pga tour players who have joined liv

Sat 21 Sept 2024

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LIV Golf players list: Everyone who has quit PGA Tour and DP World Tour to play in the 2023 series

Cameron smith, dustin johnson and phil mickelson are among other players to have pledged their commitment to liv golf.

When the highly contentious LIV Invitational Series resumes in 2024, it will boast reigning Masters champion and world No 3-ranked Jon Rahm as the latest of golf’s most famous players who have signed up to play .

Rahm , a four-time winner on the 2023 PGA Tour, member of Europe’s Ryder Cup -winning team and prior critic of the LIV format , joins the league bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in a deal reportedly worth up to £450m.

Rumours had begun to swirl over the Spaniard’s future, including when he was notably absent from the line-up of golfers committed to the PGA Tour’s American Express stop in January, as well as withdrawing from the Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy -backed TGL league’s inaugural season last month.

And despite admitting his decision to join LIV was a “risk” in terms of his future participation in the Ryder Cup – the 29-year-old will need to remain a member of the DP World Tour to be eligible for the biennial USA vs Europe showdown – Rahm told Fox News : “Things have changed a lot in the game of golf over the past two years and I’ve seen the growth of LIV Golf and the innovation.

“That’s why I’m here today. This decision was made for many reasons and what I thought was best for me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great deal.”

The 2024 LIV Golf schedule will feature 14 stops, including new events in Las Vegas, Houston and Nashville.

2024 LIV Golf Schedule 2-4 February:  LIV Mayakoba — El Cameleon Country Club 8-10 February : LIV Las Vegas — Las Vegas Country Club 1-3 March:  LIV Saudi Arabia — TBD 8-10 March:  LIV Hong Kong — Hong Kong Golf Club 5-7 April:  LIV “USA” — Location and course TBD 26-28 April:  LIV Adelaide — The Grange Golf Club 3-5 May:  LIV Singapore — The Serapong Golf Club 7-9 June:  LIV Houston — The Golf Club of Houston 21-23 June:  LIV Nashville — The Grove Golf Club 12-14 July:  LIV Andalucia — Real Club Valderrama 25-28 July:  LIV UK: Staffordshire — JCB Golf and Country Club 16-19 August:  LIV Greenbrier — The Old White Course at the Greenbrier TBD:  LIV Golf Individual Championships TBD:  LIV Golf Team Championships.

Who played in the 2023 LIV Golf series and how did it work?

The financial package put forward by LIV Golf seduced Dustin Johnson , Lee Westwood , and Sergio Garcia from the get-go last year, with Phil Mickelson, Ian Poulter and plenty of others signing up soon after.

Mickelson was reportedly paid $200m (£159m) just for turning up, while Johnson, the top-ranked player to have joined so far, earning $150m (£119m). Johnson announced his resignation from the PGA Tour in order to concentrate fully on the new tournament fronted by former world No 1 Greg Norman, but the PGA has since suspended all players to have made the switch.

Besides the eye-watering signing-on-fees, the prize money on offer is staggering. There is a $25m (£19.9m) purse to be split between the 48 players per tournament in the eight-event series, with the winner pocketing $4m (£3.2m) and the loser earning $120k (£95k).

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The format is also very different from traditional majors. There are 54 rather than 72 holes for a start – “LIV” is 54 in Roman numerals – there is a “shotgun” start where players tee off at the same time, and golfers are grouped into teams of four.

Johnson is captain of the “4 Aces”, Mickelson is leading the “Hy Flyers” and Poulter is affiliated to “Majesticks”.

The first 2022 tournament was held in England, with subsequent events taking place in Portland, Bedminster, Boston, Chicago, Bangkok, Jeddah and Miami.

In the build-up, players faced questions about “sportswashing” and whether Saudi Arabia is seeking to deflect attention from its human rights record by investing so heavily in the sport. Mickelson previously called the Saudis “scary motherf**kers” before backtracking.

“I don’t condone human rights violations at all,” he said. “I’m certainly aware of what has happened with Jamal Khashoggi and I think it’s terrible. I have also seen the good that the game of golf has done throughout history and I believe LIV Golf is going to do a lot of good for the game as well.”

Graeme McDowell said “we’re not politicians, we’re professional golfers,” in regards to the country’s human rights record and Talor Gooch responded “I’m a golfer, I’m not that smart”. Poulter and Westwood both said they would not answer “hypothetical questions” when asked whether they would have played in a tournament held by Vladimir Putin or in South Africa during Apartheid.

