The PGA Tour does not employ your local club pro
Michael Block’s historic PGA Championship run brings PGA definitions to the forefront
by Jim Bebbington
One of the weirder aspects of the announced canoodling of the PGA Tour and the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the heat that local PGA teaching professionals are taking over the deal.
Which is unfair. They and their parent organization, PGA of America, have absolutely nothing to do with it.
The Colorado PGA is the state’s chapter of the PGA of America. PGA of America has been around since 1916 and has thousands of teaching professionals as members. The organization works through them to teach the game of golf to millions, and conducts local, state and national tournaments including the PGA Championship, won recently by Brooks Koepka.
What the PGA of America is not, however, is affiliated in any way with the PGA Tour. The two organizations separated in the 1960s when touring pros like Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus led a breakaway in order to have more control over the tournament circuit.
But when the PGA Tour announced plans to accept an investment from the Saudi Public Investment Fund and establish a still unclear cohabitation with their competing tour, LIV, phones have rung at your local pro shop.
Steven Bartkowski, PGA of Colorado’s CEO and Executive Director, said some callers have been downright irate, blaming their club pros or the PGA of Colorado.
“We have absolutely nothing to do with it,” Bartkowski stressed this week.
The deal is now under scrutiny. U.S. Sen Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., has requested both LIV and the PGA Tour provide records of their deliberations into the deal.
“While few details about the agreement are known, PIF’s role as an arm of the Saudi government and PGA Tour’s sudden and drastic reversal of position concerning LIV Golf raise serious questions regarding the reasons for and terms behind the announced agreement,” Blumenthal wrote to PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan.
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