Are We About to See Official PGA Tour & LIV Golf Merger

It is being widely reported that the PGA Tour and LIV Golf have reached a $1 billion peace deal that could finally unify the sport once again.

The emergence of LIV has torn our sport apart with many of the game’s leading players signing lucrative deals that have seen then banned from playing on both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.

After years of ill feeling, the Tour announced a framework agreement with the PIF in June 2023, claiming that a deal would be reached in December 2023. But no progress was made. There are now signs that things are about to change.

It has been claimed by The Sun that the Saudis are set to invest £1billion in PGA Tour Enterprises - a new for-profit organisation created last year. This will give the PIF an 11% share in the Tour, along with two seats on its board - including the role of chairman. And that is something that is certain to divide opinion.

Nobody yet knows how a PGA Tour and LIV Golf joint schedule would look. The key area will centre around whether the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Cameron Smith and Jon Rahm will be free to compete in PGA Tour events - and, perhaps more importantly, whether they will be able to do so without first having to pay any penalties.

Many players who have remained loyal to the PGA Tour believe they should be rewarded for rejecting approaches from LIV and clearly feel that returning players must face some financial consequences. The PGA Tour has set up a fund to reward those players but how it will work is still unclear.

PGA Tour Enterprises is already backed by Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of American sports team owners and investors led by Fenway Sports Group, to the tune of £2.3bn.

The PIF claims to have assets of £720 billion, making them a powerful ally, although questions linger over their motives in the world of sport amid accusations of 'sportswashing’. They already dominate football, boxing, Formula One and tennis.

Details of the new deal are sketchy, to say the least, and have to be ratified by PGA Tour players, who already face a vote on further proposed changes for 2026.

Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods are believed to have played a significant part in the latest negotiations, so we can assume that approval of any deal is little more than a formality.

McIlroy and Woods were part of a PGA Tour sub-committee responsible for talks with key figures on the PIF, including LIV Golf founder Yasir Al Rumayyan. And Al Rumayyan and PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan have spent a lot of time together, playing alongside one another at the Dunhill Links Championship and at last week’s Aramco Team Series.

This story clearly has a long way to run - watch this space.