No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 505: Breakaway Tours Deep Dive (1968 formation of the PGA Tour, Attempted coup in 1983, and Greg Norman's World Tour in 1994)

Episode Date: December 13, 2021

For this week's pod, we dove deep into three significant developments in professional golf history. As today's golf landscape appears to be shifting on a weekly basis, we look back at precedent for potential breakaway tours. In our research, three significant events stood out: The breakaway from the PGA of America (and ultimately, the formation of the PGA Tour) in 1968, an attempted overthrow of Commissioner Deane Beman in 1983 by some of the the top players in the game, and Greg Norman's formation of a World Tour in 1994. Common themes that arise are similar to the refrains we hear today. This one was a lot of fun.  (For a wild read about the 1969 Alameda Open, and how it relates to the topics discussed in this episode, check out this article from Nick Lozito: https://nicklozito.substack.com/p/sunol-valley-the-bay-area-kidnapping) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No-Lang Up Podcast. Sully here. We did not schedule a recap. We would be spending a lot of time, I would imagine, talking about the end of the Formula

One season. I have actually not even watched it yet. I've only caught highlights, heard the rumors about what happened. We will have to break that down in a future episode because we have pre-recorded this week's episode as there was no real actual golf play this week. QBE shootout does not count, sorry. This episode is about, we struggled to come up a title for this one. It's about what we're calling breakaway tours.

Basically, we spent some time dividing it. It's in three sections sections studying the 1968 breakaway and formation of what eventually would become the PGA tour. The potential coup in 1983 led by Jack Nicholson Arnold Palmer. Not all people know about that one. That was a fascinating one to dive into. And of course, 1994 world tour started by Greg Norman. We go deep into all of those, share some stories, highlights,

you know, collection of information We had some great sources for the information chat about it and learned a lot in this in that time I'm researching and I have a feeling you're gonna learn a lot as well If if you've not been paying attention to golf this year We're gonna learn you up a little bit more about the the breakthroughs that Callaway has had this year First of all, it's gonna read off just just a hit list if you will. Major wins for John Rahm Phil Mickelson. It's still amazing to think about he won a major on a Kassoren stem all with the epic and Chrome soft X golf ball Jim Furek one at the US senior open.

Zander Schoffley won the gold medal at the Olympics using the epic and the Chrome soft X L S golf ball. Odyssey is the number one putter on every major tour. Rahm is number one in the world, including gave a big shout to the Cowellay folks after his US open win. They're off to a great start in the reach the reach around season here as Gooch Taylor Gooch is current number one in the FedEx cup. And Sam Burns is number two Phil Mikkelson Kevin, not Sam Burns, C Wu Kim, K H Lee Taylor Gooch, Kevin Kisner, Mark Leachman Brennan Grace, John Ram,

Eric Van Royen, Zander Schoffley, all one in 2022. They've been the number one driver and powder on the LPGA tour all season. Don't be surprised if there is some Calloway tour news to open up the new year. Man, that was hardest squeezing in one minute. So a lot of great stuff happening this year. And from the news that we have heard about what's coming out here in 2022, we are quite excited about it.

So without any further delay, let's get to our topic based pod. You know, kind of interested in learning about some of these things, you know, with a lot of things that are going on in the world of golf, the history of the PGA tour, how there's been some breakouts, some threats of breakouts, all that stuff. We're going to get into all of that, or three, I guess, pillars of the breakout genre, if you will. TC is here to my left, hello TC.

Greetings. Neil is here, if you will. TC is here to my left, hello TC. Greetings. Neil is here, hello Neil. Happy to be here. It's a truly history. Seems to repeat itself. Doing some research for this pod. It feels like you're reading the, the current news of the day in golf.

Common themes. I think we're gonna see a lot of common themes. DJ Pies here, hello, DJ. Hey, greetings, hello. We have divided this up. DJ is just going to be the funny guy. He's gonna be the cool guy. Yeah, yeah, I got a question.

He's gonna be the student, if you will, about that. Exactly. I'm gonna put to test how much research you guys actually did on this. I love that. TC is gonna take us through, I don't know what we call it, breakaway tours, is that, you know,

I don't know what the title of this episode is, but I think it's precedence. I think it's the evolution of professional golf. I like that. TC is gonna take us to the breakout of 1968 where the PGA tour was essentially formed. It wasn't called that. We're gonna get into all that history.

That's the first section. I'm gonna take us to the attempted coup from the top players in 1983 of Dean Beaman. You probably didn't even know there was an attempted coup, people. The Zara of golf. And then a resident shark expert, Neil's gonna take us through the 19. Jumping the shark in 1994.

The 1994 world tours. So resident shark experts. Neil Sheenstree. That's the three sections of this thing. Any questions before we get started? I think we need to establish before we get started. Well, the more that we can make it sound like world history, the better. I love the breakout of 68, you know, attempted coups, all that, you know, heavy, heavy on the the drama, please. I think it's so is is 1968 a civil war then? Or is it a separatist group that

emerged in 68? Maybe the Boston Tea Party. Okay. That's good. Yeah. Well, let's start us there, TC. Where does your story start? Well, you know what? My story starts really back with old Tom Morris.

Really? Really, Mary Queen of Scott, technically. Yeah. You want to go all the way back? Everybody back in the old world. But no, I think there's prior to 1968 and even beyond 1968, all of the professional golfers, there was really no distinction between a club professional and a traveling professional. The traveling professional was a almost a new

sort of endeavor or, you know, profession. And, you know, in the past, you'd had or profession. And in the past, you'd had very well-regarded club pros going out and applying their craft. And the money got bigger and this kind of became a self-contained ecosystem versus just being, hey, I'm gonna play at these four events this year because they're in my section. And some of the top guys even like taught

at or club pros at certain clubs in the winners or in off months or whatnot. That was a great example of that. I think Ben Hogan was even a club pro, wasn't he? And wasn't, didn't he give playing lessons? Because the money just was not even for the best, best, best players in the world. The money was not life changing at all. So it sounds like we need to grow the game. Mmm. So it sounds like we can do. That's what the guys got to do. There's better players we're trying to grow the game. That's essentially what it came down to.

Look, I know America's got a history with racism, but you know, they're trying, right? So you got the PGA of America. That was a great norm and quote just if you guys, people didn't listen to the font on Sunday. So you got the PGA of America. Founded in 1916, representing all professional golfers, whether you're a teaching pro or... People who take it seriously. Yeah, or folding shirts or whatever, right?

Sure. And in this time period, you had two kind of establishment figures. You had this Leo Fraser who was the Professional Golfers Association, like the Secretary of the Organization, who was the professional golfers association, like the secretary of the organization, who he and Nicholas, I guess, were just bitter, bitter rivals. Also might be a theme. Nicholas has some takes here during this era and the next one. And then one of the other guys was this guy, Albin, Max Albin.

He was the head pro at Burning Tree in DC. Very, you know, welcoming forwarding place. A big, girly game place. Exactly. They're trying to girly game there, too. And then this guy, Sam Gates, who was the lawyer for the players, it would have been like if the, if the PGL or the SGL stuff originated with the players, he was essentially that, he was their representative of sorts. So the players are looking around saying like we got this this skill we are different than these thousands and thousands of

club brogs and we're sharing all the gates revenue from this is all going to one organization and we're generating all the revenue. Correct. And gates you know think of gates is like de mori smith except for like he knows what he's doing. No editorial. I'm just right here. Keep in mind too that a lot of the pros like up north and everything are going south for the winter or they're just packing up. Like they're not working for five, six, seven, four or five, six months a year as well. Sorry if you don't know the answer to this but was there any kind of like watershed moments?

I'm just trying to think if there's any like, any events, any like big, what's really like the powder keg that's kind of tipping this off, you know what I'm saying? Well it seemed like the players, it's getting worse and worse like through the late 50s into the early 60s. The money's getting bigger, there's more eyeballs,

televisions becoming a thing, right? There's a lot more advertising opportunities. A lot of that seems like it has to go back to the masters. Honestly, the game is actually growing. Yeah. It does come back. I think a massive part of it's like people can watch Arnold Palmer on TV now. Right. And it's Palmer doing his personal sponsorships at this point. Or does that come? Yeah. He's deep into that. And keep in mind too, Palmer has a great relationship with the PGA of America, because his father's a PGA pro and all that.

So he doesn't want to modern day JT. Exactly, yeah. Our past time JT. JT would be the modern day. JT would be the modern day. Okay, got it, got it. And so then there's a, there's some sort of, you know, evolution here of, hey, like, how is there, instead of being just a bunch

of bar and stormers that are showing up at a bunch of individual events that are separate from one another, how do we tie this thing together? I think we can grow the game. And grow the game, grow the money, right? Which is funny, I'm gonna keep making that joke continually over the next however long this takes, but this kind of truly does seem like the best example

of actually doing that. You know what I mean? Like separating the tip top pros and building an infrastructure of how they can truly get in front of the most eyeballs, possible, contributes in a massive way to hashtag growing the game. However, there of course main interest is for them to generate the money and the growing the game being a wonderful byproduct of that that helps them a lot from a PR perspective. But I do think and we're obviously going to keep referring to the breakaway times of today, but I think that's a lot of the thought behind like something like the PGL as well, right?

Is it like why are we bothering trying to make 200 superstars here? Why don't we just take the top guys, make it easier for more people to get involved, make it easier for casual fans to become golf fans. And I think there's a lot of that built in here too. So in 64, they added a lot of the basically Q school and cards and all that stuff. So you've got that and then you've got another.

Which because before that, sorry, I mean, you've gotten, you know, before that was all like Monday qualifiers. Basically, right? Which is insane. So you've got that and then you've got another. Which, because before that, sorry, I mean, you've got, you know, before that was all like Monday qualifiers basically, right? Yeah, right. Which is insane. So you're gonna be like, you're like, you're like, nobody talks about that.

You know, all Paul or somebody like that. You're still Monday qualifying. So they, so in 64, they switched that. And then the card holders, like they weren't exempt, but they could enter the Monday qualifiers for like a hundred bucks instead of like the non-qualifier, or the non-card holders had to pay $200. Which is back then that's a lot of money.

An enormous. Yeah, exactly. And like 500 bucks, there's lots available to non-card holders was capped. And I'm going off of a lot of this is from Jim Garant or Gaurant. This is from a golf.com or golf magazine article from 2018. And so I think the real watershed moment here was 1966. Frank Sinatra wants to sponsor an event in Palm Springs. $200,000 event. Big money. The modern day Justin Timberlake.

Yeah. Maybe the modern day MBS. Right? Old blue eyes. Yes. Right? Old blue eyes. So the PGA tournament bureau, which is like the tournament committee, made up of four players and three PGA executives.

