Six weeks after the breakaway league’s founding, Harrington predicted a joyful future in which all the tours will be able to coexist.
Harrington stated two years ago that it might take four or five years, but he also noted, about the circuit, “the more the merrier.”
Although Harrington agreed that there would be disruptions, which there have been many, he thought LIV offered the PGA Tour and DP World Tour a much-needed kick in the ass.
I saw the PGA Tour as a competitive tour growing up,” he had previously stated. “I don’t have a problem with another tour being competitive.”
Two years later, Harrington’s song hasn’t altered at all.
The terrain has shifted, and it seems that the PGA Tour is still debating whether to include LIV’s financiers as minority investors in PGA Tour Enterprises in order to approve the framework agreement from last June.
It remains to be seen if that will ever occur, and we may hear more about their conversations prior to this year’s Masters.
In the event a PGA Tour-PIF deal falls through, Harrington has offered some fresh thoughts on the matter.
“It doesn’t look like there will be any sort of golfing marriage in the near future,” Harrington, 52, told reporters before the Cologuard Classic on the PGA Tour Champions.
“So why not have it a little bit like the old European Tour, PGA Tour where there’s a little bit of competition.”
What does he mean?
“I think the biggest thing going forward for the PGA Tour, there has to be some way of capping,” he said.
“They can’t just steal all our players… there are very few businesses in this world where there isn’t some sort of a non-compete clause.
If somebody wants to leave, the Tour should get the money, not the player.”
Harrington’s comment come as PGA Tour player director Webb Simpson stressed the importance of agreeing a deal with the PIF.
Simpson told reporters at the Arnold Palmer Invitational it would be ‘very dangerous’ not to.
“I think we’re in a position where we want to do the right deal,” he said.
“We don’t want to just do a deal because we’re afraid that the LIV tour might recruit more players. That’s certainly a fear.
“But I think it’s obvious [we need to do a deal]. The writing is on the wall.
“We’re not in a position where we need to do a deal for money. We need to do a deal for the good of the game.”
Simpson’s comments contrasted with the aforementioned Woods, who has hinted that the PGA Tour could go it alone without PIF investment.
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