Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Michael Glading: NZ Open Tournament Director on Saudi Arabia's PIF pulling funding from the LIV Golf Tournament

Transcript

Michael Glading: NZ Open Tournament Director on Saudi Arabia's PIF pulling funding from the LIV Golf Tournament · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Rumors for true Saudi Arabia's pulling funding for the Live
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Golf Tour from next season. Players and staff portally find
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: out their fake today. This includes Keywis, Danny Lee, and
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Ben Campbell. Michael Glading is New Zealand Open Tournament director
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: joining US Live this morning.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Get a Michael, get it right?
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Good? Thanks? So you reckon the PGA is going
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: to take these guys back?
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Oh no, No, I think they'll cherry pick. They've already
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: sort of I guess by laying brook Skipka to come back,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: there set some sort of president although they said there
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: was a time for timetable from that in essence closed.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: But look, they'll definitely have some of the major winners back.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: But I think there's going to be a lot of
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: guys who are going to be who won't get back
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: onto that tour immediately. They have to win their way back,
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: I think.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: And because Koepka had to pay millions, tens of millions
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: and donations and forfeitures and bonuses, all sorts of stuff
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: to get back, and that was before the thing went over, right, Yeah.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: That's right. I'd imagine he saw the riding on the
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: wall or had been given a tip off for something.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: But he's very smart guy and he also not burnt
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: his bridges. You know, there were in the early days,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: there were lawsuits against the PJA Tour. He wasn't included
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: in that. It's quite a relevant point now, you know,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: for those that are on the PJ Tour who remember
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: all that stuff.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Why did this go tits up? I mean they've lost
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: billions on it.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Well, you know the old cliche, if it sounds too
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: good to be true, it's too good to be true,
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: you know, And I think that really, I mean the
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: money that they put up, and it's a model that
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: is flawed. I mean, you know, they worked it on
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: the I think they saw the success of the Rider
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Cup and they said team golf, team golf. That's the
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: point of difference. But you can't just create teams out
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: of nowhere, you know, particularly in the game of golf,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: which is really not built around teamworkers. That the game
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: of golf is largely around individuals. Yes, there's a couple
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: of amazing team events, particularly Rider Cup, but they're unique
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: and special and one off. You can't create that on
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: a wiki basis. So I personally think the whole thing
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: was flawed, right, from the get go.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: What was it good for golf?
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: I think it was good for the world of golf,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: and it showed not that I think the PJ Tour
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: are looking for this, but it did prove that there
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: is a big world outside of the US. In fact,
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: the whole world. We could co rode off into politics here,
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: but that the golfing world is not just from California
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: to New York. And I think that they did, you know,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: on the positive that by taking golf around the world,
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: I think that they were sorry top golf around the world.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: I think they showed this real demand for it. But
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: you know, I don't have any faith that PJ two
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: are going to pick up that mantle and run with that.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: I think that's the sad part I guess is that
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: PJ Tour is very very much only about America. But
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: it certainly won.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: This battle Saudi funding for sports generally. Does this turn
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: you off?
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: You know, I have a story to tell, which is
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: one day I'll tell in greater detail, But as you know,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: I run the New zeal Open and we did have
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: discussions with the Saudi's before Live Golf. Finally enough, when
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: they were testing the water and checking out you know
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: what might be available in the world of golf a word,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: and it was sort of told to me on the
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: quiet that one thing's for sure, that they will be
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: happy to do long term contracts, but they'll also walk
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: away for twots them and I think that, you know,
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: I think we're now seeing that. And that was told
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: to me, Wow, at least five years ago, five six
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: years ago, before Live Golf was born. So in a way,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: I'm not surprised about this because, as I say, it's
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: a flawed model. It's a flawed model financially, and it's
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: a flawed model I think, I think in terms of
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: what they're trying to achieve personally.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Michael Gladen's in an open tournament.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Directly For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen
• 3:39
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• 3:43
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