And four to three vote, the committee decided to add the Sinatra event to the schedule. So then the tournamentnament Committee is subject to a vote of the entire PGA executive committee, which is a bunch of club pros, right? And they're like, no, we don't think that this can survive because there's another, there's the Bob Hope Desert Classic already exists in this area, you can't do both.

Sure. So they voted it down. Do you guys think they really had no Jews at this time? Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra. You and one of them Hope and Frank Sinatra. You and one of them was like, Sinatra was very understanding. Did they get along?

Did they get along? Did they not get along? Who, Bob Hope? Sinatra? I don't know any backstory there. I don't know. I just know that Sinatra was like a known bitch. It's like a bad attitude.

There's a really good profile. I read in a college writing course, like Frank Sinatra has a cold. Yeah, it's like a to lease right? Like the best magazine piece ever written. Ever written and it's just like how big of a like he's so high maintenance and just like at the tip top of his power. Like you just couldn't say no to the guy. So I'm sure that one over.

And yes, exactly. That's a great comp. Also just to win and great. Just important to note for if you're for keeping track of this. There's a great comp. Also just to win a great. Just important to note for if you're for keeping track of this, there's no sedatura estate. This is all alleged. There is no PGA tour in existence. So every time you say PGA, we are talking about what is now PGA of America. But anything PGA related for this time period is that that's what you're referring to. Yeah. So by kind of three to one,

the executive committee of the PGA of America over rules the tournament committee, players are pissed, right? The players are, you know, it's a, they're not happy. They said, we run all the risks one tour competitor told SI at the time. So why should we have a bunch of arm share club pro telling us we can't play a $200,000 tournament. They also took issue with a new $250,000 tournament in Westchester, New York, that PGA executives

had negotiated in secret, and from which $50,000 of the purse was supposed to go into a general pension fund for all PGA members. Wow. Whoa. So one thing I think to keep in mind, I don't, you know, haven't peaked in your guys as notebooks yet, but I think a common word that, you know, based on my understanding of all these breakaways, a common word that's going to keep popping up is transparency.

So like hearing you say that, like, oh, yeah, they organized another event in secret. I know, you know, knowing what I know about the 1983 stuff. A lot of this is just like the players either not understanding what's going on or not looking into what's going on or Just shady shit going on behind the scenes, but I feel like that's a major theme throughout a lot of this stuff That was one of the things Bob Goldby in this in the same article said he was like a lot of the guys had no idea What was going on? But then as soon as they figured out like as soon as they inquired or tried to educate themselves

Then they were all on board right. Oh, yeah, this is obvious. Like we have basically we have three part time club pros essentially running this whole thing and approaching it as a club pro, and a lot of insults flying back and forth. All the club pros thought that these guys were pre-Madonna's and all these guys thought that the club pros were much of sweater floors. Probably some truth on both sides.

Yeah, yeah. Both sides have good people. all these guys thought that the club pros were much of sweater floors. Probably some truth on both sides. Yeah. Yeah. Both sides have good people. Just for clarity sake, 1966, $250,000 is now in today's dollars, $2.1 million tournament. And we're talking pre-tiger. Yeah. That's the first at the both, though.

Very similar. So, yeah. It's true. You know, but how do you get back out all the expenses and everything, too? No, laying up is of course brought to you by our friends at precision pro golf precision Pro is proud to announce the next big thing and golf technology the long awaited ace smart speaker It's a groundbreaking portable Bluetooth speaker that reads distances to you over top whatever sweet tunes you're listening to on the golf course We used it while we're filming Taurus sauce and Michigan

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You'll never second guess your distance and you'll never second guess adding the audio, caddy experienced your golf bag. Swing with with confidence hit more greens with precision pro golf. Bad feelings came to a head in June. The players produced a seven point manifesto demanding. Oh, love me. Yeah, man, that says you have my attention. Demanding to kind of go on a fac Scheduling finances, hiring a tour related personnel, and they insisted on taking away the PGA of America's veto power

and all 135 players signed it and added an ultimatum. If the PGA didn't agree to all their points by June 15th, players would boycott the 1967 PGA championship, scheduled for July 20th at Columbine Country Club in Denver. I just googled it the name of the manifesto. It's called My Struggle. But... How do I think?

I think Ted Kaczynski kind of put the manifestos on the back burner. Yeah, they got subtracted with the wrong crowd. With the wrong kind of guy. And we're dealing with all the same shit here, right? Like, we're dealing with, hey, if you don't accede to our stuff, we're breaking away. If you go play in any events and do anything that's not sanctioned by the PGA of America, we're banning you and you can't get back in.

Can you underscore a little bit? What's it, yeah, that's very interesting. I've heard that before. Can you underscore, what are the pros and cons of them kind of staying together? What are the pros and cons of them splitting apart? I mean, what's the, like what are the pros and cons of them kind of staying together? What are the pros and cons of them splitting apart? I mean, what's the, like, what are the club pros get out of this? If they, you know, I'm trying to say like, what's the point of staying together?

Get a piece of the pie, but I don't even think they realize like how, or I don't think they realize how to bake the pie, right? Like they're just, they're just trying to get a piece of the pie after it's cooked. But it seems like they're, they're just trying to get a piece of the pie after it's cooked, but it seems like they're they're after better You know, just like more coherent representation and leadership and planning here like actually bringing Professionals in to do this as well as you know more autonomy as far as you know purses and being able to keep a bigger share of the income But it's important to note that a lot of the income

was coming from club sales and pro shop sales at the time. So it wasn't just like tournament sponsorships. So the touring professionals are probably... That's where they need. They still need that money from the club pro side of the house. Which is important. All the stuff, all the merchandise and all the golf equipment is coming through pro shopsshows as well.

Yeah, there's no PGs or Superstar going on. Yeah, so it's all tied in together. You've got all these names, like Doug Ford was kind of the unofficial grievance chairman according to Grant here. Is that a title you hold with it on, sorry? I think I'm pretty low key within the organization. Outside, yeah, yeah.

You're that representative. MR organization outside. Yeah. Yes. You're that representative. Our external agree. Yes. Doug 40, any relationship, Joe Fort, the masters proud partners. I think I've poured one of masters in 1957. Really? Masters. Yeah. Then we've got Billy Casper. We've got it. And like it's coming to a head here, uh, during the open at Baltic Rale. Um, or may not have been faked.

I was going to say it could have been a total soundstage situation. Tech wasn't quite there yet. They couldn't fake it back. They picked a mood. Yeah. That was a couple of years later. That's true. You're right. Yeah. Fair enough. And you know, guy, I think I need to bring a couple of Bob goby's involved. Sorry. They're involved in what? What's going on?

Just like, you know, basically like they're like the ones the grieving. Yeah, yeah, grieving, you know, establishing grievances. Like basically setting up the potential boycott. Being like team Rose or, you know, the people that are really behind the scenes turning towards the... Good for Billy Kasper, because he was winning everything.

Yeah. Probably just getting underpaid. Exactly. So Al Guyberger hires this guy, Philip Freeman. He was like a management consultant for him. He analyzes a situation and says, hey, this is what you should do. He comes up with a 23 page report that says you should split off the tournament division and the PGA of America into two separate things.

PGA would continue to operate with its current structure or will be overseen by a board of directors or board of players and outside experts and then they would hire a commissioner and run the day-to-day operations in the long-term business and the players would hire a lawyer to represent them in the negotiations. In the lead-up to this too, Nicholas and this guy Leo Fraser, the secretary, are going at it. I mean, Nicholas is, there's this big essay that he sends to Sports Illustrated.

And he's great, you know, he's like, are you believe this? I've brought a bad attitude to the negotiations. So there's, we'll link that in this. But really, it's all about this veto power of what, you know, the pros want to be able to plan and stage tournaments when, the pros want to be able to plan and stage tournaments when and where they want to and do things that they feel are in their best interests and

not have to farm out the decision or the final, you know, confirmation of it to these guys in DC or up east. So yeah, so essentially they succeed, you know, and that's kind of the modern. This is in 1968. This is in 68, yeah. Okay. Yeah. We the modern. This is in 1968. This is in 1968. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

We're going. We're taking our stuff and we're going. Yeah, we're really, really 69's kind of the first year that it, you know, like January February of 69. So when that management consult guy you just mentioned, he's the one that kind of helps them basically break away, right? The PGA club pro stuff off of the tournament direction. Is that that's the that's the schism we're talking about? Yeah, basically,

when I talked to Nick about it, he said, Hey, like they had set up this American professional golfers ink. It was like, it was 200 or so pros. It signed on to this and said, Hey, we're, we got 40 nations. We're ready to roll at the end of 68 into 69. Yeah, it's going heading into 69. That was like their nuclear option. Okay. Hey, like we're we are leaving. Yeah. So you've got like Nicholas and Doug Ford, Billy Casper, Goldby, Jerry Barber, Dave Eichelberger, Dave Moore, all these guys. And we're kind of like the advisory committee for this APG. And they said, all right, we'll, you know, we'll play out the remainder of the season in 68 plus two tournaments already under contract for 69. And then after that, we're out this the remainder of the season in 68 plus two tournaments already under contract for 69.

And then after that we, we got this bitch. We're going to take our game elsewhere. Fun, fun little thing here. I just googled the 1969 PGA tour season. How many events do you think there were in the 1969 season? 20, 75, 49. Really? We say the golf's gotten too saturated.

It's just because it was like a complete Wild West, like there's having events all over the place. So I say like, what constitutes an event? Well, that's what I was going to say. That's, that's the, the, there was a follow up from this is like, what happens to the, the calendar? Like, does the PGA fight back on any of this? Do they, you know, try to hold players in place? What's their, you know what I mean? What's their mechanism to try to keep the status quo, right? Because they lose a big chunk of the aforementioned pie if all these guys leave. This may include PGA of America events as well. Because there's the Los Angeles open and the Alameda County open in the first same week are both listed on this. That's what I'm getting at. Was there just like a split of a bunch of like Hodgepodge events and people have to decide

which ones are going to play or how does this work? Yeah, I think it's like a lot of existing events are basically like we can go with these guys, but they're already like it's like who's going to sanction us. Yeah. Right. Who's going to like who's scheduled we're going to roll up underneath. So during this Palmer is essentially going back and forth to DC and trying to negotiate a piece because he's like, hey, I'm in the middle of this. I want everybody to get along.

