Got some huge news that obviously today.
We'll recall this is monday this will be out tuesday we made this podcast clip on um youtube today.
On monday anyway. But the sgl this kind of saudi golf league breakaway league breakaway well it's been this kind of started for us just over two years ago so there's been a couple of these breakaway leagues been spoken about recently and the first of which was the pgl the premier golf league that we did kind of an exclusive interview with andy garden who was kind of the ceo. And the front man of the um pgl and i think back to that that was very much this kind of again a breakaway league that was going to be a more more like an f1 style format we'd have individual tournaments. But also be teams as well within that it was going to be 54 holes every player would make the cut because there would be no cut. And it was all designed really to make golf kind of more accessible. And well more fun to watch that's the thing it's more fan focused because from a viewing experience i don't believe what's currently available right now is the best viewing experience. And i would probably say i'd go as far as saying probably most people think that way yeah i will typically sit down. And thoroughly enjoy and look forward to sitting down to two tournaments a year the open and the masters yes. And the ryder cup to be fair when it's on everything else like the genesis opened this weekend nothing against the event it's an amazing golf course riviera tiger woods basically hosts it it looks glorious i watched and i'll be honest i forced myself to watch the last the first 45 minutes i did i went on the app. And i saw the leaderboard i was like oh that's quite interesting that could be quite spicy. And i flicked it on but that shouldn't be the way that the end of a tournament should finish it should be so much more coming to a kind of climax it should be so much more focused on the element of this is the final result. So a lot of these leagues like saudi golf league premier golf league have come up with this kind of concept so to speak they're very similar to each other by the way come up with this idea that they are designed on making it more friendly. For the for the fan well that's the thing so there's been quite a lot of confusion around this they understand it so they are two separate entities the premier golf league that we obviously again had andy gardner on the podcast that's kind of not been spoken about as much. For a while really but what has really hit the kind of headlines and we've seen so much more of that's probably 12 months is this saudi golf league. Or sgl super golf league i'm not quite sure we do it as sgl. For saudi golf league they appointed greg norman as a ceo and they've obviously had some very in-depth conversations with a lot of the world's best golfers i think all of the world's best golfers in fact. And a lot of players very early on even when pgl was the first thing a lot of players took either a strong stance on it someone like a rory mcroy over 700 days ago apparently he said he wouldn't play wow from the off said nope yep not. For me i'm out i've got nothing involvement and my alliance is with the pga tour. And i feel like he is very much the pga tours kind of poster boy i feel like they've kind of maybe got him on side to go we need somebody to be able to be a spokesman almost. For the pga talks that's what he sometimes comes across as which is great. For them yeah on the flip side certainly in the last three months there's been a lot of conversations with players like bryce nishambo obviously we had him on the podcast phil mickelson dustin johnson yeah lee westwood adam scott adam scott a lot of players big named players some that are still very very big name in the golf game. And some of them may be towards the latter end of their careers maybe contemplating the idea of something new well that may be looking at an option to go and move to a breakaway league not saying a lot a lot of them have had to sign these ndas or these secrecy agreements but sometimes that has backfired a little bit because it's almost like they're not saying anything they're not saying whether they're in or out well the big news that broke yesterday or sunday would it be now was the the kind of guys that we looked like were almost certain to be in this sgl was phil nicholson bryson. And dj they were kind of the three really big names dj came out. And said no i'm not only playing i've got a statement go on should i read it it's not too long this is actually posted on behalf from the pga tour on behalf of uh dustin over the past several months there has been a great deal of speculation about an alternative tour much of which seems to be including me. And my future in professional golf so he's kind of like you know just pulling me into this i feel like it is now time to put some such speculation to rest i am fully committed to the pga tour yes. And then.
About was that yesterday that was yesterday few hours after that then.
We got off bryson which says while there has been a lot of speculation surrounding my support. For another tour i want to make it very clear as long as the best players in the world are playing the pj tour. So will i as of now i am focusing on getting myself healthy. And competing again soon i appreciate all the support so that one sounds very much literally if you read it that it's the best place in the world go over to the sgl i will also follow. But i think what's interesting i've tried to the last couple of months. And certainly the last couple of weeks this has really blown up is think about. For me as a viewer what are the pros. And cons these kind of breakaway tours i think the big number one potential con we're seeing. So much online about the sgl is obviously this kind of saudi-backed. And the human rights in saudi and that really has caused and you see a lot you see it well in the boxing went over to saudi or the f wall yeah there is a lot of you know negative feedback. And negative noise around that that's going to be something that's going to massively put off a lot of players i think that's one of the things that rory said as well. And why he doesn't want to take part so that's certainly you know a very kind of hot topic right now but i think the benefit of these potential ideas of breakaway leagues whether it's the sgl the pgl. Or anything else that comes you know in the future is it's hopefully going to make a better product. For the viewer regardless of the pga tour so they then.
Change how they do things. And make kind of more shorter events or more fun events or whatever it might be or if a breakaway tour does come off that's funded by somebody else. Or whatever i think as golf fans it's death an exciting time um what do you think well you honestly you made a really good point just even before when we were chatting if it's hard to say if mutsun bet if mutz if butts. And maybe this saudi golf league that sgl was caught was turned into the santander golf league yeah okay. So completely removed from saudi as i know i don't know yeah watch now i'm saying this. And sometimes there's a saudi company i don't know but let's go google google okay if it becomes the g the google glg i don't know oh google golf league yeah dgl's got a nice gpg outfit if it was the google golf league okay. And the money where it was coming from obviously google have got a fair few pounds if it was coming from that would it be a different conversation would it be a different conversation i feel like well yeah there's been. So much noise around the saudi thing my heart would say yeah if it was somebody else then..
