Editor’s note: This story is part of a multi-story special report that appeared in Monday’s Global Golf Post magazine.
To understand where the battle for control of professional golf between the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf stands today, let’s first consider how we got here. It began with the audacious idea that a new league, funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, suddenly would materialize, throwing tens of millions of dollars around, incorporating team play and stealing stars from the PGA Tour. That happened two years ago. It was bold, brash and breathtakingly threatening to the PGA Tour.
One year ago, the two sides reached what seemed to be a truce, signing a “framework agreement” to work together toward a common, unified goal while, perhaps most importantly, dropping their various lawsuits, thereby sparing both sides the airing of things they preferred to keep private.
Seven months ago, Jon Rahm left the PGA Tour for LIV and a rumored signing bonus of at least $300 million, perhaps more. Not exactly a peaceful coexistence.
Earlier this year, the for-profit PGA Tour Enterprises was created with the help of a $1.5 billion initial investment from the Strategic Sports Group, helping to underpin the financial future of the tour with a monetary counterpunch while also signaling to the PIF that the tour is open for more business.
Here we are in the heat of another American summer and there are suggestions that real progress is finally being made in discussions between the PGA Tour and the PIF. But what does that mean? Are the two sides close to or have they reached an agreement regarding a Saudi investment in the tour’s new business? It would seem to be the first necessary step toward a shared future, tied to a still undetermined plan for what the pro game might look like in a few years’ time.
“We continue to be in regular dialogue,” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said recently at the Travelers Championship, citing ongoing conversations between the two sides which are said to include multiple calls per week involving the tour’s transactions committee and representatives of the PIF.
The discussions surrounding SSG’s investment into the tour business were said to be among the most complex that many of the investors, primarily sports team owners, had been part of, and any agreement with the PIF is likely to be more complex.
On all sides, these are entities accustomed to making money and having control of their investments. Beyond the billions at stake, negotiations between the tour and the PIF involve the future of professional golf, how it looks, where it is played and by whom. It can’t be done quickly.
“There are a lot of different factors at play, but nobody who is having the conversation is unaware of the complexity, and everyone I think is embracing the fact that there are things, obstacles and things you’ve got to overcome in a complex situation. We have the right people around the table for us, and they do as well,” Monahan said. “The vast majority of what we’re talking about, we’re building from the ground up.”
It is one thing to take on what is rumored to be a $1.5 billion investment from the PIF (matching the SSG investment). It is something else to determine how an agreement reshapes the tournaments and the stars the public wants to see. A sense of fatigue has engulfed the pro game, interrupted occasionally by major championships which have reminded everyone of how good it is when the best players are in the same place and chasing something that matters more than money.
As a game, golf has never been in a better spot. As a professional sport, it has never been more fractured. Television ratings run more cold than hot. Sponsors are skeptical. It’s the money, the sense of greed, the air of entitlement that has poisoned fans. It has shown in lagging television ratings and a general lethargy toward the two sides who seem intent on getting what they want more than giving those paying the freight what they want.
By now, the talking points have become tiresome. The PIF is insistent on including team golf in any agreement with the tour. The PGA Tour does not want team golf. Some want to allow players who joined LIV to return to the PGA Tour. Others hate that idea. Finding a common ground, whether it’s paying a penalty of some sort, not having access to signature events, not being included in the player equity program, has proved to be difficult to navigate. Peaceful coexistence may be the most likely alternative.
The PGA Tour could survive, even thrive, without Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and others, but the game is lessened by being divided. LIV Golf has not developed much traction in the United States, but it seems to be settling into the alternative that it is. It’s difficult to see how the Saudi investment is turning a profit at the moment, and, despite the pronouncements of how fans are embracing LIV’s changes, it shows no signs of taking off.
There may be no fixing what is now broken. The best option may be finding a way to make the best of a new model. The 2025 PGA Tour schedule will look very much like the schedule this year, but if a deal can be struck, change could begin in 2026. Maybe there are certain events in which players from both tours as well as the DP World Tour come together, almost like all-star events outside the majors. Put one in Saudi Arabia, one or two in Australia, a couple in Europe, a couple in the U.S. and one or two in the Pacific Rim.
Maybe the PGA Tour keeps its January-through-August prominence, LIV Golf gets the fall and there are ways to let some players tee it up on both tours. Maybe the PGA Tour has a few less events to make room for the global tour that Rory McIlroy has envisioned.
As a game, golf has never been in a better spot. As a professional sport, it has never been more fractured. There may be no fixing what is now broken. The best option may be finding a way to make the best of a new model. It will be driven by money, which is what created the problem in the first place. Money alone can’t fix it. Vision, commitment, open minds and compromise are needed. Now more than ever.
To view the GGP Monday magazine that includes the entire “Bridging the divide” report, go to www.globalgolfpost.com.
Top: Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau have maintained a firm grasp of the issues dividing the pro game. Photo: Keyur Khamar, Getty Images © 2024 Global Golf Post LLC
