What is the Premier Golf League? All You Need to Know About LIV Golf’s Failed $500 Million Precursor

12 teams of four players each, strokeplay and team matches, shotgun starts, and three-day tournaments. Sounds familiar? If you think we are talking about LIV golf, you are not entirely wrong. But neither are you completely right. The quiet rise and the quieter fall to the oblivion of the Premier Golf League happened behind closed doors. Moreover, LIV’s subsequent emergence turned the golf world on its head. So the little attention the breakaway faction deserved from the media was lost to its former backers.

But controversial sportswriter Alan Shipnuck is not your regular sports journalist. Much like Brooks Koepka, he likes to stir the pot. This time, with his new ‘LIV & Let Die’ book, he has jolted the pot so much from the outside that the juices keep spilling out. Premier Golf League was one such relatively obscure entity that is enjoying renewed attention courtesy of the author’s mention.

The enigma that is the Premier Golf League

For a good part of 2021, PGL & their investors managed to wrap themselves up in the blanket of secrecy. However, that cloak-and-dagger strategy backfired when PIF came up with their own league with more financial firepower, swanky trophies, and everything that the PGL lacked. 

Although, in the beginning, they looked at the Middle East country for funding; now they are too eager to distance themselves from anything that remotely connects to the Gulf nation. As far as possible. “We have no Saudi backing,” in case you had any doubts, they’re quick to clear the air on their official website. Because, at its core, PGL was a mix of American and European interests since its inception as the same author revealed in a 2021 article. 

Premier Golf League format

PGL follows the format of team play and individual stroke play going on side-by-side. In individual stroke play, golfers play for a total purse of $20M with the winner taking home $4M. On the other hand, 12 teams of four golfers joust for the $1M bonus each week. And before you ask, yes there is relegation here as well as playoffs and a season finale. 

In the final round, teams are seeded based on their rankings after the regular season of 17 weeks. The top four teams get a bye for the quarter-finals. Over the course of two days, there are three knock-out rounds – two rounds of singles and one round of either foursomes, greensomes, or fourballs. 

Tournament Purse

The total purse of $392,000,000, although pales in comparison to LIV Golf’s riches, is nonetheless much more than regular PGA or DP World Tour seasons. PGL guarantees at least $150K to the last player on the leaderboard, while the winner of each event takes $4 million each week. 

So, whatever happened to the breakaway league that sought to revamp the way golf tournaments are played? According to Shipnuck, Andrew Gardiner, the brain behind it all, came knocking at Jay Monahan’s door, but the PGA Tour CEO slammed it shut in his face. 

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The Premier Golf League ambassador who came undone

“This whole story starts with the Premier Golf League, and Monahan was pretty masterful in thwarting the PGL,” claims the veteran sports journalist in an interview with Sports Illustrated. Jay Monahan was not open to the idea of making a deal with a league with investors from Saudi Arabia. “They had promises of $500 million in capital from the Saudis, and Monahan basically killed it without leaving a drop of blood on the carpet.”

But before approaching Monahan, they knocked at the doors of Keith Pelley of the DP World Tour. Despite, the European Tour’s dismal financial condition at that time, they wanted to onboard them on the novel project. However, Pelley, albeit being more open about it, didn’t budge. Contrarily, to stop the upstart incursion, the two old tours made a strategic pact before LIV came knocking down all guardrails. 

The staggering similarities between PGL and LIV have caused the sports journalist to opine that probably Andrew Gardiner has been onboarded by Saudis in their own league. Either that or, the man probably has an NDA with them. 

Can we see the breakaway league foraying into the golf world once again? Unless a sea change comes and the deal between PGA Tour-DP World Tour-LIV Golf fails to materialize, Gardiner and his comrades have to wait in the wings. That is unless they have already boarded the rocket ship of Yasir Al-Rumayyan with Greg Norman and Co.

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