But at a recent meeting, representatives of the venerable PGA Tour and the upstart World Golf Tour showed little flexibility toward achieving a peaceful coexistence next year.
John Montgomery Jr., director of the World Tour, came armed with a compromise plan: six tournaments instead of the originally planned eight, and the possibility of switching some events from the PGA Tour to the World Tour to avoid scheduling conflicts.
The PGA's response: It will be "very, very difficult'' to fit any new tournaments into the '95 schedule because of commitments to television, sponsors and charities, said Ed Moorhouse, the PGA's top attorney.
The meeting was the second between the two sides since the World Golf Tour was announced last week at Greg Norman's Shark Shootout in California. The Australian star has become the most visible proponent of the new $24 million tour, and said he would underwrite any losses in the first year of operation from his own pocket.
Norman said the World Tour wants to be conciliatory and fit in with the other major tours. But with sponsors ready and a television contract signed with Fox Broadcasting, he said it would go ahead regardless.
U.S. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem's first reaction to the World Tour was to threaten a ban on players competing in conflicting events, but he has become more conciliatory after subsequent meetings.
A ban could set the stage for a financial bloodletting between the well-financed World Tour and the established PGA, not unlike wars in other sports where upstart leagues have competed with older circuits for players, television rights and markets -- and often wound up in court.
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