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Frank Nobilo says it’s a factor “nobody needs to confess” when speaking LIV Golf, the PGA Tour and the proposed settlement between the Tour and LIV’s backer, the Saudi Arabia Public Funding Fund.
“They don’t need to say it,” he says.
However Nobilo believes it, ironic as it’d sound contemplating he’s a longtime professional and analyst himself.
“Golfers are overpaid,” he says, “in comparison with each different sport.”
He was speaking this week on the 5 Golf equipment podcast — which you’ll be able to and may hearken to right here — and the Saudi subject has been each sophisticated and evolving. For one 12 months and two seasons, the Tour and LIV had quarreled over gamers and status, just for males’s professional golf to spiral when Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and PIF governor Yassir Al-Rumayyan stated they’d come to a funding deal. And now there’s ready.
Will the edges meet their Dec. 31 deadline? In all probability not. Might they ultimately agree? Maybe. Might it fall by? Doubtlessly. Might one other funding suitor come alongside? Perhaps. What does LIV’s future appear like? Unknown.
So on the podcast, Nobilo was merely requested this by host Gary Williams:
In 24 months, what do you suppose it’ll appear like?
“Wow,” Nobilo began.
His ideas have been layered. He talked first of the unique struggle.
LIV, he stated on the podcast, is a divorce.
“And there’s nothing amicable,” Nobilo continued. “Once you go two alternative ways, it’s one of the simplest ways to place it. And so all of the acrimony has come out. If LIV by no means occurred, would the individuals who have gone talked so poorly of the PGA Tour? I believe everyone knows the reply to that.
“Does that imply that the PGA Tour is cookie-cutter clear? No, we’re not. We by no means get invited to the obligatory assembly to clarify TV, for instance, to the gamers. The gamers do not know of the TV product, proper. So there’s numerous issues that I believe the PGA Tour can brush up on, too.”
However what if the deal went by? Earlier this week, Rory McIlroy, as massive of a critic of LIV as there was, even stated he hoped PIF can be concerned.
There can be settlement advantages, Nobilo stated on the podcast. Maybe a smaller industrial load, because of the inflow of {dollars}.
Then once more, Nobilo questioned the place golf matches within the sports activities image. There have been ideas of cash and sustainability right here, and he admitted it’s unusual.
“However I additionally suppose there’s a realization — we don’t charge excessive sufficient, as a lot because it pains me to say,” he stated on the podcast. “Golfers are overpaid in comparison with each different sport. Nobody needs to confess that. They don’t need to say it.
“If LIV by no means got here alongside — we’re going to have so many 20 million-plus purses. And we don’t have the scores. We’ll globally — and I’ve used this a bunch of instances — volleyball worldwide charges increased than golf. I don’t see volleyball gamers racing round in non-public planes and all types of issues. So we’re in a very bizarre house.
“So I’d like to have a solution for 2024, but when Jay Monahan and his workforce keep on with clearly the assertion, which was September eleventh, and resolve to go in a distinct path, we’re going to have a conflict. We actually will. … You’re inviting competitors. And it’s going to be like Coke and Pepsi.”
Additionally on the podcast, Williams requested Nobilo about Phil Mickelson, as massive and as controversial part of LIV as anybody, and whether or not “there will likely be in some unspecified time in the future a re-entry for him at a degree that we at all times thought was going to be commensurate with who he was.”
Nobilo stated no. Which he stated was unhappy.
“I used to be at CBS [and] we referred to as the PGA Championship, the place we received, and I’m like, whenever you get to be a part of a — I used to be at Zozo when Tiger [Woods] obtained 82 wins — Phil successful that PGA Championship, it’s a effectively second,” Nobilo stated on the podcast. “And the best way through which he did it, Winged Foot, Johnny Miller driving off on a white stallion, all these issues have been redeemed. Phil had a file that no person else had. And that Tiger Woods isn’t going to have. And I’m like, lastly you’re full on this era.
“And so I take a look at that Phil — as a up to date as effectively; I performed quite a bit towards him — that I like his ability and talent. After which I see the statesman function, which is absolutely what it’s now, and it’s very disastrous. It saddens me. The books which might be written, and clearly in the meanwhile we’re solely listening to the unhealthy stuff about Phil — they’re all true, to be sincere. I’ve suffered with Phil, whether or not it’s a Presidents Cup on the opposite aspect and among the issues that I understand how he can behave. However I additionally know that for our personal basis, for instance, if we ask for a Masters flag to be signed by Phil, Phil and Amy [Mickelson’s wife] used to ship two again, not one. Sadly, Phil is at all times going to be — there’s twin personalities, and it’s a disgrace. That’s the tragic a part of it proper now.
“I don’t suppose we are able to reply that query pretty till he hangs the golf equipment up.”
Editor’s notice: To hearken to your complete 5 Golf equipment podcast with Nobilo, please click on right here.
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