Saudi Arabia ….. Graeme McDowell birdied his closing three holes in a round of 64 to share of the lead on day one of the Saudi International and then questioned the long-time worth of the world’s top players turning their backs on the game’s biggest two tours to join a proposed breakaway Premier Golf League (PGL).
McDowell, a former US, Italian, Scottish, Wales and double French Open champ, joined Malaysian and former Asian Tour No. 1 Gavin Green atop of the board at six-under on the Royal Greens course laid out along the Red Sea.
Five players headed by former Open Champion, Henrik Stenson share third place on five-under par while Phil Mickleson who played alongside McDowell, and also is a past Open and Scottish Open winner, fought back from being two-over after two holes and sign for a four-under 66.
Graeme McDowell questions why would the game’s best want to ‘change what they already have on the table’ .. Photo @tourmiss
McDowell said: “It was nice to get out of there with 6-under par because I felt like I played great today. It would have been a horrible round to let get away but to finish birdie, birdie, birdie was nice.
“I was just feeding off Phil finishing who grabbed seven birdies on the back nine.
“It was Phil the thrill out there. It was fun to watch him and fun to play with him.”
Both the PGA Tour Commissioner, Jay Monahan and his European Tour CEO counterpart, Keith Pelley have written to each of their members seemingly singling out the ramifications should a member of either Tour seek to sign with PGL.
While PGL has yet to make any formal announcement there continues to be leaks regarding the proposed Saudi Arabia backed mega-millions, 18-event series boasting the world’s top-42 could start as early as 2022 or 2023. It is understood 10 of the 54-hole events will be staged in the US, two in Japan and even one in Scotland, and the ceremonial Home of Golf.
The PGL will carry a prize fund in the region of £183 million while there will be no cuts, and an individual and team league formats.
Weekly individual winner would claim £1.5m of the £7.5m purse, the overall individual champion will take home a cool £7.5m bonus.
That leaves a whopping £30m team prize fund, with £10.7m split between a winning four-man team.
McDowell said: “I think most guys are pretty happy with what we have right now and I really don’t know what the full proposal is but I would question any type of longevity proposal and how it could possibly be better than what’s on the table right now for the world’s top players.”
‘G Mac’ was quizzed if he felt there may be a sense of fear for the game’s current best should they drop out of the top-42 and seek a road back to the either tour.
McDowell said: “Yes, I see a sense of fear and I would be very worried as it is going to be a very difficult question for players at all levels.
“It is a different question facing Brooks Koepka than facing me. It is a different question say for an Ernie Els or a Phil Mickelson.
“It is a very different question on so many levels and for different types of players that makes any collusion in any type of combination deal for all of these players. My question is how do you bring all these types of players together?
“It just seems it will be very hard to pull off.”
Stenson remarked: “The tone of the emails was like ‘stamping down’ but I feel it is still early.
“The thing is we’ve got a lot of different angles – we’ve got fans, we’ve got sponsors, we’ve got TV viewers, we’ve got players, we’ve got promoters.
“We are all in this together and the best way going forward would be to try and find a solution where everyone can benefit and everyone can be together in this.”