But equally i then.
Think people would still people don't like change they understand. And you know to a lot of people the pj tour has been very good to them and like phil mickelson's become a multi-multi-millionaire from the pj tour so some of the things he said about the pj torrence greed haven't gone down too well well he's he's really i think out of all the players mentioned he's the one that's done the biggest u-turn yeah. For me he came out of the weekend i think he did a an interview with one of the media in america i think it was uh alan shipnock is it from sports illustrated. And he mentioned he can went on to say that i better find the quote. But something along the lines of basically i'm doing this to to encourage the pga tour to get better yeah basically he's on about image rights. And he's talking about how the pga tour have made so much money off his image rights and this that the other and i thought that's really interesting take because you're there very strongly opinionated about what you think about the pga tour. But yet you've really just kind of shot yourself in both feet surely because you've just said i've used the sgl as almost a bribing tool against the pga tour. So you've not only kind of pissed the pga tour off a little bit you've also kind of annoyed the sgl potentially the ins and outs of it um so i'm not he seems like he's really come out very very outspoken um it'll be interesting to see this talks about suspension yeah from the pga tour i'm not sure because even um rory had a proper go at him yesterday yeah i saw that he said i'm not gonna have a not gonna command why he's down. But he's been like i can't remember the words he used i'll try and find it now but it was um naive greedy something along them lines yeah i want to try. And find it so it has been very very very interesting um i said loads of reports. And i think i i was trying to find a quote before that was summarized this up. But i'm struggling to find one i'm sure someone could come up with the one or find one and in a weird way after all the dust settles and let's say the saudi gulf league disappears or pgl whatever happens let's say these breakaway tours do disappear. For the time being and whether new ones come back or if they come back with a different plan i do genuinely think things that tess does make us stronger. And if pj talk look at that somebody's coming to test them yeah to challenge them. And it may have opened their eyes and opened the players eyes of other possibilities yeah. And i think then.
Because of that. And it's probably opened the fans eyes to possibilities like i never comprehended before we talked to andy gardner or talking about what this kind of sgl looking to do i'd never even comprehended there could be another option yeah like if you now scrapped everything that we know about professional golf tour golf. And had to rewrite the manual again you would do it different to what's out there if you think about it now the pj tour there isn't really an official off season is there obviously some of the better players to size it genuinely kind of take a bit of time off sometimes something then.
They'll go off to dubai yeah. And then.
Equally you don't know when it's certain even big events some of the big names just aren't playing then.
You have the cut which is i get the cut to some degree competitively it's like quite an exciting storyline on the friday it got caught. But equally like if you have traveled six hours down the road and watch pj tour events or the open or whatever it might be and there's a cut and your favorite player is not there that could be quite like disheartening as a fan yeah. So there is definitely i think types of tournaments that could be introduced were there maybe we'll show. Or formats or i don't know different formats that's the exciting thing with this it's just whether it's going to the pj tour that take control of this the the pgi will now say they want to work with the pj tour. So they've changed their sounds a little bit they were definitely a competitor was now the premier golf league saying they would sit alongside the pga tour. For these pgl events i'm going to come up with the rgl rick's golf league yeah chipping comp [Laughter] there's gonna be six holes yeah quick six basically yep six holes six players six grand if any players want to sign up. For that six holes maybe do it a couple of times a week no no couple times a month sorry i don't stretch you too much round mario at worsley park six holes six grand six players i mean um serious note though right now i do think professional golf how we view it does need to change though. And i and i do think pj tour may just see this as an opportunity to go yeah maybe we do need to look at changing a few things up. Or whatever it may be like you say some of the things that you've mentioned there because i just when you look at other sports and i'll use that follows example i know i've got a bit into fun and you've started to watch i've started watching the drive to survive it's definitely opened my eyes too i am itching for the start of season i cannot wait because there has been an off season i've missed yeah i've missed it. And i'm not a big fan i'm not a real hardcore fan and i think in golf if suddenly i hadn't seen the best players in the world play. For two or three months i would miss them i'd be desperate to know who's picked up ridiculous amounts of clubhead speed who's suddenly changed sponsorship just before the season who's changed caddy coach in the off-season imagine the little snippets that you'd see from the different players i just think that we don't get to miss the players we almost have too much of them yeah. And then.
We under under appreciate them a little bit so i think the players i mean it's obviously up to them if i think they should have a rest a bit more they should be able to put their feet up. But it's also knowing when that rest is because some players may decide to take off some tournaments. So there's others if there's like a set period where you've got the four majors obviously at the heart of it you've then.
Got what 20 other events max it's 24 i mean that's still quite a lot. But that would be two a month finish the season at like end of october and let them out of november december january as rest period imagine february now or were the new drivers i just had to be born desperate to know like. And in that offseason i honestly think you'd see more changes more developments yeah a bit like what we saw with bryson through lockdown came back as a beast like nobody bryce did that because he had time off to do it a lot of players don't have this time off to change. And and really kind of make some significant gains if they wish to they have to take time off because otherwise they've got to keep playing in tournaments well that's the thing i said it's there's lots of different kind of opinions on this sgl on the pgl you know some. For it lots against it but it will definitely be interesting to see where this goes the next.
Month next.
Two months you know the sgl may still go ahead i know there's lots of talk today.
And i've even seen rory come out and say it's like it's dead yeah that's it well i'd be interested to see if it is yeah. And it has to be a good thing the fact we're talking about it how golf can be a little bit more fun to watch it has to be a good thing.
