Saudi Arabia plans for a Super Golf League are on the brink of unravelling after Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau, the two supposed kingpins of the entire project, announced they are turning down tens of millions dollars to remain on the PGA Tour.
A bad week for the SGL and its chief executive Greg Norman became disastrous on Sunday when the statements were released.
The build-up to the Genesis Invitational here was dominated by the game’s young elite en masse declaring their loyalty to the status quo. And then when the tournament began quotes from Phil Mickelson were published in which he called the Saudis “scary motherfuckers” with which to deal and indicated he has been doing so only because of the leverage it gives him with the Tour as he seeks a bigger slice of the media rights pie.
The outcry to Mickelson’s comments could be heard all the way to Riyadh and it must be wondered if Johnson and DeChambeau were spooked by the furore, as well as the Tour’s continued promise to issue lifetime bans to any rebels signing up to the breakaway league.
Regardless, the upshot is that with Johnson’s pledge it means that every member of the world’s top 10 has now dismissed the SGL and that with DeChambeau, the world No 12 but perhaps the most intriguing figure in golf, staying put not one of the game’s high profile under-30s is leaving.
“Over the past several months, there has been a great deal of speculation about an alternative tour; much of which seems to have included me” Johnson, 37, said. “I feel it is now time to put such speculation to rest. I am fully committed to the PGA Tour.
A few hours later, DeChambeau followed suit, although his statement at least left the door open to the Saudis. “While there has been a lot of speculation surrounding my support for another tour, I want to make it very clear that as long as the best players in the world are playing the PGA Tour, so will I,” the 28-year-old said.
Norman and the Saudis will not admit it, but this is catastrophic to the F1-type global circuit for which they have been assembling a costly infrastructure. When Telegraph Sport exclusively revealed last May that the SGL had offered contracts worth more than $50 million up front to some of the leading pros, the names of Johnson and DeChambeau were predominant.
Johnson is close to Norman and has extensive links with Golf Saudi. He has played in all four stagings of the Saudi international in Jeddah, winning twice and receiving millions in appearance fees. Just three weeks ago, Johnson all but admitted that he had signed an NDA with the SGL and his renegadeship was almost taken as read.
But as well as the Mickelson outrage, and the rush of the young elite to state their fealty, making this appear as a generational choice, Jay Monahan, the Tour’s commissioner, has put forward financial incentives for the top players to remain.
All of that combined has convinced Johnson and DeChambeau and Mickelson’s reaction will be fascinating. How can he sign with the Saudis, but how can he stay with the PGA Tour after accusing it of “obnoxious greed” and “running a dictatorship”?
Then there are the likes of Henrik Stenson, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood, mulling over deals worth up to $30 million up front, with the European Tour insisting their Ryder Cup careers will be over if they jump
Whatever they decide, however, the Saudi saga is far from dead. They are pumping $300 million into the Asian Tour over the next decade and will not simply walk away. But for now the Tour appears on top with the joke doing the rounds that Greg Norman never did much like Sundays.