The golf world is buzzing with the news that the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, backed by Saudi Arabia, have agreed to merge after two years of bitter legal battles. In a joint statement, the two organizations hailed the deal as a “landmark agreement to unify the game of golf, on a global basis.” This surprising turn of events marks a significant departure from the acrimonious exchanges between the parties and their supporters. LIV had accused the PGA of anticompetitive practices, while the PGA had objected to LIV’s poaching of talent with hefty payouts.
The merger agreement has resulted in all legal claims being dropped, and it represents a major sports win for the oil-rich nation. The negotiations were kept secret from virtually all players and officials, and the implications for golf’s TV partners are not yet clear. However, this year’s LIV and PGA schedules will continue without adjustment.
LIV, whose name is “54” in Roman numerals, differed from the PGA in other ways besides its 3-day, team-based format. It allowed players to wear shorts and sought to create a party atmosphere at host courses, with dance music pumping through speakers throughout play. Critics have derided the golf initiative as “sportswashing” by pointing to Saudi acts ranging from the 2018 killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi to harboring the perpetrators of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The yet-to-be-named merged entity is billed as “a new, collectively owned, for-profit entity to ensure that all stakeholders benefit from a model that delivers maximum excitement and competition among the game’s best players.” The transformational partnership brings to an end “two years of disruption and distraction,” according to PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan.
Financed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, LIV set out to disrupt the sport of golf and use it as a global promotional platform. The effort has drawn fierce criticism, even from some of LIV’s top players. Phil Mickelson, who defected to LIV after a long and successful PGA career, railed against the Saudis’ human rights record in an interview for a book, calling them “scary motherf–kers.” Tiger Woods was reported to have turned down $1 billion to defect to LIV.
While Woods, Rory McIlroy, and other PGA mainstays remained loyal, major tournament winners such as Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed, and Dustin Johnson switched to LIV. They were then barred from the PGA for life but did receive permission to play at major tournaments, which are generally run separately from the regular tour. Koepka won the PGA Championship last month, becoming the first LIV golfer to break through at a major since the new league’s founding.