I'm also on the side of my fellow players. We need to be compensated more. We need more control over our affairs here. But also I'm selling a bunch of apparel and clubs and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, exactly. And then, you know, on the other side, everybody's trying to accuse Nicholas of fanning the flames and, you know, trying to, like, make things more negative and throw gasoline on the fire to really just have a clean break from it. So I think that's kind of, you know, like, it seems like Nicholas and Palmer are taking two very, very different tax to try to get to kind of the same end result. This breakout of whatever you want to call it, break away, seems like the one that makes the most sense of all of them. Right? I mean, it's the most successful of any of the ones that we're going to talk about,

of course. It seems like they're fixing the biggest issue here. Right? Well, it's the biggest schism of, it's the top golfers breaking away from like all golfers. Right? Instead of just the top golfers breaking away from 200 other golfers, you know? That's how I'm just, yeah.

This is, there's no way this is gonna come across without demeaning, listening, KGA professionals. That's not my intent whatsoever. But just the idea of like NBA players and like high school basketball coaches all being in the same organization and like having their interest represented by the same people is fucking acid-eyed.

I mean, it's ridiculous. Yeah, so I'm with you. That's the biggest, like, okay, we need to fix this issue. It's like professional golf almost came about by accident, right, came about in spite of itself, right? Like nobody expected this to happen and then all of a sudden it's just bolted onto the side

of the PGA of Americans, like, oh shit, like by the way, like why is this like, so then? Which we're still kind of like unraveling from, right? With like that's why the majors are all different organizations, that's why nothing's like really consolidated. So this Leo Fraser guy the entire time he's accusing Jack of undermining Arnold and all that. And so Jack writes this big email to Sports Illustrated and says like, Hey, like you're

not not email or essay. Or essay. The modern day email. Yeah. I'm sure he's not gonna be a telegram or anything and said, you know, like basically you full of shit man, like you're you know lays it out and it is like, I'm sure a lawyer wrote it, but it's scathing. Like we'll link it with all this. And then the other thing too,

is like the TV money, like they kind of signed, they signed up ABC to do 10 tour events in the 1968 season or starting in 1969 and Rune Arlege, who was the VP of sports for ABC was basically like hey like I don't know how this is gonna go but Either way like we're gonna televised the one that's that we're like we're all the good players Sure, okay, there's no you know There's no upside to going and televising, you know a bunch of nobody's in the field We're just gonna hang out and see who wins. And then we're gonna televised that tour.

Shout out to the modern TV contract as well. And then you've got some classics in the world. Can I read the first paragraph of the Jack's letter? Yeah, you gotta read it in Jack's voice though. I can't read a good Jack's voice. The verbal attack recently unleashed on me by Leo Frazier, the Secretary of the Professional Golfers Association, was on the whole inaccurate.

Frazier did spell my of the Professional Golfers Association, was on the whole inaccurate. Frazier did spell my name correctly, Jack Nicholas. He even had my age right, 28, and he signed his own name properly, Leo Frazier. The rest of his cutting statement, though, was a personal assault. And then he goes on for... Goes on to say, Barbara and I were so offended by this letter. He goes on to say, the reason... What sets my ice cream apart from other ice creams in the market

The other thing is you got the International Golf Sponsors Association the IGSA which represented 34 of the 44 events on the PGA tour on the PGA Sorry, not the PGA tour. They're basically sitting over here to the side and saying hey like we don't you know Don't jeopardize our shit here. We've set up these events. You guys work it out, but we're gonna be over here and we're gonna go with whichever one of you guys figures this out. Do you mind if I read one other part of this letter here? Please, you raise as much of the letters you want.

There's like gold all throughout. It's fantastic. So he's talking about, skipping ahead of, in the letter talks about, complaints that he wagered, we talks about complaints that he was, that he wagered. We raised, complaints that he raised, questions he raised about the field at the PGA championship. Jack Big just asking questions guy. So that he said there were only 56 toryan pros in the starting field of 168 players at San Antonio. One day a writer asked me about this ratio. I said,

it's absurd and unfortunate. Only a third of the players at the PGA were regular tour competitors or in other words, the best players in the world. PGA's antiquated qualifying system prevented top players such as Bob Murphy, Lee Elder and Dean Beeman. Hold on to that one from playing at San Antonio. As a member of the tournament committee, I spoke out against the system. I had nothing to gain for myself. I was exempt from qualifying for the PGA tournament. I wanted a proper tour representation at the pro's own championship. The PGA should be the number one tournament in golf because it is our championship. It cannot be number one though when many top players, the tour players cannot tee the ball up. There you go. Tough dark.

You know, Omar Euresti out there. You know, I can't have that. I can't sleep on that. So also why it's gets a little fickle to compare eras, but that's just neither here nor there. Compare Jack's 18 to Tigers 15. I'm just what I'm getting at. And but he also gets to if yes, you're right. If all this reflects my typical attitude, well, that's fine. It means I have been performing on behalf of the other 205 tour pros who elected me in the first place. The fellows who are in $5,000 a year, as well as the $100,000 guys.

The attitude I take to the negotiating table is their attitude. I mean, it's kind of hard. It's definitely hard to argue for a lot of what he's saying. No, I totally. So essentially the players kind of call the tours or the PGA's bluff They're like hey like if you're not gonna seed our demands we're gonna set up this APG and

We're going off on our own like C pine said hey, you know, we're gonna host an event Sam's people are staying as spice bush with the RAD But like these tournaments are like we're major players, you know the Bob Hope or the San Diego open like all these tournaments are like we're major players, you know, the Bob Hope or the San Diego open like all these tournaments are made major players in, you know, both now and then like they're still the same, you know, kind of like the greater Hartford open. For instance, it's still the same like host organizations. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's funny how the schedule looks in the winter alone. It's got L.A. Open. It's got Bing Crosby National Pro Am. It's got the Bob Hoat Desert Classic. The Phoenix Open. Derral is obviously not there anymore.

The Greater Jacksonville Open in March, which I'm not saying evolved into the players' championship, but and then of course, yeah, we get into the Masters and stuff like that. So it's interesting. So they keep negotiating. Elbin steps down. The burning tree guy steps down. And he's basically saying, we're willing to share control, but the players insist on dominant control. Album gets replaced by Pierre Gatt. So then that's when he's replaced by this Leo Fraser guy. So that's where this guy, you know, they bring in this Leo Fraser guy to really like up the ante and you know, they bring in this Leo Frazier guy to really like up the ante and you know take it to the players. You know, so essentially they end up

coming to an agreement on in December of 68 and they formed the tournament players division, a free standing corporation run by a 10 member tournament policy board. It's like all the same vocabulary is what you still find like it's all hatched right here. Four players, three PGA executives, three consulting businessmen, Commissioner would run the tour and answer only to the board. All the APG contracts and their tournament schedule will be transferred to the PGA and all pending litigation would be dismissed. So and at that point, they had about $5.5 million in total purse.

Money leader was 164K. Frank Beard. That's the reader's digest version of it. Frank Beard's the guy from Ford. Formation up. I mean, it's kind of wild. I don't truly did not know the story of the formation of the BGA tour. And they brought in Joe Day.

Joe Dye. Joe Dye. That one got me too, but I had to learn. Joe Dye, the respected executive director of the USGA, he kind of, you know, brought everybody back to the table, calmed things down, took the temperature down a little bit. And you know, that's that. But it seemed like Palmer was really the one that, like, Nicholas was out there, you know, jabbing everybody and trying to create a fight

and Paul was like, hey, like here's, we gotta get this figured out. Here's some ideas how to do it. So it seems like it kinda went on for like six or seven years before fully, yes. Like the names kept changing and I think the structure kept changing quite a bit, but it took a while for it to all kind of shake out.

It seems like from 65 to 68 or 69. It was four or four. And even into the 70s, right? Before it was fully called like the PGA tour. PGA tour came in 1975. Yeah. Beaming came in in 1974. Correct, yeah.

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towel again, rapsoto.com slash NLU promo code NLU. So I think that rolls us into part two, which takes us to the 1983 attempted overthrow of the government. They said, Jack Nicholas said, Mr. Beeman, you must tear down this wall. So I think one thing to just note in general, I think maybe hopefully would be a podcast guest in the future. As Dean Beeman was a, was a menace and a driving force. Uh, still is a menace.

It is a menace. Still is a menace, a driving force behind the game that we currently see. In fact, I will be heavily, heavily, maybe borderline on plagiarizing Adam Schupac's book, Dean Beeman, golf's driving force as we tell the story of, I was going to say you're already plagiarized. 80 carling of the driving force. What happens in a three? But so as we mentioned, D. Beeman was became the commissioner of the PGA tour in 1974. It's worth noting. Beeman was a fantastic player in his own right, great player in his own right. I believe he's the, the original nation of that phrase actually starts with B.M.

Um, B.M. was one of the first people to chart golf courses like chart yardage book wise. He was one who taught Jack Nichols how to do it. Like it's a great story preparing note cards and, uh, Jack Nichols actually credits him with two of his major wins, one of which he noticed something in Jack's putting stroke before ahead of one of the PGA championships and said something to him at his house like you're not completing your backstroke. Nicholas left the dinner, went out to go practice his putting and goes out to win the tournament.

And I forget what the other story is of the credit he gets. Maybe it was about the charting of the golf course, but Nicholas himself specifically gave Dean Beaman shout outs for winning two of his majors, which is all very interesting. They used to play practice rounds together and things don't necessarily end well between Mr. Beaman and Mr. Nicholas, but of other notes, Beaman was responsible for converting the tour from a for-profit entity into the 501 C6 that we see today. And one of the many pillars of, again, we're kind of cheating and we're going ahead to 94 to win B-men retires.

But over the course of his tenure, the PGA tour assets grew from $400,000 in 1974 to $260 million in 1994. So, and adjusted for inflation, it was 1.2 to 260 million. So, enormous, enormous, enormous growth under the Beeman administration. And Beeman's, your notes here, his original thesis was that golf was tremendously undervalued. Tremendously undervalued, it was basically

like an association that scheduled tournaments, put rules officials out there. It was not a business entity, and it was not, it was basically like an association that scheduled tournaments put rules officials out there. It was not a business entity and it was not, there was no marketing, there was just no, no, basically the big thing was marketing, right? There's no like push for, listen, is he maybe to blame for the fact that we see a million PGA tour commercials, he might, he very well might be. He was a A creator of the television model that we see today. So maybe we do have a little, a few more beefs with with Dean Beeman

But again, so fast forwarding ahead to 1983 and again, this is detailed in Adam Schupack's book Dean Beeman's golf driving force Adam Schupack fellow Columbia go Lions so is ruin art Lidge by the way really yes So it starts with the story of from the mark from March of 1983 said once seated in this takes place in Arnold Palmer's office at Bay Hill once seated Nicholas quickly took the lead. He outlined his concerns berating demon for breaking with precedent the tourist purpose Nicholas said should be limited to assembling the schedule

marking the golf course and setting the whole locations. Tournament operations should be the baliwack of sponsors, volunteers, and tournament directors. In short, Nicholas was at odds with the tours growing role as a marketing engine and proclaimed its marketing initiatives had crossed the line. Let's break down what that means. What's he angry about? Nicholas wants more unpaid volunteers.

