(07-06-2022, 02:45 PM)KingIngram052787 Wrote:

(07-06-2022, 02:18 PM)NYC4jags Wrote: The bolded opinion is the rub. (nothing wrong with it, it's just one take is all) 

I'm sort of on the fence with it personally, but a professional league is certainly entitled to demand exclusivity in order to compete within their format if they so choose. I'm aware of no reason they can't dictate that.  Don't like it? Don't join and compete. 

That seems to be what the PGA wants, and many players obviously support that. Their opinion on the matter is just as valid as your own.

It seems inherently unfair (and maybe against employment laws) to do that to independent contractors.  If they were employees of the TOUR, then I would tend to agree more with you.

Either way, what's best for golf is best for the TOUR, and in my opinion that is allowing the players to float and do as they wish.

Quote:... the PGA Tour, like any other employer or organization, has the discretion to enact rules of conduct of its members, employees and independent contractors. One of the provisions in the PGA Tour Player Handbook and Tournament Regulations is that each PGA Tour member acknowledges the commissioner, the tour’s policy board and the appeals committee have the authority to permanently ban a member from playing in a tour co-sponsored, approved or coordinated tournaments if the member violates its regulations. The handbook also provides that a player ceases to be a member of the PGA Tour if, in the judgment of the policy board, the member commits a serious breach of the Tournament Regulations, the PGA Tour’s Code of Ethics, or otherwise conducts himself in a manner unbecoming of a professional golfer.

One such regulation generally prohibits tour players from playing in events when there is a PGA Tour-approved or sponsored event taking place at the same time. Per the handbook, players who reach the 15-event minimum (which a member must meet as a condition of their membership voting rights) are eligible for three conflicting-event releases per season, which is why so many tour players were allowed to play in the Saudi Invitational. However, the regulations also state such requests can be denied. In short, the PGA Tour likely has the discretion to decide that joining a competing tour is a serious breach of its regulations.