A Costly Mistake? Did Keith Pelley Squander the Chance of Being on the Lucrative Side of History?

If only Keith Pelley said ‘yes’ in that meeting with PIF officials three years ago. Jay Monahan and Yasir Al-Rumayyan have garnered the spotlight so much that it has slowly erased from the public psyche that the DP World Tour is also a party in the $3B framework agreement. Now that Keith Pelley, the European Tour CEO, has decided to step down, his legacy has been put under the scanner.

Under the microscope, seemingly unnoticed moments, like the fact that Pelley was the first to meet PIF officials, continue to resurface. The meeting in Malta, where the first draft of LIV Golf was shown to the other side, had the potential to be a watershed moment. Especially for the DP World Tour.

However, Pelley & Co. rejected the Saudi advancements and bolstered the strategic alliance with the PGA Tour. Four years later, as both parties slowly come to terms with the PIF-funded side, with the latter arguably having more leverage, will the Canadian CEO kick himself for his previous decision?

What was the Saudi proposal?

Much of it remains in the dark, as it was a clandestine meeting. The meeting, notably, happened in July 2021, allegedly brokered by DP World, per Bunkered. The Dubai-based logistics company, at that time the European Tour’s soon-to-be partner, got to know about Saudi overtures in the golf world and proposed a meeting with the European Tour board.

Pelley, along with Guy Kinnings, who will become the next CEO after his departure, attended the two-day meeting where PIF officials and Golf Saudi representatives offered the European side future investment plans. The first of those was creating global events within the DP World Tour and Asian Tour International series.

The total purse size was slated to be $42.5 million over five years and a $10 million partnership investment for the same period. That part was not very confounding for any parties involved. But the second part is where the European Tour had misgivings.

Why did Keith Pelley reject the proposal?

PIF officials also floated the idea of creating their league with equity stakes offered to the European Tour. A 5% stake in the Team franchise, multi-million-dollar incentives, and a chair on the management board were on the table. The tangible value reached somewhere between $500 and $800 million, per insiders, although, in a future press conference, the DPWT chief would call these figures a little exaggerated.

Moreover, Keith Pelley had already heard the same proposal in the form of the Premier Golf League a few months ago and rejected it. Naturally, this time too, Pelley & Co. pulled the plug. The Canadian, keeping in mind the ongoing strategic alliance with the PGA Tour, suggested the post-FedEx Cup off-season as a favorable window for the Saudi side.

Pelley wanted two events in Europe, one in Saudi Arabia and one in Dubai. However, PIF officials didn’t agree to the proposal. Nevertheless, the 60-year-old brought it back to the board, where it was eventually rejected.

How would DPWT have benefited from the Saudi money?

One upside of agreeing to the PIF proposal was having a steady source of money flowing into its coffers. The purse size, predictably, would have been much higher than the current ones. Pelley roped in DP World as the title sponsor, ostentatiously to swerve around the threat of a Saudi incursion.

The big-money events, as the recently concluded Hero Dubai Desert Classic shows, draw in more star players. The partnership with the Dubai-based company arguably increased the European Tour’s global footprints—this year alone, the Tour will touch down 24 countries—but as many pointed out, the events suffer from a lack of enthusiasm due to the relative lack of star power.

Moreover, what Keith Pelley dubbed the “important first step” in the strategic alliance, Monahan also offered tour cards to the ten best players on the European side. Last year, Robert McIntyre and Adrian Meronk benefited from this. The problem? Long-term damage to the European Tour and the slow erosion of its former glory.

What do current players and veterans think of Keith Pelley?

The DP World Tour, instead of becoming a force in itself, has been reduced to the European Korn Ferry Tour. That’s how a few veterans and former pros assess the situation. A veteran golfer lamented to GolfDigest that the European Tour will be reduced to a secondary Tour if every year top players continue to travel stateside.

After Pelley’s resignation, Matt Fitzpatrick was unambiguous in lambasting the outgoing CEO for this decision. On top of that, the DP World Tour stands to lose its USP—the camaraderie that doesn’t exist in the PGAT.

The decision, ostensibly made to fulfill European kids’ ‘Great American Dream’, might come at a rather tragic cost. As Padraig Harrington cautioned, the PGA Tour can wear you down pretty quickly. Moreover, it’s hard to maintain the tour card unless you have a permanent base on the other side of the pond, as Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, and Shane Lowry plan to have. While a handshake with PIF would have seemingly stopped all these, it could have landed the DPWT on thin ice.

Why might snubbing PIF have been prudent?

Paul McGinley, the DPWT board member, explained the rationale to Golfweek. Joining forces with PIF could have two domino effects. Firstly, already six months into a strategic alliance with the American side, hobnobbing with the potential rivals would have rubbed them the wrong way. Secondly, PIF’s intention to stay for the long haul was not yet clear. The team-play format has yet to make a mark in the golf world. McGinley pointed out that if Saudi Arabia eventually pulled out after a few years, the impact would have been massive.

Read More: Has LIV Golf Exposed the Long-Overlooked Cracks in the PGA Tour’s Business Model?

So, the choice was between an outraged PGA Tour bent on cutting its ties with the European side or hedging your bet on the goodwill of the Tour in ousting the ‘intruder’. The road before Keith Pelley was forked, and Pelley picked the one less risky—fending off an unknown threat by partnering with a lesser one. How this pans out for the post-merger world remains to be seen.Watch This Story: ‘Big Stretch There’: Golf Fans Left Fuming As Serious Allegations Over PGA Tour Involving LIV Golf Go Viral