So just of note, the marketing department for the PGA tour had started in 1980. So that was three years prior to this. So basically, again, taking Beeman's vision, marrying these two things, Beeman's vision, I'm saying, look, we're not going to be just like marking pins. Like I can totally see that this thing is undervalued. Here is what we are going to create. Now listen, did the PGA tour have some communication issues to the players? Beeman admits that pretty much to say like a lot of what happens here is a lack of communication of what we've done, what are, you know, what we're allowed to do under our mandate. Yeah, it sounds extremely familiar to what's currently going on.

And so the way this is also, I'm trying not to be editorialized too much criticism here of Nicholas, but I personally just don't find Jack to be the most adept businessman over the course of his career. I think it'd be fair to say like Jack's a good, a smooth, I had a feeling that was going to be followed. But so coming into, he's in his 40s at this point, right? So he's 43 years old, I think, around this time. And he's starting to see the benefits of like course design business

and the marketing of his own logo. And he is of the mind that for every marketing, all the marketing that the PGA Tour does is potentially taking customers away from him and marketing opportunities away from him specifically. Which is tough timing with launching the PGA Tour apparel and tough, tough time with launching the TPC design network. Exactly.

For every TPC course that gets designed, that's not a jacknickless signature design. And if the tour has an official credit card, that's one less sponsor that Jack could work with directly. So selfishly, he feels like, well, I have this business engine of my own. The PGA tour is going to sign up sponsors that are going to benefit all the other members and not me. He hates the LMPs.

He hates the official marketing partners. Which I think like a lot of what we'll hear here. Both sides, you know, pretty strong case, right? I totally understand where Jack's coming from. But I think on Dean Beeman's side, like his, much like it is today, with Jay Monhan. I mean, his job is on Dean Beaman's side, like his much like it is today with Jay Monhan, I mean, his job is to make his 200 members happy, not to make Jack Nicholos happy, right?

And so it's... Well, that also Jack, you know, what 20 years later is a little at odds with the statements from his letter of unnegotiating on behalf of, you know, the guys that elected me here, and now he's like, fuck those guys. I got mine. I got, I want to keep getting mine.

Pretty much. Yeah. Taking the doing the Billy horse around. So a name we're going to hear is E.M. DeWint, who is the chairman of the policy board and also chairman of the Eaton Corporation. But Eaton. Eaton. Oh, Eaton.

Eaton. E.M. is his name, two letters. Yeah. He had noted in 1979 that Beeman assessed some brutal facts, professional tournament golf experience, a period of relatively flat growth in uncertain prospects for several years in the 1970s. Television ratings declined and research indicated a shrinking demographic for the game. Many felt that golf had not kept pace with other professional sports in terms of marketing, promotion, or spectator innovations. Nor had the tour developed any significant revenue sources

besides television rights fees, which in 1980 accounted for nearly 80% of tour cash receipts. So this is what Beeman is saying. Here's our issues. Beeman has these initiatives that he takes to address these issues. But going back to what we're saying, the tour had then signed deals for official credit card, airline and cruise line and Nicholas complain that the growth of such initiatives represented unwanted competition for his and Paul Merch

own branding opportunities. So he and Paul Merch this time, that's in quote, he and Paul Merch this time are not, not best friends. Like we know them and our generation is being too great traveling sportsmen who are, you know, they were ever best friends. All right. That was just kind of well, they initially are this is. I don't want to say this is competing. I think it was. Yeah. I think it was a lot like when Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush were tore in the

world after they were president like pal and around. They would very well be back in the day. They weren't friends, right? I don't know if that makes an appolm actually I don't want to pull in Bill Clinton. That kind of kind of got to work. A couple of different levels. So Palmer and Nicholas are agreeing. It's noted in the book to say they're agreeing to put their differences aside to discuss this, to meet about this.

He expressed other concerns. He believed this is Nicholas that the tour should limit its role in negotiating, packaging television rights. Nicholas and Palmer operated their own tour events and wanted to sell the TV rights individually rather than have them group with the tour's other tournaments. That's like, that seems wildly stupid. Stagglingly stupid.

Which again, on the whole, like if you're, if you're Jack and you're the memorial and you think you can get a better deal, like I guess I get it, but what a wildly selfish decision, right? Yeah, wouldn't you just look right through this guy? If you were anybody on tour, I'd be like, fuck this guy, he doesn't have our best interests in mind. He's got his own interests in mind.

And that's just what pretty much the, you know, the how Jack viewed it was like, do give us the tournaments, give us the money, play the tournaments, let us take care of our marketing individually. Like all of this is benefiting other people a lot more than me. We play for the prize money and we got to compete for that. I'm fine with that, but like this stuff we've got going on here could like greatly exceed

what we're able to make on the course like stop disrupting that for us. That's my, you know, touch of it. Well, the Palmer already, like, I just have such a tough time, like grasping Palmer saying, you know what, like, I've got this deal with Cooper Tires and this deal with Gulf Stream and this deal with Penzoil and like the tours sign in these marketing partners

and all this stuff's gonna evaporate, right? Like I just, I don't see that happening. Right, that's how Nicholas saw it and was persuasive based on how it's described in the book. And Nicholas concluded, I was the vibe of the other players, outside of Nicholas. So we'll get to that. Nicholas concluded, I'll do everything in my power

to stop that man he said of Dean Beaman. Mom, there goes that man. So again, he besieged. Like, for Wallace, damn him, damn that man. Nicholas besieged Palmer to put their business interests before any lingering animosity for each other. It was time to orchestrate a palace coup. Now, another great part in here is this meeting takes place

at Arnie's office at Bay Hill. And Nicholas like refused to believe that this was Arnie's real office. He thought it was like a power play. It's just such a good, such a good detail. The, like the office was just like kind of a mess or like shot. I don't know exactly what it was, but kind of like, is this really your office Arnie? And then Arnie left the room and was like,

no, no, seriously, is this his office? And apparently Arnie was so just like perturbed by that. He ended up spending millions of dollars in renovating his office because of how Arnie Jack like ripped on it. So it's leads to Beeman saying it was not a power struggle, it was a total revolution. Again, we talked about how they were, they only had 400,000 in the bank

when he became the commissioner. They were playing for $8.2 million in total prize money. They had rented office space in New York and its largest owned capital asset was an IBM selectric typewriter. But again, if you don't really have a TV contract, which that's what I understand is like, what happened between 68 when Rune Arla just talking about that 10 tournament deal and, you know, 80 or 83 when how did the TV contract not?

I bet it was really grow or not really totally, totally guessing here, but I wonder if that was much more, you know, dependent on the majors, which all would have been independent. And then maybe a small handful of other independent tournaments like what jazz going individually to them instead of end. Yeah. And it goes to that whole point, though, of like, this is wildly undervalued. Well, here we go against this sobering background, beeman developed his vision for the tour, promoting the game aggressively, growing the shit out of growing beef up, increasing revenue by competing more effectively in the sports marketplace and broadening the base

of support for tournament golf and the game. In the nine years that had passed since Beaman had assumed leadership of the tour, Beaman found a 415 acre piece of swamp land in Pontavigir Beach, Florida and persuaded the developer to sell the land to the tour for $1. He moved the tours headquarters there and built the TPC Sawgrass Stadium course, marking the launch of a network of spectator-friendly golf

courses. So this is again where it enters that like a lot of the pros, some of the pros are starting to design golf courses, like what the hell is going on here? Like you guys are totally distracted by what you think you're supposed to be doing here, and this is are totally distracted by what what you think you're supposed to be doing here. And this is not working for us is basically what Jack was pissed that he didn't ask him

to do the stadium course. That is and not so many words what account what I'm kind of picking up here as well. And I'm got to guess that that developer got some type of off the record. That had to be the most corrupt deal. Yeah, it's not just one dollar. I'm gonna, I'm gonna hypothesize that. Well, that was there. The whole story is.

They might have built all the housing around. Yeah, exactly. The whole story is in the Saga S Clubhouse, actually. They've got the dollar bill in display and the whole black that does all the stuff. The go-ster on the roof. Exactly. Give me the land for a dollar

and I'll make it valuable for you to build other stuff around it. Yes. Yeah. And so again, bragging on Beeman Moore, Beeman and ushered in the creation of the senior PGA tour just in time to showcase the magnetism of Arnold Palmer as he entered the twilight of his career. Tournament versus were on the rise.

Charitable contributions had reached record levels, new revenue streams from TPCs to marketing partners were paying off handsomely. The tour's financial picture had never been better. All of this was irrefutable. So going back a little bit to Jim Colbert's role in all of this and Jim Colbert's a Colbert report. The Colbert report. He notes that, you know, I don't know where I am at in this timeline, but just a few weeks prior at the Byron Nelson, Colbert walked in the locker room and found Nicholas holding court in front of 20 other pros. Colbert stood there within earshot and listened to Jack disparage the way Beeman ran the tour like a futile lord.

This Dean Beeman guy. I tell you what Jack had a like that that times version of like a Facebook group that he was used. Try to mount an insurrection of the other tour. Colbert reports summed up the grievance session with this assessment. Jack thought the tour was all but running a used car lot. Meanwhile, Jack is running his personal businesses into the ground. This seems like a perfect time period where Beaming could have easily connected the intercostal

waterway. For sure. If you were, that was a missed opportunity. If you were ever going to do as way easier before you put all the houses up before, no imminent domain is necessarily. And maybe Nicholas was a big proponent of that. And well, we never know because he didn't get a chance to actually put together a proposal. I also think it's interesting.

