[PHOTO: Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox]
The PGA Tour has announced that it is advancing negotiations with Strategic Sports Group for private equity investment with the tour.
In a memo sent by the tour’s policy board to membership today, and later published on the tour’s website, the tour said discussions with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund remain ongoing, while asserting the DP World Tour will continue to be a part of the new for-profit venture, PGA Tour Enterprises.
“Please know that while we can’t get into more details at this time, we are very confident in an eventual, positive outcome for all players and the PGA Tour as a whole,” the board wrote.
SGS is a collective of several investors and firms, fronted by the Fenway Sports Group. The sports conglomerate owns the Boston Red Sox, the Pittsburgh Penguins, Liverpool FC, and a NASCAR racing team. The group also has Fenway Park and the New England Sports Network under its umbrella.
Other members of SGS include Arthur Blank, Wyc Grousbeck, Marc Lasry, Cohen Private Ventures and HighPost Capital. Many of the aforementioned names have an ownership stake in TGL, the Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy mixed-reality circuit that was set to launch in 2024 but was pushed back a year when its facility suffered damage in a storm last month.
The memo to players noted that the policy board had unanimously agreed to continue talks with the SSG after a series of meetings over the past several days to “thoroughly review, discuss and debate the extremely strong proposals submitted by a final set of outside investors”.
The memo comes as the December 31 deadline nears for the PGA Tour and PIF to finalise their framework agreement, although the two parties can agree to push the deadline back. It remains unclear if the private equity backing is an alternative to PIF money, or if it will be used to supplement the deal in order to appease government antitrust regulations.
Adding to the ambiguity is the recent defection of Jon Rahm to LIV Golf (which is financially backed by PIF), a move that some believe could accelerate a PGA Tour–PIF deal, while others think Rahm’s signing could renew professional golf’s civil war.
