A PGA Tour investment bid by a Tour partner has been rejected.
In a story published Friday by Sportico — which you can read in full here — Endeavor said its proposal to lead an investment into the Tour has been spurned. The bid came after the Tour and the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund announced in June that they had come to an agreement on a proposal that would create a for-profit entity operated by the sides.
“They’ve officially turned it down,” Endeavor president and COO Mark Shapiro told Sportico. “We’re big fans of golf, and we’ll continue to champion the PGA Tour, but we’re not going to be an investor at any level.”
According to Sportico, Endeavor wanted a multiyear deal that would pay it $25 million annually, and in return, it would head a group that would acquire “no more than 10 percent” of a Tour investment vehicle. Currently, Endeavor works with the Tour by selling commercial rights and managing tournaments, and it represents golfers.
The PGA Tour confirmed Shapiro’s comment, Sportico reported.
News of Endeavor’s bid came to light earlier this month. During a Bloomberg Screentime conference on Oct. 11, the CEO of Endeavor said his media and entertainment agency was among seven bidders.
“We put in a bid for the — there’s a 501(c)3 non-profit and then they’ve created a profit investment opportunity for the PGA,” Ari Emanuel said. “We put in a bid, a week ago? Friday [Oct. 6].”
Notably, around the same time, Jason Gore, the Tour’s chief player officer, sent a memo to the Tour membership, outlining the outside interest in the Tour, in light of the Tour’s negotiations with the Saudi PIF. “We remain focused on reaching a definitive agreement with PIF and the DP World Tour,” the memo says, “but not surprisingly, these negotiations have resulted in unsolicited outreach and proposals from a number of other interested investors. All of this activity reinforces the Tour’s strong position and our potential for growth.”
As for the Tour’s deal with the PIF? That supposedly remains in talks.
The Saudis aren’t the only investors who want a piece of pro golf
Those negotiations and the Endeavor news, along with last week’s season-ending LIV Golf event, lead to some questions, though.
— Could this mean that the Tour and the PIF have made progress?
Hard to say, but there’s that potential. The Tour rejecting a partner’s bid could be a sign — or it could be just what it is. There’s also been no word from the “other interested investors” that Gore referenced; according to Forbes, Fenway Group is among those in talks with the Tour.
There’s also the potential that the other bidders would join the Saudi bid
— But with just over two months left until a Dec. 31 deadline between the Tour and the PIF, shouldn’t there be some news between the sides?
You would think, then again the deal is delicate. Then again, the Tour and its commissioner, Jay Monahan, have said it would be transparent, at least with its players.
The sides could certainly extend that deadline, too.
— How would you interpret the confident talk last week from LIV Golf players?
A couple ways.
LIV has fought for players and prestige with the Tour since its inception in June of 2022. But it’s also Saudi PIF-backed — so one could deduce that LIV’s future could be in doubt, should the Tour deal pass.
Then again, maybe not. From almost every pro last week during LIV’s season-ending event, the word was the series was not only going to stick around, but grow. Phil Mickelson said other players were going to join. Other LIV pros were hearing investment interest. Ian Poulter told the Telegraph’s James Corrigan that he heard from Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the PIF’s governor, that “LIV will go on and on.”
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Was all of the confidence just for show? Maybe.
Was all of it a sign about the future of the deal? Perhaps.
— And what if the deal did fall through?
Back to where we’ve been the past couple of years, though potentially super-charged.
On the Chipping Forecast podcast this week, longtime pro Eddie Pepperell said he had heard this:
“I heard that LIV had approached 15 players this year asking them for a rough figure as to what would get them across and I was told that [Jon] Rahm’s figure was so prohibitively large that LIV rejected it,” Pepperell said on the podcast, which he co-hosts.
“So, make of that what you want.”
— Did Mickelson have a comment on the Endeavor news?
Yes. It’s below.