I did a little bit of research on beam and lived in marsh landing here in Pontovidra Beach, marsh landing a Arnold Palmer signature design. Exactly. It does, the book also kind of places some of the blame for this, this, what eventually is about to happen on a lot of the agents, Chuck Perry, who was an agent that's along with Watson's agent was Chuck Rubin. They are the ones that persuaded,

so Chuck Perry was Nicholas's agent. Persuaded Nicholas and Watson that the marketing and growth of the tour would undercut their entrepreneurial opportunities. Is the Cormmic involved at all? He's not really leading all of this. It seems like there's a line in the book, too, that says, what Dean Beeman failed to do, what you're supposed to do is making sure

the people that have decided they hate you and the people that are unsure, making sure they stay in separate rooms, is an interesting line here, basically, to the persuasiveness of Jack and all of this, basically to start convincing people that things were wrong. So the agents argue that if a tour entered into a relationship with a Fortune Fiverr, under company, undermine the player's abilities to sign their own deals on the surface, Perry's argument had merit in an appeal to Nicholas who shared his zero sum outlook in which

there could only be winners and losers. Beeman's distance from the sport since his retirement as a player in 1974 provided him with a different perspective, but he still understood the mindset of the professional athlete. The agents prayed on their clients underlying fear that the tour would snatch lucrative deals from them. One of their chief complaints by getting into real estate through development of tournament players clubs, the tour was directly competing with certain players who had their own design and development businesses. So if the pie grew bigger, they would still be the top chefs said beeman referring to the trio of Nicholas Palmer and Watson. They would have had their pick of the plums and he he ticked off several examples of the tour negotiating agreements with national

car rental, the official car rental of the PGA tour. That scenario he insisted didn't harm Palmer's longstanding relationship with Hertz. In fact, it motivated us also with Uncle Juice. Yeah. In fact, it motivated Hertz to become more active in golf and Palmer's value to the company increased. But Nicholas and Palmer rejected this line of reasoning and maintained that the tour had overstepped its boundaries.

So something that happens in this time period as well as Beeman picks up the tag, the Zarr of golf. And I honestly thought about assigning this section to you only just for that purpose alone, but I figured the shark was just right up your alley. And is he doing like a bunch of stuff to standardize the tournaments? As far as the product that's out there, whether it's the TV product or the on-site product or the player experience at a tournament, he's basically ensuring consistency across the schedule.

Yes, that's not specifically spelled out in terms of the list of the things that he's done, but I assume that there's just a ton of, that's one of the things that the PGA tour has been amazing at. It's just like having the same procedures in place operationally. So anyways, the Zara of golf is a derisive nickname that he voked players hostility towards his rising authority in the golf community. Also reflected a larger disdain for the way he felt he acted as prosecutor judge and jury. Having played a key role in the break away of the tour with Nicholas, Palmer said he felt a sense of responsibility to ensure the next generation of players was afforded the same opportunities as he

enjoyed. Grow the game. When a letter to the opposite of what he's doing. Right. Everything that Beeman is, you're saying Beeman is trying to ensure that or Nicholas is trying to ensure that Palmer said he felt like he was, he was trying to ensure that. That seems like the opposite of what they're doing. It seems like Beeman's whole thing is like network effect. Like, we're gonna work together. We're gonna bundle all this stuff and everybody's gonna get richer. And it seems like what the top three guys are saying

is like, fuck that. Like, I'm gonna take what's mine and like, just set up the pins, please. I bet players over on the side, I can't. We need to grow the game. So when a tour, when I letter to the tours policy board chairman, called for Beamons head, Palmer signed. So again, this is a quote from Jack Nicholas.

Dean worked as hard as he could to have a socialist state. Jack's been fighting socialism for a long, long period of time here. The Nicholas said this in his book, Arnie and Jack, the definitive book examining the complicated relationship of Palmer and Nicholas by author Ian O'Connor. The stars were knocked down. He created a tour in his own image. Speaking of Beeman. Yes. Yes. It's like the shield. You know, the NFL, like it's, you know, the shield's more important than the individual players. Exactly. So, Beeman was shocked that Palmer and Nicholas failed to understand the tourist direction. How do you guys not get this?

Yes. Is authority a sync with me? How do you not understand? This is so obvious. Yeah. So, here's where it gets very clear. Beeman's authority was established in the tourist original charter and granted in part by Jack Nicholas and Arnold Palmer.

They spearheaded the Tours separation from the PGA in 1968. Nicholas took part in hiring the lawyers that drew up the papers to form the corporation. So why were golf's two biggest names so up in arms? In fact, Nicholas's agent had already drafted a letter to the board chairman. IMG's Johnson brought a copy of it to the meeting and jotted down the names of all players that were in attendance upon it. As rain showers pelted the course, Nicholas canvassed the room asking, who's with me? Uh, tough.

It's like the Jerry McGuire. So in the morning of May 27, 1983, while a handful of players agents met to discuss the events of the night before over breakfast, Nicholas and Palmer signed off on a letter addressed to the chairman of the tournament policy board. Watson's name joined 11 other prominent golfers of the day. Johnny Miller, Lee Trevino, Raymond Floyd, Lanny Watkins and Tom Wysekov among them who supported the uprising. So do we want to go through the letter?

Sure. Dear Mr. Dewint, for the past several years, we have become concerned about the direction of the PGA Tour and the role of the commissioner. As players, we believe that we have a responsibility not only to ourselves, but to the future generation of tour players, to our tournament sponsors, and to all the fans and communities who support professional golf in this country and around the world. We strongly believe that the role the PGA Tour should be limited to organizing and managing a schedule of professional golf tournaments for the benefit of TOR members.

This was the sole reason that our organization was formed, and it is still the only justification for is its existence. It is our opinion that the Tours efforts and course development, marketing, club management, rules of golf, and other ventures divert the energies of the commissioner's office, and substantially increase the operating overhead and unnecessary, unnecessary expands the bureaucracy of the organization. In addition, we

believe these activities create a major conflict of interest with the individual members of the PGA tour. The players, the PGA tour both past and present have delegated the organization management of our tournament schedule to the tour. However, we never intended to create a monster, which is competing against the individual interests of tour players in commercial areas outside of tournament golf. Our areas are shared by a

significant number of tour players. These specific areas include, and I'm not going to read all the details on this golf course development, marketing, TV package, player, television rights, and the role of the tour. Now, under the role of the tour, it says, the mandate of the PGA tours to create and organize tour events. This responsibility includes maintaining excellent sponsor relationships and providing highly professional and responsive tour field staff and operations, which result in the best possible tour events. We do not intend to stand silently by why the while the tour continues to exceed its mandate by progressively encroaching on the basic rights of all tour players.

Nor do we intend to watch the tour commissioner become the czar of golf at the expense of other important organizations within the golf and community. It's amazing how badly these guys got detonated. Just seeing what the tour turned into. Well, just as a flash forward, you mean? Yeah. That's what I was gonna say. It's important to look at,

it's got, I know history is all, hindsight's 2020 and on all this stuff and you can't necessarily know what's gonna happen, but whoa, it's so clear what Beeman's doing here and how sustainable of a business he's he's building right that's some of the same stuff that I hate about the tour there too For sure, but it's all benefiting these people. Yeah specific people like in a vacuum Did it lead to something things that we don't like like too many commercials and all that sure but like for looking at it from a players perspective These guys are so off-base like fighting.

It's like, no way man, the pie's gonna get bigger. And your slice is technically smaller maybe, but it's bigger because the whole pie is massive. It's a lot bigger. It's fascinating because like how many guys are members of the tour? 200, 125. And so you've got these 10 to 12 guys in a room that are that are reaping, you know,

they're standard reaping even bigger benefits of that. Like it's a, it's everybody's vote counts the same, right? So who gives a shit what these 12 guys have to say when it's 125 men? Right. So if you couldn't tell from the emphasis of what I, or what I emphasized in there, the line exceed its mandate. Those three words are gonna change exactly how this plays out. So the letter finishes with,

so we urge you to shift the PGA tours emphasis away from what we consider to be an unauthorized and ill-conceived course of action, which will be detrimental to all concern. We'll work with you on recharging the tours course if you are agreeable. If not, we will have no other choice but to take whatever action is required to protect

our individual and collective rights. The issues outlined in this letter have been fully discussed with the players whose names appear on the enclosed sheet. Those players fully subscribe to the content of this letter. In the upper right hand corner, simply the signatures of golf, two cultural icons, Palmer and Nicholas, and to the left. A list of concurring tour pros was attached. It named Andy Bean, Ben Crenshaw, Raymond Floyd, Hale Irwin, Tom Kite, Johnny Miller, Gary Player, Craig Stadler, Lietra Vino, Lanny Watkins,

Tom Watson and Tom Wisecoff. All of the above had attended the previous days meeting with the exception of player who they forgot to invite and later apologize to its oversize hell yeah. For the love of it. Oh, man. Sounds good. Yeah. Put me down. When was that meeting?

That was my favorite note of all that they forgot to invite player. Quarter-clote. For God. Beaman was furious that Floyd, Irwin and Kai had signed the letter. They were all former policy board members. He was also furious, feeling betrayed and demoralized when his eyes reviewed one sentence that stopped him in his tracks. The letter alleged that he in the board had exceeded its mandate and further charged

those activities were unauthorized. These words were designed to galvanize their co-conspirators, but Beaman wondered if its authors had inadvertently provided the ammunition for a possible counterattack. So Beaman doesn't want to do this confrontation directly. Like he's very much sensing the vibe, but like these dudes don't want me. Like they're not going to listen to what my message

is going to be coming, but. Which is tough though, because it's also, if you're him, I assume it's looking at the tea leaves here and be like, you know, any commissioner is going to do exactly what I'm doing. Like this is not some radical, some radical plan. Right. So he can leave, but like somebody else is going to come in and do the exact same thing.

Or they just want a commissioner that's like a complete order taker. I guess. Not going to like it just, you know, do the very basic stuff and somebody that's, that's not a dynamic leader. Beeman says, you know, all right, I'm gonna fight this, but he also said he intended to negotiate a deal for TPC sawgrass and the TPC network. In case that he did lose, basically saying,

whatever the tour would compensate me on my way out would not compare to the TPC network. Obviously, we know that the tour, this coup does not happen. And Beeman's later saying that, yeah, this, actually fighting for the players, cost him probably a billion and a half dollars. If he would have just owned the TPC network on his own, of this coup does not happen. And Beam and Slater are saying that, yeah, this actually fighting for the players cost him probably a billion and a half dollars. If you would have just owned the TVC network on his own, as part of this compensation.

This guy was burying landmines and shit all over the place. So Beam and Leighon and Jim Colbert to help fight the battle. Colbert boarded air bear, which was Nicholas's private plane, with a copy of the tour's original Delaware corporation charter from Beaman. So he said, you know, Beaman, given the message, focus on the ramification of the changes that's the CEOs of Eaton Corp, Westinghouse, and Disney were being charged

with exceeding their authority. So basically saying like, all right, if you're saying the board and the commissioner are exceeding their authority, like you're gonna tell these heads of businesses that are part of this board, like you are not following the mandate, like how serious of a charge that is,

like to go confront these guys to be like, they can't, it's like a legal overreach. Yes, like do you realize what you're saying here? First of all, and basically, we're gonna be honest, man, we just wanted some more money. We didn't think we did think much past it. What fast that? And so they pull up the original charter

that says like specifically that the tour was gonna be doing this. And Nicholas rendered speechless with an edge of suspicion creeping in his voice says who granted those privileges? Who's man, who's man's is this? Who granted those privileges, Barbara? Barbara, who's man's is this?

