The PGA Tour and LIV announced on June 6 the creation of a new entity that would combine their assets, as well as those of the DP World Tour, and radically change golf’s governance.
The PGA Tour has agreed to merge with Saudi-backed rival LIV Golf in a deal that would see the competitors squash pending litigation and move forward as a larger golf enterprise.
The two entities signed an agreement that would combine the PGA Tour’s and LIV Golf’s commercial businesses and rights into a new, yet-to-be-named for-profit company. The agreement includes DP World Tour, also known as the PGA European Tour.
LIV Golf is backed by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, an entity controlled by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and has been embroiled in antitrust lawsuits with the PGA Tour in the last year. The deal announced Tuesday would end all pending litigation.
PIF is prepared to invest billions of new capital into the new entity, however the terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
What have they agreed on?
Not much, it turns out. The PGA Tour’s tentative deal with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund includes only a handful of binding commitments, such as a non-disparagement agreement and a pledge to dismiss acrimonious litigation. (The sides have already moved to end their legal fights.)
What it does not include is a clear path of what lies ahead for the tours: Many of the most consequential details about the future of men’s professional golf have not been resolved, and were left to be negotiated by the end of the year.
How do players feel about this?
Broadly, LIV players seem to think they have gained a major victory, and they are probably right. They got their cake (huge paydays) and can eat it (a pathway to returning to the PGA Tour), too.
Many PGA Tour players were less jubilant. They were blindsided by the news, learning of the agreement when the public did, and they did not seem to understand why the tour waged a legal war against LIV and a war of morality against Saudi money, only to invite the wolf into the henhouse.
Johnson Wagner, a PGA Tour player, said on the Golf Channel that some players at the meeting called for Monahan’s resignation.
McIlroy, perhaps the most influential PGA Tour player not named Tiger Woods, said he was reluctantly in favour of the agreement.
Watch this space.
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