The PGA Tour and its Saudi Arabian-funded rival LIV Golf have agreed to merge, ending any pending legal disputes and creating a common league.
The competing companies agreed to consolidate their commercial businesses and rights into a new, as-yet-unnamed for-profit organization. The DP World Tour, often known as the European PGA Tour, will be covered under the agreement.
The Public Investment Fund, a Saudi wealth fund, along with the established tours and LIV, will initially be the only investor in the blended operation. Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, is anticipated to lead the new organization as chief executive, while Yasir al-Rumayyan, governor of the wealth fund, would serve as its chairman.
Last year, LIV wreaked havoc in the world of professional golf, drawing some of the game’s most well-known athletes, including Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, and Phil Mickelson, with guaranteed contracts that were reportedly worth $100 million or more at times and the largest event prize pools in golf history.
At the time, people with the PGA Tour had said that the league supported by Saudi Arabia was undermining the sport’s credibility and serving only as a cover for the Middle Eastern country’s efforts to restore its good name.
Monahan now explains the reasons for such a radical development: “They were going down their path, we were going down ours, and after a lot of introspection you realize all this tension in the game is not a good thing…We have a responsibility to our tour and to the game, and we felt like the time was right to have that conversation.”
