Report: DJ, Koepka among golfers receiving offers from Super League
The PGA TOUR's biggest threat has returned.
Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka are among a handful of top golfers who received substantial offers from a Saudi-backed super league attempting to form a rival circuit to the PGA TOUR, according to The Telegraph's James Corrigan.
The offers from Super League Golf (SLG), formerly called the Premier Golf League (PGL), reportedly range between $30 million to $50 million.
SLG also reportedly extended proposals to Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott, Bryson DeChambeau, Rickie Fowler, and Justin Rose.
Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, and reigning Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama also received offers, according to Golf.com's Josh Sens.
Rory McIlroy, who said he didn't like where the money was coming from when the rival tour made headlines early last year, reportedly did not get an offer.
The threat originally posed by the PGL appeared to die as the COVID-19 pandemic hit in spring 2020. However, the Saudi Arabian investors are back, this time without New York-based investment firm The Raine Group, and aggressively pursuing some of golf's biggest names.
"The money is there," one agent told Golfweek's Steve DiMeglio on condition of anonymity. "I heard $1 billion. This is real."
SLG is reportedly aiming to create a tour that starts in September 2022. The league would consist of 40-48 golfers playing an 18-event schedule, per DiMeglio.
The league would apparently use a similar structure first proposed by the PGL with large purses of guaranteed money handed out at each event and a team concept rewarding 10-12 players who act as captains for each four-man squad.
The league's re-emergence comes shortly after news surfaced about the PGA TOUR's new Player Impact Program. The initiative intends to reward the game's most prominent players with bonus money at the end of each year and is seen as a way to combat the SLG's threat.
PGA TOUR commissioner Jay Monahan is hosting a mandatory meeting for all players Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina, where this week's Wells Fargo Championship is being played.