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Explaining golf’s great undivide

Doug Ferguson

The announcement was so shocking that not even PGA Tour players knew what was coming. The tour was fighting the threat of Saudibacked LIV Golf for more than a year. Yesterday they decided to start working together.

The PGA Tour, European tour and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund say they will combine their commercial businesses into a new company with hopes of unifying golf.

That means all lawsuits are dropped. The other details create as many questions as answers. That starts with whether top stars such as Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka – suspended for taking massive Saudi money to leave the PGA Tour for LIV – will have a way back. They would rejoin players who stayed loyal to the tour.

The PGA Tour was in federal court trying to require Yasir AlRumayyan, the governor of the Public Investment Fund, to give testimony in an antitrust case. And now, Al-rumayyan is on the PGA Tour board of directors.

Some players felt they were betrayed. Top players have not commented because they know so little about what this means.

LIV Golf had tried to get all the top players in the world ranking. Many turned down bonuses estimated at US$100 million or more to stay loyal to the PGA Tour.

The PGA Tour looks nothing like it did when LIV Golf started. PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan says he couldn’t match Saudi money, but it wasn’t because of a lack of effort. This year the PGA Tour had 13 ‘‘elevated events’’ with US$20 million purses. For 2024, it has returned its schedule to start in January and end in August. There will be about 15 tournaments with

US$20 million purses – nearly twice as much as they were – for the top 50 in the season points race on the PGA Tour.

Why did the PGA tour merge with LIV Golf?

Monahan had refused to meet with the Saudi Golf group for two years. But a few months ago, PGA Tour board member Jimmy Dunne arranged a meeting. Monahan, European tour CEO Keith Pelley and Al-rumayyan began working out an agreement. Monahan realised LIV Golf had a deep well of funds and wasn’t going anywhere. He says golf was too divided and had too much tension and it was best for everyone to come together.

Who will be in charge of the PGA Tour after the merger?

The PGA Tour policy board will add Al-rumayyan, and then it will either add another player or remove one of the spots that belong to the corporate world. The new commercial company will have AlRumayyan as the chairman and Monahan as the CEO. The PGA Tour will have a majority stake in the new company. However, PIF at first will be the exclusive investor alongside the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and the DP World Tour. Going forward, PIF will have the exclusive right to further invest.

As far as fans are concerned, the PGA Tour will still be the same logo and the same tour. Ditto for the European tour, whose commercial name is DP World Tour.

Where will the LIV defectors play next year?

LIV Golf will finish its second season this year as scheduled. After that is anyone’s guess. Monahan says officials will conduct a thorough evaluation of how to integrate team golf into the PGA Tour. LIV Golf was trying to turn its 12 teams into franchises. No one had sponsored a team.

Sport

en-nz

2023-06-08T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-06-08T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282067691330857

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