Over a year ago, news of a potential partnership between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf hit the golfing world in a shock twist.
Talks over this deal are still continuing over 12 months on with the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF) – who bankroll LIV Golf – noting that things are “continuing to progress”. This prospect has caused waves in the golf community, with many athletes chiming in with their take on the situation.
Three active PGA Tour members sit on the subcommittee – Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods and Adam Scott – alongside PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, chairman Joe Gorder, John Henry and Joe Ogilvie.
The frameworks of a deal were announced previously, but talks are still ongoing to finalise terms as players and fans begin to get restless. The Mirror has looked at the latest on the situation.
PIF and PGA have jointly confirmed in the last month that talks are “continuing to progress”, despite the initial deadline of December 31, 2023 being long gone.
The joint statement read: “Representatives from the PGA TOUR Enterprises Transaction Subcommittee and the PIF have been meeting multiple times weekly to work through potential deal terms and come to a shared vision on the future of professional golf. On Friday evening, an in-person session in New York City included the entire Transaction Subcommittee and PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan and his team, where more progress was made.”
Both PGA and PIF have expressed their optimism that a deal will be made on the future of professional golf as it stands – and the money has already begun to change hands.
The PGA Tour received a cash injection of up to $3billion (£2.3bn) from Strategic Sports Group – an initial investment of $1.5bn was collected upfront and a further $1.5bn will head PGA’s way at some point in the future.
While the talks continue on and reported progress is made, the lack of conclusion has irked some of the current committee members.
While McIlroy is part of the transaction committee alongside Woods and Scott, he announced recently that he would be stepping back to allow people who were better suited to handle the “big boy stuff” during negotiations.
The Mirror reported last month McIlroy said: “There’s going to be people in that room on the PGA Tour side who are going to take the lead. And it’s not going to be Adam, Tiger or I. That’s going to be Jay, Joe Gorder, Joe Ogilvie, John Henry. It’s going to be the business guys. We’re there to maybe give a perspective from a player’s point of view.
“This is a negotiation about an investment in the PGA Tour Enterprises, this is big boy stuff. And I’ll certainly be doing more listening than I will be doing talking.”
These conversations have come over a year after McIlroy told fans he “still hated LIV Golf” following the announcement of the potential merger.
At the time, he said: “Whether you like it or not, the PIF are going to keep spending money in golf… at least the PGA Tour now controls how that money is spent.
“One of the biggest sovereign wealth funds in the world, would you rather have them as a partner or an enemy? At the end of the day, money talks and you’d rather have them as a partner.”
Now, it seems like his stance towards LIV and PIF has softened and he is more open to the merger deal with the introduction of active players in a committee to help iron out some of the details.
McIlroy said: “My stance on some of the LIV stuff has softened. They’re contracted to play 14 events, but the other 38 weeks of the year you’re free to do what you want.
“The only thing is there are so many tours and so many golf tournaments. There are only a certain amount of weeks in the year. That’s the complicated part. Trying to figure out which tournaments go where, when do we play them, how many players, what players.”
DeChambeau was one of the major names to defect from the PGA Tour to join LIV Golf in a shock decision back in 2022 – but he did note that he hopes he can play some of his favourite PGA Tour events once again thanks to the possibility of the merger.
A lucrative offer of £98million over four years was the ticket to DeChambeau’s change of tune to LIV, but he has claimed the decision was made based on his family.
DeChambeau said: “People can say I moved to one side, but I did it for my family and what I had in front of me at that point in time. I think my mom would have probably smacked me for not taking the deal.”
The American has encouraged those involved in the merger deal to continue liaising with golfers on each side of the coin – both PGA and LIV – and notes that he hopes to play in some of his favourite events from PGA once again.
Speaking to Gulf News, DeChambeau said: “Look, I would love to continue to showcase my skill set around the world in different places, whether it be Shriners or the Arnold Palmer, Mr. Nicklaus’ event [The Memorial], TPC Las Vegas.
“I’d love to play those events. They’ve been great to me. Shoot, even Riviera [Genesis Invitational]. I’d love to play Tiger’s event; put on a fantastic event in a good community and around some great people. That’s what I look forward to hopefully being able to do down the road.”
He added: “Do I want to play a full schedule? You know what, I don’t know. We’ll see how things shake out. I don’t know what the future is going to look like, and I’m not here to decide that. But would I like to play a few? Sure, ones that I truly enjoyed and had a lot of friends with and helped impact the community in a positive way, absolutely.”
Sergio Garcia, one of the many big names that departed to LIV Golf in 2022, has admitted that he thinks the deal could mean a bright future for the professional game.
Speaking at the Masters in April, the Spaniard played down any talk of hostile behaviour as the discussions continued between both parties for a deal.
He said: “I think the game is in a perfect spot. The professional game, maybe it’s a little more separated, mostly because of the media, not so much because of the players. But I think the game itself is in a great spot. I think that we have the most amount of people playing the game, which is great, and people have to realize one thing, that the future of the game isn’t us.
“We’re not the future of the game. Neither me or Rory [McIlroy], no. We’re not the future. We’re the present of the game… I mean, obviously the more togetherness that you get, the better it is for everyone. There’s no doubt about that. But there’s room for everyone. I don’t think that’s a problem at all.
“The same way that I love watching Real Madrid and La Liga, you like to watch the premiership and whoever your team is. Everybody can support whoever they have, and there’s plenty of people to support it.”
Jordan Spieth, a current member on the PGA Tour’s policy board, has admitted he may risk ” getting in trouble ” if he discusses the ongoing merger deal.
The American has been determined to keep his cards close to his chest when it comes to his thoughts on the current negotiations as the Mirror reported that he said he’d like to see it “done right for everyone”.
Spieth said: “That’s an extremely loaded question that I could get in a lot of trouble answering. I’ll just say things of that nature take a little bit of time, but they’re very active. That’s about as far as I can go for you.”
During the same pre-John Deere Classic press conference, reporters pressed him on if he’d like the deal to be done sooner rather than later, to which he added: “I would like to see it done right for everyone. So the timing is the timing.
“Obviously if anything can be done right and done sooner, that’s great. But I would rather see it done correctly and done the right way for golf going forward for the longest amount of time, regardless how long that takes to get there, yeah.”
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