In a surprise announcement Tuesday morning that comes after a year of bitter fracturing in men’s professional golf, the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour announced an agreement to merge their business operations.
Both entities announced the move in a joint statement published Tuesday. The merger aims to create “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 terms of the agreement are not fully finalized and are scheduled to be completed in the coming months.
“After two years of disruption and distraction, this is a historic day for the game we all know and love,” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said Tuesday in a statement.
“Going forward, fans can be confident that we will, collectively, deliver on the promise we’ve always made — to promote competition of the best in professional golf and that we are committed to securing and driving the game’s future.”
The LIV Golf Invitational Series made its debut in June 2022 after the tour lured some notable players from the PGA Tour such as Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson. Others like Brooks Koepka, the winner of the most recent PGA Championship, Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith have since joined. The LIV tour presented a disruption in the dynamics of the sport.
“Today is a very exciting day for this special game and the people it touches around the world,” PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan said in the statement. “We are proud to partner with the PGA Tour to leverage PIF’s unparalleled success and track record of unlocking value and bringing innovation and global best practices to business and sectors worldwide. We are committed to unifying, promoting and growing the game of golf around the world and offering the highest-quality product to the many millions of long-time fans globally, while cultivating new fans.”
The LIV tour drew criticism because it is funded entirely by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the sovereign wealth investment fund of the Saudi government.
Saudi Arabia has been accused of wide-ranging human rights abuses, including politically motivated killings, torture, forced disappearances and inhumane treatment of prisoners. And members of the royal family and Saudi government were accused of involvement in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist.
A number of players who declined to join LIV Golf, such as Rory McIlroy, had been publicly outspoken in their criticism of the Saudi-backed tour.
“There’s no room in the golf world for LIV Golf,” McIlroy said in July 2022. “I don’t agree with what LIV is doing. If LIV went away tomorrow, I’d be super happy.”
