Two days after the PGA Tour announced its merger with the Public Investment Fund, many people have attempted to work out who are the winners and who are the losers.
Rory McIlroy said he hated LIV Golf in his press conference at the RBC Canadian Open on Wednesday, and he would “fully expect” it to go away.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said he can’t see a scenario in which LIV Golf and PGA Tour events run concurrently in 2024.
He was also asked if it was possible LIV didn’t exist a year from now, to which he couldn’t give a definitive response.
“I don’t want to make any statements or make any predictions. But what is in place is a commitment to make a good-faith effort to look at team golf and the role it can play going forward.”
So, is the breakaway league’s future in question? Will they, in fact, be the losers?
LIV CEO Greg Norman has provided us with an answer by addressing his staff on a video call – as reported by Sports Illustrated.
“The spigot is now wide open for commercial sponsorships, blue-chip companies, TV networks,” Norman said, according to one unnamed person who was part of this call.
“LIV is and will continue to be a standalone enterprise. Our business model will not change. We changed history and we’re not going anywhere.”
According to the Fire Pit Collective, one LIV executive thought Norman was “saying goodbye” when the meeting was planned.
“LIV is a stand-alone entity and will continue to be that moving forward,” Norman reportedly said. “And that comes right from the top” – a reference to PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan.
LIV players such as Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau have expressed their happiness at the extraordinary news that the PGA Tour, PIF, and the DP World Tour will form a new cooperative entity.
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DeChambeau described it as “a monumental day of golf” on Twitter and has since spoke of his excitement in a television interview with CNN.
Mickelson and DeChambeau are two of the 12 LIV Golf team captains who are responsible for eventually growing the HyFlyers and the Crushers into successful franchises.
Each team has been tasked with attracting sponsorship and endorsements with a view to selling the franchises to owners in the coming years.
Norman has now asserted this will not change and work is allegedly already being done in preparation for LIV Golf’s fourth season in 2025.
Having hosted eight events in 2022, LIV is holding 14 events in 2023 and has visited a number of different countries such as Australia and Singapore, with Valderrama in Spain being its next destination.
NOW READ: Rory McIlroy told to ‘f*** off’ in heated players’ meeting
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