Unfortunately, the British tabloid’s story of a finalized merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf may have been premature.
Recently, the Sun announced that the long-awaited merger of the competing golf circuits had been finalized, publishing the news under the catchy headline, “Golf’s civil war OVER.” However, Front Office Sports reported that the newspaper had dashed off the story too soon — before a deal had been reached.
According to the intriguing article from The Sun, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy “played key roles in the peace talks.” The story went LIV’s 14 annual team tournaments would be merged under the PGA Tour, and PIF would be given an 11% share in the PGA Tour.
Now, the news is, it’s not yet a done deal.
There are still a lot of things to work out, including how to deal with antitrust issues in the United States. According to Front Office Sports, there is “heavy internal pressure” to complete the merger by the end of 2024 in order to facilitate scheduling in the future. LIV has already announced four 2025 tournament dates, while the PGA Tour has also made public its 2025 schedule.
The dramatic merger between the PGA Tour and LIV was announced in early June 2023, with a self-imposed deadline of December 31, 2023, to complete the “framework agreement.” The deadline has come and gone. However, the PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan continues to meet and play golf with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund. They may be mixing business with pleasure, negotiating on the greens between swings, putts and drives.
Source: CNA