The PGA Tour and the Saudi owners of LIV Golf are set to remove the dark cloud of conflict that’s dominated the sport for two years.
David Facey of the Sun has reported the US circuit and the Public Investment Fund have struck a £1 billion deal which includes an 11% stake in the tour for the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, reportedly worth $925 billion.
The report says each LIV Golf League event, of which 14 were played in 2024, will come ‘under the PGA umbrella’ and that Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy played crucial roles in negotiations.
The DP World Tour, formerly the European Tour, is also set to benefit from another cash injection through its strategic alliance with the PGA Tour, which began in 2020. The PIF should get two places on the PGA Tour board.
Woods and McIlroy are part of the tour’s transaction sub-committee that has dealt with the PIF talks, but eyes have been on PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan since June 6, 2023 when an initial framework agreement was shockingly announced and presented to the world on US television.
Tension has existed since the LIV Golf League’s inception in 2022. Each PGA Tour member that signed up was suspended and each DP World Tour member received suspensions and fines for each conflicting event they’ve played in.
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PGA Tour-LIV deal could finally end golf’s civil war
The PGA Tour significantly boosted its tournament purses in the 2023 and 2024 seasons to prevent more players from leaving, but this didn’t stop the likes of Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton from joining Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson on the breakaway league’s roster.
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At the financial expense of both sides, golf was dragged through the courtroom as 11 LIV golfers took action against the PGA Tour, but both sides stood down their legal troops to enter peace talks culminating in the June 6 announcement. A deal was initially promised for the end of 2023 but that was totally unrealistic given signatures haven’t officially been inked ahead of another new year.
Also in the meantime, the PGA Tour entered talks with SSG, a US-based sports investment group. Signed in January 2024, this alliance leapfrogged the tour’s progress with the PIF and produced an equity program that could see players access a portion of $1.5 billion based on their performances.
Doubts surrounded the Saudi situation at this time with the PGA Tour’s financial status significantly improved through other means. But arguably the most encouraging sign that a deal was edging nearer was at the 2024 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship when Monahan and Al-Rumayyan played in the same group and were pictured laughing and seemingly enjoying each other’s company.
DP World Tour chief executive Guy Kinnings was also in attendance. In the weeks and months before this new report, whispers linked the Old World circuit with their own deal with the Saudis. Tour stalwart Eddie Pepperell recently said on the Chipping Forecast Podcast that the PIF could soon buy Wentworth, the prestigious and storied tour venue based in Surrey that can also be described as DP World Tour HQ.
Perhaps this section of the rumour mill is closed for now as golf fans have been given the most significant indication yet that the sport’s powerbrokers have reached a compromise.
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