Golf League on the cards

LONDON. — Detailed plans for a £250m Premier Golf League aimed at revolutionising the professional game are to be revealed later this week.

BBC Sport has learned that the Formula 1 style global competition is scheduled to begin in January 2023 and would include 18 tournaments targeting the top 48 male players in the world.

A dozen of those events would be staged in the United States with the others “chasing the sun” around the world. Each competition would be worth US$20m (£14m) with US$4m going to the winner and last place picking up US$150 000.

By way of comparison, the biggest purse on the PGA Tour for a single event is US$2.7m from a US$15m prize fund at the Players Championship. There would be a team element with team principals choosing which scores from individuals from the four-man line ups would count.

There are also plans to involve the leading women’s tours and to plough 50% of the spoils back into “the golf community”.

Those backing the project, run by the British-based World Golf Group, are worth in excess of $20bn according to boss Andy Gardiner. A rival Saudi-backed Super Golf League (SGL) was the talk of the sport during the recent US PGA Championship at Kiawah Island. PGL’s plans, which are entirely separate, look likely to stimulate conversation at next week’s US Open at Torrey Pines.

Speaking exclusively to BBC Sport, Gardiner said: “The team is ready to go.

“We’ve used the last eight months to bring in externals to check through every single piece of the model to make sure the events of the last 12 months with Covid haven’t changed our thinking.

“The January 2023 date right now is entirely feasible. We will see how the conversations go with the community that we want to embrace.

” That “community” includes the PGA and European Tours, who have formed a strategic alliance to fight off the threat of projects such as the PGL and the SGL. But Gardiner is convinced his project offers golf its best opportunity to increase fan interest in the sport. His organisation has no desire to replace the majors and Ryder Cup at the pinnacle of the game. — BBC Sport.