Pandemic in Golf :PGA Tour cuts off Agreement with liv golf after years of partnership š„š„š„
What if PGA Tour, LIV Golf never come to an agreement? | Kostis & McCord
By: Josh Berhow
Purses are up, but ratings aren’t. Why the economics of pro golf are concerning
The PGA Tourās purses are increasing, but its ratings arenāt. Itās a difficult conundrum for the Tour and commissioner Jay Monahan, who spoke (vaguely) about this issue during his end-of-the-year press conference at the Tour Championship last month.
āI think when you look at 2024, itās important to note, and Iām going to note it, that overall consumption across our platforms in aggregate is up,ā Monahan said. āThatās a really good sign for the PGA Tour and the engagement that we have with our fans.ā (As our James Colgan notes, though, there are layers to that answer.)
The sportās inflated purses and lackluster TV ratings were a major topic on the latest episode of āKostis & McCord: Off Their Rockers,ā a GOLF production ā and pro golfās current divide is correlated to both.
Jay Monahan at the Tour Championship.
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Peter Kostis brought up the fact that World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler earned more than $62 million in 2024, which (adjusted for inflation) was about double Jack Nicklausā career earnings. And todayās growing purses largely are due to the Tour needing to compete with LIV Golfās mega money. Kostis wondered if it was all sustainable.
āEverythingās been thrown out of whack and I think in part thatās one of the things that caused people to lose interest in watching the game,ā Kostis said. āItās lost a little bit of its speciality.ā
Kostis added that the different tiers of the sport also are an issue.
āWe have a Tour with the āAā league and the āBā league,ā he said. āWe have the top 50 playing in their Signature Events and then the B league scrambling around to do whatever. Itās utter chaos right now; we have to figure out our way out of this and we got to do it soon. I think Rory was spot on when he said we need a resolution to this sooner rather than later because I donāt think the public is going to put up with it very much longer. In my opinion, under the believe it or not category, will it happen or wonāt it happen, I think [a merger with LIV] will never happen right now. I think we are headed toward two leagues. I think we are headed toward a league that is primarily internationally focused and then we have obviously the PGA Tour, which is domestically focused. Maybe theyāll figure out a way for them to play the majors and a couple other events. I donāt see this coming to a resolution anytime soon.ā
Added McCord: āI wish someone would come and ring and bell and say, āOK, hereās what we are going to do. In six months weāre going to merge, weāre going to do this, or we are not going to merge,ā whatever. But this vagueness thatās going on now in this sport completely overshadowed Scottie Schefflerās year; he had one of the great years in the history of golf.ā
For more on the topic, or to watch the entire episode, click on the video below.
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