Colbert points at the tour player directors who voted for the charter, circled the name Nicholas and said, you did. That was the extent of Nicholas's cross examination, his eyes grew wide. He swore in his seat and slouched despondently. Colbert then underlined Nicholas's name on the letter to the tour chairman, handed it to Nicholas and didn't sugarcoat the severity of the situation. Colbert scolded Nicholas, telling him he had impugned the integrity of the tour, the commissioner and the independent directors.

If you don't withdraw your letter, the tour will spend every nickel. It's got to hurt your name. What a turn of events. Nicholas sitting there in his private play and thinking he's got the tour by the, you know, they just flying around. There is some detail. There was, it was from DC was I skipped over some details here. I'm taking it long enough as it around. There is some detail. There was, it was from DC was, I skipped over some details here. I'm taking it long enough as it is, but basically so they, they, where they end up is one

of the great own goals of our time. Nicholas's agent Chuck Perry joins him in a hotel room. Nicholas has shown what you showed me and Perry quickly realized that the efforts to unseat Beaman had been thwarted. Then Nicholas acted swiftly to prevent any problems from Ruben to Jack's credit. This is a quote to Jack's credit. He picked up the phone and called Ruben and threatened him to an interview his life. The revolt had been quelled mostly thanks to the messenger.

And Mark Kazir, Kizier, a past PGA president, member of the Taurus Board of the Times said, I believe Jim Colbert saved Dean's job. I never said to Dean. I never said to Jim, but I believe it. And so this ends with a meeting that takes place in New York in June of that year, where, you know, Beeman and DeWent are meeting with Arnie and Jack, basically citing like, they created an annual report with a lot of information, just like the one we kind of solve recently that shows the tour players, how they're being paid, whatnot. But it was the first time a full like annual report had been accumulated for the players, which Beeman, I admit, like, yeah, we probably should have been doing that. Like the tour players, how they're being paid, what not. But it was the first time a full annual report had been accumulated for the players,

which beaming the admit, yeah, we probably should've been doing that. The tourship, the players should've probably been aware of how this whole system was working for them. How well it's working. Yeah, it's like better communication would have solved a lot of us. And Arnold, after being presented that, Arnold replied, we didn't, we didn't need to send that letter.

And you know what, I hate that we did that, man. I hate that we did that we did that I'm sorry you know listen you know that's a boat that's double bogey on us You know say that's on me brother. It's on me. He then jokes that is there it was Jack that got him into all of this So the two quickly with through their objections beam and concede that tour communicated poorly with its players You know you know jack I'm y'all hot and bothered. You know what he want me to do, man. So you're slipping at a grid. Now that was that one. That was a little pulver. Let's go get some moral bombers. Let's go mix up some Paul. That's that's wild, man. Come on, man. Larry Nelson,

a player director on the tours board at the time said it was the equivalent of a secret meeting between the Soviets and the Americans during the Cold War. One side could have pressed the red button to launch an atomic bomb, but they came to their senses. To those people who were aware of it, we were nervous and extremely relieved at the outcome, speaking about the private meeting in New York of Palmer, Nicholas, and other parties and Beaman and Dewent as well. So, this also is, Cohen said, this was right before a huge player meeting at this event,

like that was designed for like kind of communication, right? And basically they had this secret meeting that happens before it, to went open the meeting by reading a prepared statement from Nicholas and Palmer, which said two weeks ago, we privately met and communicated to the board some concerns and questions about the current policies

and future directions of the PGA tour. It has never been our intent, however, to create a public controversy about the tour or its current leadership, both of which we support. Our main purpose to get more information and to involve more leading players and helping shape the future of the tour has been accomplished. The board has been very responsive. This is the 1983 version of, you know, I saw their play. My dad's play was better.

Big time. The floor was turned over to Nicholas who asked to address the standing room only crowd. This again, this is a crowd full of like basically all tour players this time. He stared out towards his fellow competitors, commanding silence without saying a word. Thank you, everyone, for being here. Nicholas said simply and solemnly.

He spoke for 10 minutes. The players listened as as if it was a church congregation holding the annual report in his hand. Nicholas said that the players could see for themselves how well the tour leadership had performed under the circumstances. We think it best to formally withdraw our previous communication to the board and Arnie and I now consider the matter closed. When one player raised his hand and asked, where's the letter?

What's in the letter? Nicholas dodged the question saying, shut up, Jason, don't drag. I said it wouldn't do anyone any good to read it. He grinned as if in pain a player said, Nicholas reiterated that they had withdrawn the letter. It was a stunning turn of events, kite for one, nearly fell out of his chair.

Nicholas said that's private. It's gonna all gonna be the police report. Be minute appreciated, Nicholas, looking as fellow players in the eye and the clarity of the verdict, it was one of the classiest moves that I've ever witnessed. Be not said.

That's total bullshit. That's a big move. That's this might have come from Jack. That's what it's. Jack comes out of this looking like the biggest chicken shit whoever lives. It's I strongly recommend you read Adam Schupex book because I'm summarizing a lot of it

But skipping over some really fun details. I literally could have read the chapter the chapters work for word The entire meeting with last four hours, but Nicholas high-tailed out of there after doing his part He made his way to the hotel's lobby He told the Washington Post Thomas Boswell that the player turned out probably the largest response ever the fellows are just dying to have some Information this is in no way this has in no way been in a front to Dean Beeman. But if Dean has one fault, it's that he keeps a lot of things to himself. Slipping into a car, waiting to whisk him away to the airport, Nicholas concluded, I'm going to stick to playing golf for a while.

Beeman's contract was renewed one year later, extending it five more years. Man. God, that's good stuff. That's a story. That's a lot of reading. That's a lot of details from it. But man, it's truly, it's truly fascinating. Very under-reported on the thing that Shout's Adam Schupack wants more time for the book that covers this.

So he got extended five more years and then after that, he got extended like another five years. Yeah, so 1994 was his last year. So trying to just unpack a little bit of this or trying to see it from the player side I've been sending another five, six, one, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, all these tournaments there. And like it completely, you get to practice there. It completely makes sense for our business. Here's, here's why. Here's all the numbers. As they're like putting those courses up and as they're spending money to develop those things

and if you don't know any of the numbers that are going on, I do get why the players would be upset. Yes. Once you do have those things, yeah, I don't get why the that's also to like during this whole period. He's, I assume he's putting together the whole pension program and the point system for how to contribute to the pension.

Well, they probably got so much new money coming in that they're probably trying to figure all that stuff out, right? Exactly. So it's like, he's like, yo, I got this shit under control. Yeah. Yeah. A true just trust me, man. Yeah.

I'm going to be a lot better at this than you are. What a while Jack is literally running his own businesses into the ground. It's wild. It might have saved Jack a lot of money with this. So Dean Beaman did an interview later with a podcast thing. It's called For the Good of the Game, F-O-R-E, good of the game. I think I have that right. He said whoever wrote the letter made a drastic error in about three words.

Because if they had only said, we as players do not want you to do this, we would have lost. So we wouldn't have been able to do those things, but they also said, and add a couple little words that were the life saver of the tour today, that we believe that you exceeded your authority by doing what you're doing. And I said, we haven't exceeded our authority,

and I pulled the original papers that were in the archives, the original incorporating documents of Delaware, and we cited to him, which is what those papers said. It said specifically, the Torquanon golf courses, it could license, it could sell its name. And lo and behold, whose name was on that, those papers, Jack Nichols was one of the original board members. What a fast. I got a, it's been way too long. I have not a red shoe backs book for a while. I need to, I need to dive

back into it. What a fast. It's a character man. This makes me dive back into it. What a fascinating character man. This makes me think I have you with the lead and anyone signing a check. Very hell. Nicholas, but all the, even beyond all that, just all of Beamons playing stuff. You said he played after his commission.

I know. Play on the senior tour. It's insane. And he qualified for the open championship and was it the eight, it was something, when we did the shark part. He, yeah, forget what you're, oh yeah. Yeah, while he was commissioner,

he qualified for the open. That's a flex. But like this is like, you know, big time like NBA, like business moves going on. And it's also like, no, he's just like a tour player. He'll, Randy should have sent him a letter. Exactly. He said, hey, I'm Randy, I'm a business soul. I think I can a letter. Exactly. Said, hey, I'm Randy.

I'm a business soul. I think I can really hope your tour. Well, I said he said, I said he would have got a billion and a half out of the TBC network. It's half a billion. So all the money I've got is my billion. Yeah, pretty good. Again, that was a half a billion in what?

90s dollars. I think he's what he's saying is that's what's worth now when he gave the interview. So that's it. That is it for all the great stuff. Shoot pack, great stuff. That's, that's a fascinating stuff. So beam in, you know, I'll pick it up right there. Beeman

retirees in 94. And that's where we're going next to the WGT. What does that stand for, DJ? I'm gonna guess the world golf to the world golf tour. So this is a, I don't know what heavy dramatic term we could do. Starting a new nation. Yeah, a new, I guess a new nation or a coalition of the willing. There's kind of some innovation from the Australian. I don't know. But 1994, let's set the scene. Top five players in the world in 1994.

Nick Price. Nick Price is number one. Who else is on that list? Greg Norman. Greg Norman's number two. Davis Love. No. Fred Couples. No. Mark McCumber's three. She's Tom Laman. Right. Right. Right. Right.

Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right.

Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right.

Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. leader. Tom Kite. Tom Kite, nine point one million dollars, 19 wins. And second was the shark, seven point nine million, 14 wins. So kind of sets the, so it seems like these guys are still getting paid under under team Beamans watch. They're doing well. And it kind of sets the, the table for like the shark is, is kind of the biggest name in World Golf, but also in the big reason for the World Golf Tour, the idea of it was international players

were starting to take over the World rankings. So I think six of the top 10 were not from the United States, and the PGA Tour had kind of a monopoly on, you know, the money and golf at the time. Very low key side to comment here is, it's crazy to go back and watch like old masters highlights. And they're like, John, what do you think of all the foreign guys here coming up on the leaderboard? That's kind of how I'm reading the price from Zimbabwe.

Steve Bolescher. One of them Gary players in the booth are like, Gary, what do you think of all these foreign players up on top of leader, poor sick? I mean, well, I'm foreign. What do you mean? I love to follow up with Gary. That would have come years later. One more trivia question, largest person in 1994.

