Hey, Friends! Between Selection Sunday and the Players Championship, it was a hell of a weekend. Today we’ll cover it all, including the PGA Tour’s meeting with Saudi Arabia in the Bahamas, NFL franchises allowing private equity investment, NWSL’s record-breaking sale, and Steve Ballmer’s new $2 billion arena. Enjoy!

The Hurry Up: What I’m Thinking/Hearing/Watching…

1. The Players Championship was one of the best golf tournaments I’ve watched over the last few years. Four guys had a chance to win it on the back nine, with Scottie Scheffler posting a 64 in the final round to become the first back-to-back champion in tournament history. That earned Scheffler the $4.5 million first-place prize, and when you add in his win from last weekend’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, Scheffler has earned $8.5 million in the last eight days. And don’t forget, Scheffler set the single-season PGA Tour prize money record with $14 million in earnings in 2022, broke his own record with $21 million in earnings last year, and now is on pace to shatter that record again, with $11 million in earnings and six months left in the season. That means Scheffler’s caddie alone, based on a 10% cut, has already earned over $1 million this year, which would place him within the Top 50 for PGA Tour player earnings in 2024. Not bad, not bad.

2. Speaking of money and golf, news broke over the weekend that members of the PGA Tour’s policy board will meet with members of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), including chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan. The meeting was initially scheduled at a private residence in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, where the Players Championship was held. But plans changed, and the meeting is now being held at the Albany Resort in the Bahamas, a $3,000/night Nassau-based resort where Tiger Woods often parks his yacht and hosts his annual fundraising golf tournament. This is a welcome sign, mainly because five of the six player directors on the PGA Tour’s policy board were already in Ponte Vedra Beach for the tournament, and since Tiger Woods wasn’t playing, many speculated he might not attend the meeting. Although, I wouldn’t get too excited. Rory McIlroy hinted over the weekend that an initial agreement might not change much, with Saudi’s sovereign wealth fund investing money into the PGA Tour’s new for-profit enterprise but still keeping LIV Golf intact. “It’s going to require patience. People have contracts at LIV up until 2028, 2029,” Rory said. “I don’t know if they’re going to see that all the way out, but I definitely see LIV playing in its current form for the next couple years anyway while everything gets figured out.”…