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Final November, LET gamers met on the tour’s season-ending occasion to vote on a possible merge with the LPGA. Quickly after gathering in Spain, nevertheless, management stated there can be no vote. The LET Board adjourned the assembly with out clarification.
Earlier this month, LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan despatched a letter to gamers that shined a bit of sunshine on what occurred. Within the letter, obtained by Golfweek, Marcoux Samaan confirmed that Golf Saudi submitted a last-minute request for additional info on the proposed working mannequin of the tour following any potential transaction.
“As a major associate of the LET,” Marcoux Samaan wrote, “Golf Saudi needed to make sure that they totally understood any dangers, implications, and alternatives for the Aramco Saudi Girls Worldwide and Aramco Staff Sequence earlier than finalizing their dedication to the occasions in 2024.”
The lack of Aramco can be devastating to the LET on condition that its $10 million in prize funds account for almost one-third of the tour’s mixed purse.
After all, this was no last-minute vote. The truth is, a vote on a merger between the 2 excursions was anticipated to occur in late 2022. The vote stored getting pushed again as the 2 excursions continued to work on phrases.
As a part of the merger, the highest 4 LET gamers on the finish of the 2024 season would obtain LPGA playing cards for 2025. At a participant assembly on Tuesday on the LPGA Drive On Championship, Golfweek has discovered that the commissioner confirmed that there can be no playing cards obtainable for the LET subsequent yr.
The commissioner’s letter went on to explain discussions with Golf Saudi as “constructive and collaborative,” noting the presence of the 5 Aramco Staff Sequence occasions on the 2024 schedule, every with $1 million purses, in addition to the $5 million Aramco Saudi Girls Worldwide subsequent month.
Nelly Korda poses with the trophy after successful the Particular person title on the 2023 Aramco Staff Sequence introduced by PIF – London. (Picture: LET)
Golf Saudi’s plans within the ladies’s golf house past its present presence on the LET stay unsure, however its energy to cease a merger vote is sort of clear.
With the vote now postponed indefinitely, Marcoux Samaan advised gamers the 2 excursions have determined to deal with maximizing their three way partnership partnership, which first got here collectively in November 2019 below the management of former LPGA commissioner Mike Whan and has two years left on the contract.
What’s nonetheless squarely in the course of all of this, after all, are the query marks that encompass doing enterprise with the Saudis. The Aramco occasions stay controversial given the wide-ranging human rights abuses Saudi Arabia has been accused of, particularly towards ladies.
Because it at present stands, the LPGA can considerably distance itself from Aramco whereas being a part of an alliance. However ought to the LET fall fully below the umbrella of the LPGA, some observers query if current and future LPGA sponsors may select to distance themselves from the LPGA due to Aramco’s massive presence. And, in that case, what number of?
Alternatively, LET gamers may surprise how a lot the LPGA may maintain them again from larger purses at Aramco occasions. May the PIF pump a lot cash into the LET that it at some point turns into the LPGA’s rival?
The flip facet to that, after all, is that the LET turns into so depending on Saudi cash that it couldn’t survive with out it. And there’s no telling how lengthy the Saudis will need to stay so closely invested in ladies’s golf.
And what if Aramco occasions finally discover their method onto the LPGA’s official schedule?
Golf’s future nonetheless holds extra questions than solutions.
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