Harrington and the 8,000 lb PIF "gorilla"
Padraig Harrington reacts after a putt on the eight hole during the final round at the 2022 U.S. Senior Open at Saucon Valley C.C. (Old Course) in Bethlehem, Pa. on Sunday, June 26, 2022. (Chris Keane/USGA)
Pádraig Harrington insists he has no fear for the future of the Ryder Cup even if it’s unclear exactly what might happen now that the PIF and the two big tours have agreed to merge commercial operations under common ownership.
The event is jointly administered by the PGA of America and Ryder Cup Europe, the latter a joint venture of the PGA European Tour (60%), the PGA of Great Britain and Ireland (20%), and the PGAs of Europe (20%).
With PIF now at the table, what role the Saudis might have in the future of the Ryder Cup remains unknown.
But Harrington insists he trusts the board of the PGA TOUR to get on with its business for the benefit of its members, at least until he has reason not to trust them any more.
“Look, I don't know what (assets) are being transferred and what's not. All I know is that it would be very normal for a board to do a deal and not tell its shareholders what the deal is when they are negotiating. “It would be extremely normal for a board to be in the middle of negotiations without telling the detail out publicly to their shareholders or any shareholder because that would be illegal.
“In the world of business they couldn't be given the shareholders the information if any of the shareholders acted on that information. So they don't. Boards do deals. We hire a board to do a deal. And I fully believe that Jay and the board, they're acting in our best interest.”
The Dubliner understands how business works and in a free market, the Saudis have used their financial clout to take a seat at the table.
“I have confidence in the board,” Harrington said. “Until I don't have confidence in the board, I do have a conference in the board.”
Whether he is frustrated or not by the lack of information, he understands it’s the price you pay for doing business.
“Unfortunately everybody wants it (the PIF deal) to be something else but we live in a free market and the big gorilla is entitled to come in and that's what the free market is,” he said. “We can't stop them from doing that. I trust the board to do the best deal they can in the circumstances that they're on there. And I'm sure those circumstances are unknown to us at the moment. And I'm sure they have their reasons.”
He’s adamant he does not fear for the Ryder Cup but added: “I was fearing for the Ryder Cup before this.
“I have no idea what it means to the Ryder Cup at this moment. I believe, wholeheartedly believe, that the board are operating in our best interests and will do the best deal they can, whatever that is, and we'll find out the facts at a later date and that would be considered normal in business.
“All I know is that the Tour have taken a massive U-turn. And they obviously know things that we don't know to do that. There seems like a lot could be going on behind the scenes that would get to tour to... Nobody ever wants to go through a lawsuit. So that's it at the end of the day.”
The future of LIV Golf is also unknown despite noises from the rebel side that they will be left to carry on.
But Harrington would not be surprised to see it blossom into something highly successful.
“At the start, everybody thought this would go away,” he said. “That's the problem. Everybody even today judges on what they see today. What's LIV going to be like in 20 years time?
“I have no idea (if it will disappear). I am just saying you mightn't like what you see on TV now — oh I don't like this or I don't like that. But in 20 years' time, who knows what it's going be like. It's very similar to the Indian Premier League. It's just so similar to that and look how big that is now. Anybody who went there at the start was ostracised and now it's normal course of business.”
The Dubliner sees the lawsuits as the key to it all and suspects the Tour was over-extended battling LIV’s billions by injecting huge funds into the PIP and the increased prize funds.
“I certainly don't think the tour are doing it for more money because no player on the tour wanted more money,” he said. “There’s nobody on the tour thinking they were having a bad run of it at the moment. So I would assume that the tour did this deal in order not not to go backwards. Clearly they had probably overstretched.”
As for talk of players who remained loyal being compensated, Harrington does not know how that might be achieved.
“Do you only give people who got contracts? Rory has already said he didn't get a contract. So he gets nothing and somebody else gets something? The easiest thing is put it in a pool and as we all do, and play for it. That looks like what's going to happen. “But the idea that they have to give money back.... Like everybody who stayed made a fortune. And as I said, nobody was looking for anything more. So the tour and the tour know this, they ain't going out there looking to get a bigger pieces of the pie. They're ultimately going there not to lose the piece that they have at the moment.”
Harrington says he was never made a formal offer and he insists he is not envious of those who were made offers running to nine figures.
“When I was 20 years younger, I caught the start of Tiger and the guys I was playing with were all saying look at the money now,” he said. “I've seen it. There's no green-eyed monster in me. If guys left and made good money and they come back, well fine.”
The tours now compensate rookies with guaranteed money — $150,000 in the case of DP World Tour rookies with PGA TOUR rookies getting $500,000 toward their expenses.
The question is: Should the tour model change and offer all players guaranteed money in contrast to the bad old days of play well or go home without pay if you mss the cut?
“I certainly played an era where a lot of people played for a couple years and left the tour after a couple years in serious debt,” he said. “You could easily come out of playing on tour for three years and be down 60,000 in credit card debt, with no job and nowhere to get that back. We're talking 60,000 in real figures around the 2000s. “As I say to everybody, success and European Tour is finishing up your golf career having your mortgage paid. You're ahead of 99% of the population at that stage.”
A change of model would mean an end to independent contractor status and that’s a problem.
“If players want to be guaranteed a minimum, then they have to give up the right to be a sole trader,” Harrington said. “They have to be an employee. And so you've got to turn up and do your requirements every week. Do your appearances. Just like Formula 1 or football. “And that's the reality when you're on a team. You have to do it. We've always had the best of both worlds that we are individuals and we can negotiate and get big fat appearance fees travelling around the world. “And if we give up and we're paid up front, we lose those appearance fees. There will be a lot of gaining on the front figure but you know there will be losses elsewhere... The bit that you don't know we're making (laughs).
“The first thing I was told when I turned pro, the guy at the end of the year is going to audit your taxes. Right? He says he's going to be sitting there looking at an audit and he can he can audit his thousandth shopkeeper or he can audit his first professional sports person. Who's he going to choose?”
