (PGA Tour) press release, but we are hoping for some clarity soon on how this will affect our tournament and our ability to generate funds for children’s charities in the New Orleans area. As soon as we learn more, we will share with our partners, sponsors and fans.”

One of the unknowns is how the schedule of three tours will come together, possibly as early as 2024. But to use Ogilvy’s phrase, there could well be carnage for the rank and file events like the Zurich or the John Deere Classic or the Wyndham Championship.

For them, this is a nervous time. The same is true for the local charities those events support.

The Zurich Classic, under many names, has been a fixture in professional golf in some form dating back to 1938 and has been played every year since 1958. It is the sixth-oldest non-major event on the PGA Tour. And since 1958, it has raised over $45 million for New Orleans area charities.

Maybe if the Zurich goes away the Saudis will cut those charities a severance check from the multi-billion dollar PIF. That would be the height of “sportswashing,” which is what this is all about for the despotic Saudi regime, wouldn’t it?

Of course, as this news broke, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Saudi Arabia on a trip designed to repair ties with a country that, no matter how you feel about its government, is a key ally in the Middle East. And those who say PGA Tour sponsors do business in the kingdom are right as well. The world, geopolitically, is a complicated place.

By and large, the average golf fan will be pleased about the proposed merger. It will bring the players who broke away to play LIV Golf — stars like Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson and new PGA champion Brooks Koepka and former Zurich and British Open champion Cameron Smith — back to playing against PGA Tour stalwarts like McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas more often than just in the four majors. Of course, there still has to be a path back to the PGA Tour or DP Tour membership for those blackballed LIV Golf players.

But it’s coming. This announcement wouldn’t have been made if that wasn’t happening eventually.

For those sports fans who say, “Who cares? I don’t like golf,” or “So what? A bunch of golf millionaires are going to get richer off of Saudi billionaires,” consider with NBC Sports’ Mike Tirico said on Golf Channel on Tuesday.

What is the next target for the Saudi’s PIF money, Tirico asked. What if it’s to provide NIL money to athletes in the Southeastern Conference?

What would that impact be? Would they or could they be rebuffed? Could the PIF offer players enough money to dictate which schools they play for? It’s fantastical to think about, but a lack of imagination is what gets you blindsided in the first place.

Those of us who care about and cover golf were all naïve to think that this grand golf merger was not about to happen. No sports fan should be naïve enough to think that the NFL or the NBA or college sports might not be next.