$1.8 million, not even close. $540K, total purse. Total purse? Yes. So the purse is where, you know, we gotta remember this is pre-tiger, right? So the purse has not made that big jump. And during the 94 season, Dean Be Beeman retires and he hand picks Timmy Finchum to take over

Finchum worked for Jimmy Carter. He was very much a you know, Cena's kind of a worked in the bush White House, too Yeah, but a kind of a button down lawyer very much a not not I don't think he had the same Gravitas or he hadn't proven that to because he wasn't a player himself He was much more of coming out of the the bureaucratic system of the tour at that time. So using some, some, some, one of the sites of material, he'll, great LA Times article written the day after a big announcement was made at the Shark Shootout. So we'll go there. That's right.

Thomas Bonk. Also going to dig into a, a, a, a, morning read article by Dave Siener, which was excellent. And then a golf WRX article, which also quotes a Washington post article by Thomas Boswell, who we heard from before seem to be a, the boss, the boss, kind of a beat rider. But November 17th, 1994, quote, this from the LA Times article, almost like a game piece. At a news conference, Sherwood Country Club with Franklin Fund's Shark Shootout begins today, Greg Norman and John Montgomery announced an eight event, $25 million

tour for the top 30 players in the world. End quote. So the basics of this tour, Greg Norman was the quote visionary with John Montgomery being the COO and executive director. He was kind of plugged into golf. He was doing a lot of events set up and stuff like that. There would be eight events played in 1995,

$25 million split across those events with $3 million going to the purse for each event. The winner gets 600K. Last place gets 30K. Player of the year was to get $101 million bonus. So basically the world golf tour members were guaranteed to make at least $290K plus they got a $50K travel stipend. So no negotiating here, no anything.

It's just like, like, with the environment in the tour, but just says, hey, we're creating this tour. Norma just comes out straight out cold, doesn't talk to any, they kind of, but what they did have was Fox sports was brand new Either that year or the year before had signed on to become the broadcast partner And that's where most of this 25 million was coming from it didn't have any tournament sponsors set up They just had this eight event schedule and the world tour event sponsors We're gonna get up to ten exemptions to make each field 40 players

So there's the top 30 in the world and then whoever sponsored the event was gonna be able to add 10. So they can add Nickless, they can add Palmer, they can add whoever they want. I truly have already learned, like I knew Greg Norman, World Tour 94, that's the true extent of my knowledge of this whole thing. I did not realize how similar the recent announcement was. Yes, I know. It's literally just like, I don't know, add two more events at an extra zero. It's crazy. We'll call it a thing. Well, and how similar it looks to the WGC's. Well, we'll get there. So the schedule is interesting. Four events were scheduled in the

US. One was going to be in Japan, one in Scotland, one in Canada, and one in Spain. None in Australia? None in Australia in the first year. This is all for 95. This is what Norman wrote out at the Sherwood Country Club announcement. And all the rest are in the US. Four in the US, and then eight total. And then the first event was scheduled for the week before. Sounds sick. I'm kidding.

No, listen to this. The first event was going to be doing pro-tracer. Yeah. The first event was scheduled in the U.S. Hopefully Norm is not in the booth, though. We thought finished the question. How's it fucking feel, Neil? The first event was scheduled for the week before the masters opposite the PGA Taurus free port,

Mick Moran classic in New Orleans. Trivia question. Who what is free port, Mick Moran? Gotta be like a cigarette company or something. Okay. So what do you think they do? Free port, make Warren. Gotta be like a cigarette company or something. Okay, so what do you think they do? Free port, a defense contractor. Okay, that's a good guy. I'll say a life insurance. Mining company.

Okay. It's American mining company based in Phoenix, Arizona. Trading at a $37 a share right now. Incredible sales job by the tour. Incredible, absolutely masterful sales job by the tour. But I thought that was funny just like, what the fuck is the freemenic, more in classic at New Orleans?

But that was kind of the point of, and Norman had said, we want to basically put these world golf tour events right before the majors. So he was trying to put one right before the US Open. I didn't realize that. Before the Open Championship, right before the PGA. Kind of where the PGA

tour schedule was was light week. Basically. This is like early on. You got to set the stage for Fox too. Yeah, yeah. Early on with Fox as far as Rupert Murdoch's trying to make big ass splashes. Like that whole thing when Fox, I'm not sure if it was a 30 for 30 or or something about like the history of Fox's foray into the NFL of them, essentially, it was such a big swing and they were such an unknown at the time. They were just trying to get any sort of splash out there to kind of, and then they would build prime time lineups around it and truly build a network around sports that get people to your network and then they got the Simpsons and all that.

So yeah, and Fox is basically the main financial backer here of this, but Norman announced all this after doing it with with a kind of a small team of insiders. And he just comes out and announces it. You know, so what happens next, right? Finchham heard rumblings of this. So he pre-empts Norman, Norman, you know, jumped the shark. That's it. He didn't get PJ Torbayan. He thought he was basically going to come out and surprise attack him.

Which is going to have some issues. It was no. I mean, it's Norman kind of, you know, he blew it. It was really stupid. He didn't talk to, he talked to some players one-on-one but didn't really give him any details. Can you hold it in the locker room and say, who's with me?

So Finchim plays hardball. but didn't really give him any details. Can you hold it in the locker room and say, who's with me? So Finchim plays hardball. He first, he sends a memo to tour players, I believe on like the 14th or like, you know, a couple days before the sharks announcement and says if you, anyone that joins a potential world golf tour that you haven't heard about yet, will lose their PGA tour card.

He also starts up basically, I don't wanna call this, but it's called this in some articles, a propaganda machine. So this guy Thomas Boswell, he starts getting flamed by sports riders at the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun. Like all these guys are like,

Normans agree, bastard, he's gonna ruin American golf. Like I got a few quotes in here I can hit you with. And who's saying these quotes? The golf riders. The sport, the media is on the PGA Tours side. So Finch and basically what could have been an empty threat because they're also getting investigated by the FTC

at this time for anti-trust stuff. Who writes the Taurus, right? So he's already dealing with a little bit of that. But he decides to go with the shock and all, cease and desist of like threaten these independent contractors and say, if you do this, you'll lose your card. And it works basically. Like the players get pretty freaked out. Same night as the shark shootout or the next day, there's an emergency tour meeting, like in the evening. And at the emergency meeting, like in the evening. And at the emergency meeting,

called that night, Arnold Palmer asked for the mic and absolutely vaporizes the shark. Just goes in on him for being greedy and how could you turn your back on the tour what's it's doing so well? Which is after hearing from about the coup in 83 is unbelievable. Like, how could you leave your brothers

out here? You know, like, you know, like, well, it was jack's fault. Jack got him into it. Yeah, I know. So he's just, he just flames a shark with the shark in the room, just, just calls Norman out saying that he's a selfish greedy bastard. It was kind of the moral of the story. After being a part of the successful breakaway, 68, an attempted coup in 83. So Dave Siener's article, it's like sports illustrated morning read article, quote Siener's article It's like sports illustrator Morning Read article Quote this is from Norman. I was shell shocked when I got out of that meeting said Norman his voice rising Are you kidding me? How about having an open discussion about this guys? How about not slaying the dream and just shutting me down and ostracizing me in front of the other players

Siener goes on to write Norman quote Norman believes Palmer's appearance was orchestrated by the management company IMG, which for years had been inextricably entwined with nearly every aspect of professional golf. IMG ran the Sony ranking and represented dozens of tour players, including a founding alliance with Palmer who died in 2016. Two years earlier, Norman had severed a long time relationship with IMG, end quote. So he's thinking there's some back room shady stuff going on.

Finchim might be working with the agent agency to, you know, basically, it sounds like Finchim's like calling on any card he has to just like shock and aww shut this down before it gets going. So one question. Yes, yes, yes, DJ. In the back. I think you who's probably not going to get in. gets going. So one question. Yes, yes. Yes, DJ. In the back. I think it was probably not going to get in.

I think a lot of this, like what's Norman's original grievance here? Why is he trying to do this? It seems like a lot of it from what I've read is always, he doesn't like being told where to play and when to play there. He wanted to go back to Australia. It's two things. It's, he felt like the PGA tour was not set up for international golfers. And he felt like the international golfers were taking over the tour and that

there was a lot more opportunity to create a world golf tour, which is kind of like this shouldn't just be an American game at all. I have to do to keep my PGA tour card is playing 15 events. So why can't I play whatever I want to do outside of that? I'm already, yeah, I already pick and choose where to play. So why don't I why can't want to do outside of that? I'm already yeah, I already pick and choose where to play. So why don't I why can't we have eight world golf tour events and I'll play in my 15 PGA ones. I'll play in these eight and everybody's happy.

We have the year of tours super like doing super well at this point. And it's like a proper like competitor to the DJ. And his quotes are a lot like what you're hearing today. Where like I am the best golfer or the second best golf in the world. Nick Price, an international player, we should be getting paid more. Our, our purses are, you know, like I said, 540 K, like that number should be a lot higher for the top 30 in the world. So his idea was like, well, this tour, these eight tournaments would guarantee that the top 30 players would make at least like the 30th player on that

tour would make 290 K a year, which would be what in that you know compared to what they were making at the on the PGA tour was a significant lift. So it was like we're same thing we've been talking about for an hour and a half. The top players should be getting more money and the international players should be getting more respect basically. Oh, it's so crazy about this stuff. If you go back to all the, you know, the PGL conversation, the SGL conversation, all that stuff is like each one of these three things, you can take bits and pieces from, right? And they all kind of like add up to where we are today. Yeah. You know, like none of them are direct comps, but they all have like little slivers of, of what's going on. Hey, the just for reference, the the winner's share of the

torchampion chip purse was 540K. The total purse was $3 million. Oh, okay. So 540K. So the top you get an attorney. The total the total purse for the season was $54 million. Okay, that's my mistake. But it's still the eight world golf tour events would have a 600K going to the winner with a year-end bonus for the player of the year at a million dollars. So I guess, you know, it's still a guaranteed money and it's only those 30 guys. So, a quote, I read it. There's a good golf WRX article and it quotes 90, 1994 Washington Post article by Thomas Boswell that summed up the negative reaction from pretty much like the golf establishment. Quote, the WGTs, four stars only format would strip bare the fields of established events

such as the Kemper Open and detract from major events such as the US Open. It's no accident the WGT plans events for weeks before the four majors. Potentially the world golf tour, if it ever really comes into existence, could throw golf into an ugly, Balkanized era of tennis like chaos. Think of the strikes in baseball and hockey. Then think of golf ripped by litigation and bad blood between rival groups of players. Think of the federal trade commission jumping all over the PGA tour on restraint of trade issues.

