By Rory Carroll
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Last week’s bombshell announcement that the PGA Tour will accept massive investment from Saudi Arabia will take a back seat to the drama on the course when the U.S. Open kicks off on Thursday, United States Golf Association CEO Mike Whan said.
The news that the Tour would partner with Saudi-backed rival circuit LIV sent shockwaves through the sport and many questions remain about what the future of the professional men’s game will look like.
“I’m not going to avoid the elephant in the room,” Whan told reporters at the Los Angeles Country Club on Wednesday.
“I thought last Monday was the longest day in golf. But it turns out last Tuesday was the longest day in golf,” he said, referring to the day the news of the merger broke.
“All of us got together on Wednesday and said, gosh, all these stories we wanted to tell, maybe it’s going to be harder to tell because media will be focused elsewhere.”
Whan said he then remembered having similar concerns ahead of last year’s U.S. Open in Boston, which came on the heels of LIV’s first event.
“And following that there was player suspensions and we were kind of depressed thinking this great country club setting here in Boston that really deserved to be talked about wasn’t going to get its due.
“But I’m fairly certain now having lived through this deja vu that the same thing will happen this week that happened last year, which is once the balls go in the air the athletes take the narrative back.”
Indeed last year’s U.S. Open will long be remembered for Matthew Fitzpatrick spectacular shot from the fairway bunker on the 18th hole that propelled him to his first major title.
“I am pretty sure when we recap 2023 we’re going to be talking about what happened on the golf course and not what happened off the golf course,” Whan said.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
