R&A bombshell is concerning for future of golf
Another golf major, another instance of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) trying to steal the spotlight.
This time around, the setting is Royal Liverpool ahead of the 151st Open Championship, and the subject is Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R&A) CEO Martin Slumbers, who dropped a bombshell on Wednesday when he didn't refute the idea of the PIF sponsoring the world's oldest major, especially if it stopped the "disruption" caused by the PGA-LIV spat.
"The world of sport has changed dramatically in the last 12 months, and it is not feasible for the R&A or golf to just ignore what is a societal change on a global basis," Slumbers said Wednesday, via SB Nation.
"We will be considering within all the parameters that we look at all the options that we have."
While that answer is somewhat noncommittal, it's still a red flag that the R&A is suddenly so open to the idea.
Slumbers' reasoning — or so he said in his media availability on Wednesday — for being open to PIF sponsorship has to do with the increased size of purses across professional golf. He said, via Sports Illustrated, that the R&A "had expected prize money to rise over a five-year period, and it's probably risen three years earlier than we expected it to, so there is a significant change."
Remember, however, that it's the PIF who is responsible for raising purses so rapidly. LIV Golf offers $20M in individual prize money at all of its events, and the PGA Tour will increase its own figure again in 2024 to compete with the rival league it's set to merge with. Being more open to PIF sponsorship would more or less be the R&A feeding the beast, for lack of a better term.
"It's not just golf," Slumbers said. "You're seeing it in football (soccer). You're seeing it in F1. You're seeing it in cricket. I'm sure tennis won't be that far behind."
All three of the sports he referenced now have sponsorship from the PIF.
While an end to the ongoing feud between LIV Golf and the rest of the professional golf world would surely make a lot of higher-ups very happy, being so open to investment from the PIF is nonetheless alarming. No matter how many sports the PIF sponsors, Saudi Arabia will still have a damning human rights record and be connected to multiple abhorrent acts toward its own citizens and residents from abroad.
Slumbers may say he's open to the idea of PIF sponsorship simply because he wants the bickering in pro golf to be over, but there's no denying that openness is a reason to be worried when it comes to who will be pulling the strings in golf's future.
More must-reads: