Martin Dempster: Plans for new Premier Golf League look exciting but also fanciful

Rory McIlroy says Premier League organisers have been in contact with him.

Under the proposals by British-based World Golf Group, 48 players would compete in 18 tournaments, each over 54 holes, in an eight-month season from January to September for a total prize fund of $240 million (£183m) with no cut and an individual and team league format.

The weekly individual winner would claim $2m (£1.5m) of the $10m (£7.5m) purse, the overall individual champion will receive a $10m (£7.5m) bonus and there will be a $40m (£30m) team prize fund, with $14m (£10.7m) split between the winning four-man team.

It is being claimed that financing would come from various places, including Tokyo-based SoftBank and Middle East investors. Ten of the tournaments would be played in the US with a shotgun start being implemented on the first two days to fit in a five-hour broadcast window.

“The League will generate the most entertaining and enthralling content the sport is capable of producing,” the organisers are predicting. “The best field guaranteed; the best fan and player experience guaranteed. We care passionately about the game and believe that, to thrive, it has to evolve. We want to ensure that as many people as possible learn to love and play golf. To do that you have to encourage as many people as possible to watch golf. That is our motivation.

“If you want the world to watch, you have to showcase your best product, week-in-week-out. Golf doesn’t do that currently. If you had the chance to start again, you wouldn’t create professional golf as it exists today. The League is that chance.”

It all sounds exciting and this proposal is not something on a whim, with the people behind it having been chiselling away in the background for a number of years in their bid to create a new format aimed at “revitalising the sport for this and future generations”.

“Those guys have been talking to a few of us for six years,’’ confirmed Rory McIlroy over the weekend. “They approached me at the end of 2014. It’s a hard one.” By that, of course, the world No 2 means problems a breakaway organisation would have with the two main established circuits, the European Tour and the PGA Tour.

“These guys have exploited a couple of holes in the system,” added McIlroy. “The way that golf at the highest level is nowadays and how it’s sort of transitioned from a competition tour to entertainment, right? It’s on TV, it’s people coming out to watch. It’s definitely a different time than what it was before.

“But I love the way golf is set up right now. It might be the catalyst for something a little bit different out here as well, who knows. But I certainly wouldn’t want to lose what’s been built in the last 40 or 50 years.

“I’m still quite a traditionalist, so to have that much of an upheaval in the game I don’t think is the right step forward. But I think it might be a catalyst for some changes that can help it grow and move forward and reward the top players the way they should be, I guess.’’

Anything that can help grow the game has to be given consideration, but, at the same time, the European Tour and PGA Tour can’t be expected to welcome something like this with open arms when they rely on star players like McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas to headline events under the existing structure.

Yes, a League and team format would be different and that could capture the imagination of youngsters in particular in a sport that can often be boring due to its individualistic nature but definitely attracts huge interest when  team events like the Ryder Cup  and Solheim Cup come around.

However, as we saw recently when two of the top Europeans, Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson, played in an Asian Tour event in Singapore instead of teeing up in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, a Rolex Series event, golf already has big issues when it comes to scheduling and adding this into the pot would only add to that problem.

If Norman, the then world No 1, failed with his similar concept 25 years ago, what makes the World Golf Group believe they can get the approval now from European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley and his PGA Tour counterpart, Jay Monahan?

“We were told you can’t take on the establishment and win, but we aren’t taking on the establishment,” they said. “We intend to work with it and six years on we believe we’ll succeed because the League is what fans, sponsors and broadcasters want – and the best players deserve.”

The plan is for golf to be revolutionised in 2022, but don’t hold your breath.