Thanks, Greg. You're a real buddy. This is straight up fear mongering. Yes. And so then back to the morning. Read article for Dave Siener quote, if that sounds like a PGA tour press release, it's no coincidence. The tours messaging apparatus had held the upper hand creating a narrative of order versus chaos and charity versus greed. Norman said quote, I thought it was totally unnecessary to have the proper gandamachine go at me the way they did. So the tour never really kicks

off because of these like threats of a legal battle intimidation, even threats, even if those threats would be, would be empty. But Finchim kind of gets out in front of it where where what I think really crushed this tour from happening was Norman thought he had players on board like he had he in this press conference he reads like a note from Jose Maria Ulthable that's like super supportive he he says quote the support from players is overwhelming but what happens is like Nick Price is number one in the world he says quote he stands behind Norman, but with reservations. His, listen, man, I'm just trying to go to the game. I hear his reaction seemed fairly typical.

Players, he has my total support as long as my position on the PGA tour isn't challenged. Price said Norman was impulsive and wished that Norman had spoken to the PGA tour commissioner before going public with the world tour plans. Yeah, I think that probably would have been a good idea. And then Nick Fowdo. So then a month later, there's an event in Jamaica that Johnny Walker invitational.

It's kind of like a silly season off season event. Fowdo's like a hero world challenge. So at this event, this is the first time Norman actually gives the players any information. It's like two or three weeks later. Two or three weeks later, he just slips like envelopes under the hotel doors of like, yo, here's this thing sign it like like let's let's you know, let's give this thing going. So Fouda is part of this saying what world tour? It's not going to happen. There is nothing concrete at all and the proposals have not been

thought out. Nothing makes sense. If Greg had got the support of the leading players before making an announcement, it would have made a bigger impact, but he never spoke to anybody, Fauto said. The first approach I've had was when something was shoved under my door this week, which is so sick. And then there was some like, in the press conference, he says like,

oh, you know, Jack Nicholas is reportedly signed up to play in the world tour events under sponsor's exemption because he wasn't in the top 30 at the time, but he was saying, like, oh, I can get some of these other big names involved with the sponsor's exemption. But it seemed like behind closed doors, a lot of the international players were supportive in theory. But then it was like, you know, dude, like we're getting threatened, like to lose my tour card. Like they don't even, they're just immediately are like, you know, I don't want anything

to do with this. And then Norman didn't have any plan after his announcement of how he was gonna... He didn't have the horses in the back. He didn't have it, I guess, was like, yeah, my buddies are in, so let's ride. And it just didn't work. Well, the money isn't crazy high compared to PGA Tour money. It's guaranteed, it's it's intra like the money isn't crazy high compared to PGA tour money

It is guaranteed it's guaranteed at the top 30 so he's also it's not like today Like it's all I'm saying the big difference is like the money that's been exponentially. Yes is being talked about as being like How could you turn down this kind of money versus this is like yeah, this is nice guaranteed money? I mean, it's you know, let's say you win. Let's say you play some of those, you have a great season, you win three of the eight, you know, contend in the other ones, like you're probably making three, four, five million dollars when the leading guy on the tours making plus another million dollar boom. 1.2 or whatever. What is the 600K for winning? Yeah, 600K. Three that puts you 1.8. So like, maybe you'd make close to 2.5 is three. I mean you're doubling like the leading money winner

And they were plus plus it enhancing your And you're still playing those events because you're playing True, you know international that's the thing right like this is theoretically just bonus money. Yeah, it's guys like they could still play under Greg's plan Which he didn't run by the PJ tour you, you could still play your 15 PGA tour events plus these eight on top of it. So it also, apparently the 50K travel stipend was like a big deal too of like,

you know, we're gonna help you, you know, you're not gonna spend any money getting these world events. Yeah. That sounds. So that Dave Siener article is from 2019. So it's kind of a good look back. And there's a lot of good quotes from Norman,

you know, looking back 20 years later I'm like, you know, what do you think so this whole situation? It's also interesting to have like this this happened 94 You know, what have gone live 95 96 right is the cats coming on the scene. Yes, and that's what I was gonna 97 Finchim just takes his idea and turns it into the WGC's. And Norman gets, Norman's really, really bitter about that because Finchim and him met after this kind of falls apart in 95.

Finchim's taking notes. So how were you gonna do it? Finchim says like, listen, I'll keep you, like I'll keep you, like would love to bring you in to help, we have some plans to do something similar. Like we'll keep you in the loop. Doesn't keep him in the loop at all. Just totally slitching.

Black daughters do it. And then comes out and basically like has this copycat, you know, WGC, which was only four torrent tournaments instead of eight, but, you know, obviously it was same idea with the limited fields and the prize money. Except for the stink. Yeah, except they stink. But the hold on. So the PGA toward Norman says this quote.

No, I think this is DJ's question earlier. Like what was the goal the p quote the pga tor wasn't out there understanding what global golf was doing normand said they were focused on growing domestic tournaments i thought wow would nippy cool if we could still play our fifteen tournaments in america required to maintain membership still be obligated to the pga tor and yet still be able to grow the game

uh... on a global basis Which makes total sense to me. Yeah, I fully agree. Everybody's trying to grow the game. It's just a matter of where we're growing today, right? Yeah. The game's not big in India yet. That's... And I think Senor sums it up well at the end of his piece and says, quote,

in the final analysis, Norman's chaotic brashness forward thinking, as it may have been, was no match for Finchham's political instincts and methodical consensus building conflicting event rules have become an anachronism. The PGA tour purses have grown so large that there's no incentive to buck the system. Top players actually want to play less, not more end quote. I thought I was interesting in your notes too that that Jack was going to Jack was signed up to play in the World Tour event under a sponsor.

Under a sponsor's exemption, which I don't know if that was kind of something like Norman dropped in there, but like I don't know if Jack, I think everybody kind of hit the like, yo, I'm not in with the shark on this stuff. So the craziest part of, thank you. That was tremendous. I knew the broad strokes, but I didn't know

any of the specific details. That was awesome. Well, blows my mind about a lot of this stuff is the same thing that's blown my mind now with the breakaway stuff, which is like, yeah, the tour keeps saying that. Like if you join another league, you'll be banned for life and more and more people, it seems like kind of keeps saying like, yeah, we don't know if that's necessarily true. Well legal. We never challenged that. But people are just like, yeah, I guess,

all right, good enough for me. I'm not gonna try. That's like the first tool in the toolbox, and it's been working. And that's what it's best to them on it. But that intimidation factor has been, like, their go to, all right, cool. Hit it with a cease and desist,

and then we'll see what happens. But that's what blows my mind about everything you just laid out here is like, well, wait, what if, it's a true, what if they shot you the face? Yeah, exactly. The situation. Like, wait, what if they would have taken that to court? Like, could this whole thing have gotten off the ground? And then Tiger burst on the steam and like, then he plays in all these world events, which could have completely reshapen everything. It's why Tiger was the get out of jail free card for the, for the tour. Yeah. Yeah. I think all, I think

all these players, because it says in a couple of these articles I read are they're independent contractors. So they all freak out when they're the tour card is threatened. That's like the golden goose to them, right? Even if you take away the tour card, it's just like they don't like uncertainty and they don't like variables and they it they don't like anxiety, right? So you're creating anxiety, even if, well, don't even take their tour car away if you just threaten to or have some litigation built up or whatever, like, they don't want that. Well, I think what's crazy about it is like,

it's not like they're, like these proposals are not bringing their life from like a two out of 10 to a 10 out of 10. They're taking them from a nine out of 10 to a 10 out of 10, right? And that's where it's like, well, it's not really worth the risk. Like, man, is this really like, yeah, I get it's better

and like I probably do have some upside but like, not out of 10 is pretty good. Yeah, I know. And so I think the other consistency I see throughout this is bad communication. Like the shark, it just didn't, he just didn't talk to anybody. He just said like, oh, he just probably got like verbal agreements like, you know, in the

locker room. Which how do you think that has changed 20 years later? I know it's like, it's like, it's like the same thing like, well, you know, if someone sozin that I'm in but make sure he's in first and then I'll, and then I'll say that I'm in, someone's got to go first though. Which based on what you hear from like modern players about Greg Norman, like, I don't hate him. I don't get the feeling that he's like,

you're gonna get it up when he's got a tree. I don't think he has the horses in the back here either, right? Like who knows who signed up for what their backroom dealings are? It seems like now the agents are a lot more involved than they were previously as well. But agents were the leaders in 83 though that kind of held the hands of Nicholas

and Palmer through the whole thing. I think the, yeah, I think poor communication on the tour side too along the way as well. Like, hey, here's what we've got cooking. Here's, you know, it seems like they're trying to get better at that, but also like the tours just such a naturally non-transparent organization. Well, it seems like every time the tour does get pressed, they do shape up pretty quick and improve some things. Yeah, we're going to have this team series international favorite guaranteed, which basically shows you that like, hey, they're, they're, they're not like, they like the status quo. They're not forward thinking they don't want to keep things going.

I think all of this would, the biggest thing that seems like it's changed is just the evolution of media in the game to where like, the, like, the ways to cover it, to where like the tour, but all this emphasis on squeezing all the money out of it and no emphasis on the actual product itself. That's what got lost in the mix here. And then just the timing, you know, senior presses Norman on like, did you do this to challenge Finchham like early?

And he denied, he's like, no, I wasn't trying to like test him, but it was, it turned out to be like a test that Finchham passes and then like, you know, now he's solid, no, I wasn't trying to like test him, but it was. It turned out to be like a test that Finch and Passes and then like, you know, like he solidates power, truly consolidates power. Now he's going to the Hall of Fame with Tiger Woods. Yeah, exactly. And just never looks back after he like, you know, brushes off this attempt at a world

tour and just goes, you know, takes Brides Tiger, you know, just right. It's clear through the finish line. The vote of no confidence did not did not pass No, it's like season one is so I can make a succession. Yeah, almost he's watching the Prague episode Yeah, the bachelor party to get the body up there Greg kind of reminds me of of cousin Greg. Oh great He's just kind of a loof and well, I don't want to give anything away for Sally as it's seen past the second half of season one, but he's got some Kendall vibes to me.

Yeah. Well, I think Jack has the most Kendall vibes. Jack. Jack might be like Connor. I was going to say. He's a con. All right. Well, I think that's a wrap.

This is a fantastic learning. Appreciate all the research done. Appreciate you listening this far. We'll see me. We'll do one of these on the 2022 breakaway. Who knows what's in there? We should attach to this tweet or the show notes or whatever some of our bibliography is like.

The links. I think there's some really, really good nuggets in there that aren't, you know, that are, that are, if you want to dig deeper, there's plenty more jobs. Absolutely. Cheers, boys. Give it a right club. Be the right club today. That is better than most. How about in? That is better than most.

Better than most. Better than most.