After the SSG-PGA Tour deal, Jordan Spieth says the PIF alliance is no longer needed.

After the SSG-PGA Tour deal, Jordan Spieth says the PIF alliance is no longer needed.

He said that he doesn’t think a deal with Saudi Arabia’s Public Interest Fund is needed anymore since a new partnership via Strategic Sports Group could bring $3 billion to the PGA Tour Enterprises going forward.

Spieth joined the PGA Tour’s member policy board after Rory McIlroy quit in November.  The golfer said on Wednesday, “I don’t think it’s needed.”

He said that the best thing about a deal with the PIF, that finances the LIV Golf League, was that it could bring golf back together, but he is “not sure if, how, or when that would get done.”

In a news release on Wednesday, the PGA Tour said that the deal with SSG calls for a co-investment from the PIF, as long as all the necessary regulatory approvals are given.

“The idea is that we’ve got a strategic partner that allows the PGA Tour to move forward the way that it’s operating right now with no anything else, via the option of other investors.”

A press release said that with SSG’s help, 200 PGA Tour members would be able to join a “first-of-its-kind” program that would give them shares in PGA Tour Enterprises, a business that makes money.

A tiered system will decide how much the grants are worth based on “career accomplishments, recent accomplishments, future participation and services, and PGA Tour membership status.”

“The players now own the teams,” Spieth said. “Not only do they get something out of the tour, but they also own a piece of it now, so they are keen to push it themselves.”

They want to improve the item themselves. Not something they didn’t before, but having a piece directly helps you.

A golfer named Eric Cole said that the plan “sounds like an excellent thing” for people on the PGA Tour. The members would be able to use more than $1.5 billion in equity grants that will become theirs over time.

“It sounds like it’s a technique that hasn’t been done in sports before,” Cole said to ESPN. “… I think a lot of the particulars are still yet to be made or determined, but it sounds such as exciting news, and it’ll be cool to see how far it goes.”

Even though the SSG deal has been agreed upon, players are still unsure of how the equity will be distributed and what a possible PIF deal might mean for the return or readmission of LIV players.

“There’s been so many big changes in baseball in the last year or two, and I feel like every week there is a new change, so we’ll see how that goes,” ESPN’s Ben Griffin said.

“I felt like it’s still a little murky on what we know as players, but ultimately, hopefully, this will assist in a kind of stop the battle that seems to be happening between [LIV Golf and the PGA Tour], and ideally we gradually get closer and closer to where football’s kind of thriving.”

McIlroy said on Tuesday that he thinks LIV players should be able to come back without getting in trouble and play on the professional golf circuit if they still have eligibility.

Spieth, on the other hand, said that the membership is still not sure about that decision and about the possibility of working with the PIF in any way.

Before it’s over, Jordan Spieth’s time as a player director will have been one of the busiest in PGA Tour history. His term will only last three months.

Spieth took over as leader when Rory McIlroy quit in the fall and will leave next month when both Kevin Streelman, as well as Camilo Villegas, win the election to replace him.

He has been at the center of the conversation about the PGA Tour’s expenditure deal that involves Strategic Sports Group, which became official on Wednesday.

It is planned that the SSG will put between $1.5 billion and $3 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises, the new business arm of the PGA Tour. The players will get a piece of the equity pie.

You could say that these investors from the United States will bring more than just money to the table. They will also bring experience from leagues like the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB.