Cash rules everything around me

The big news of yesterday and the foreseeable future will be the talks of the PGA Tour selling out and taking the Saudi PIF money. There will be a lot more details released over the next coming weeks, but from the surface it appears that this deal was brokered among just a select few individuals. Players and executives on both sides were not aware that anything was happening until it was announced publicly.

Going forward, it will likely be good for the overall game of golf. The PGA Tour gets the cash injection it needs while getting rid of their rival competitor, LIV. Of course, there’s many other implications involved including taking money from the Saudi PIF. I have no desire to write more about the politics of taking money from them so I’m going to move on.

Perhaps a bigger gut punch is to the players of the PGA Tour. Those who stuck around and did the “morally right” thing to not take the money are undoubtedly the ones who are impacted the most by this. The top players turned down huge paydays from LIV to stick with the PGA Tour. They went on stage and did what the PGA Tour told them to do.

Then the PGA Tour went behind their backs to broker the deal. I’d be pissed off too. I don’t really know how this will end up. The players are probably a bit conflicted in many ways. Those that are not top players will welcome the increased pay. Those that are top players will also get a big bump, but at same time, not as much as they would have if they had left earlier.

Just another instance where at the end of the day, money talks. We’ve seen what has happened with college sports since the NIL became a thing. The development of the NBA and NFL into money generating machines has been ongoing for years. For better or worse, sports make a shit ton of money, and the leagues will continue to chase that money.

Cash rules everything around me, dolla dolla bills ya’ll.