Four-time major winner Brooks Koepka, former US Open winner Bryson DeChambeau and ex-Masters champion Patrick Reed signed up to the breakaway competition after the first event, while Paul Casey was also confirmed in early July.

Open champion Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann were then among a fresh wave of players unveiled by LIV Golf.

The 2023 series kicked off in Mayakoba in February, followed by tournaments in Tucson, Orlando, Adelaide, Singapore, Tulsa, DC, Valderrama, London, Greenbrier, Bedminster, Chicago, Miami and Jeddah.

2023 LIV Golf players list A-Z

Here are all 48 players who competed in the 14-event series in 2023.

There were 12 teams in total, with 13 major champions in the field, 16 nations represented, and a combined 125 Ryder Cup appearances.

Four players – Dustin Johnson, Martin Kaymer, Brooks Koepka and Lee Westwood – have held the title of world No 1. Scroll down for the teams and more analysis.

• Abraham Ancer
• Richard Bland
• Dean Burmester
• Laurie Canter
• Eugenio Chacarra
• Bryson DeChambeau
• Sergio Garcia
• Talor Gooch
• Branden Grace
• Sam Horsfield
• Charles Howell III
• Dustin Johnson
• Martin Kaymer
• Brooks Koepka
• Chase Koepka
• Jason Kokrak
• Anirban Lahiri
• Marc Leishman
• Graeme McDowell
• Phil Mickelson
• Jediah Morgan
• Sebastian Munoz
• Joaquin Niemann
• Andy Ogletree
• Louis Oosthuizen
• Carlos Ortiz
• Mito Pereira
• Thomas Pieters
• Ian Poulter
• Patrick Reed
• Charl Schwartzel
• Cameron Smith
• Brendan Steele
• Henrik Stenson
• Cameron Tringale
• Peter Uihlein
• Harold Varner III
• Scott Vincent
• Bubba Watson
• Lee Westwood
• Bernd Wiesberger
• Matthew Wolff

LIV Golf 2023 team names and roster

• 4Aces – Dustin Johnson (captain), Patrick Reed, Pat Perez, Peter Uihlein
• Cleeks – Martin Kaymer (captain), Graeme McDowell, Richard Bland, Bernd Wiesberger
• Crushers – Bryson DeChambeau (captain), Paul Casey, Charles Howell III, Anirban Lahiri
• Fireballs – Sergio Garcia (captain), Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Eugenio Chacarra
• HyFlyers – Phil Mickelson (captain), Cameron Tringale, James Piot, Brendan Steele
• Iron Heads – Kevin Na (captain), Sihwan Kim, Scott Vincent, Danny Lee
• Majesticks – Ian Poulter (co-captain), Henrik Stenson (co-captain), Lee Westwood (co-captain), Sam Horsfield
• RangeGoats – Bubba Watson (captain), Harold Varner III, Talor Gooch, Thomas Pieters
• Ripper – Cameron Smith (captain), Marc Leishman, Matt Jones, Jed Morgan
• Smash – Brooks Koepka (captain), Matthew Wolff, Jason Kokrak, Chase Koepka
• Stinger – Louis Oosthuizen (captain), Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace, Dean Burmester
• Torque – Joaquin Niemann (captain), Mito Pereira, Sebastian Munoz, David Puig

Analysis: LIV Invitational is morally bankrupt and won’t revitalise golf

By Matt Butler

The name is quite clever: LIV. In Roman numerals it is 54 and the players in this new incarnation of golf kicking off in the exotic locale of Hemel Hempstead will play that many holes. Neat, huh?

Of course, you might say that a new sporting franchise bolstered by limitless petrodollars would be expected to be creative with its branding.

But the new kid in town is a sign that golf is in desperate need of some love. Whether that love comes from a despotic regime with a dreadful record on human rights is something for Phil Mickelson , Dustin Johnson , Lee Westwood and, err, James Piot to ponder as they chase a ball around a course for a share of 20 mill a tournament.

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And if you put aside the ickiness of the Saudi regime behind Jamal Khashoggi ’s killers providing the lipstick and mascara to the game, the concept of a quickfire bunch of tournaments with a set season and eight-figure sums of cash riding on each one sounds intriguing – even if the reason why players joined appears to be all about the money. Not that cold hard cash as a motivator is news, especially in the world of golf.

The rules are thus: everyone tees off at once. It is called a shotgun start, which sounds a little violent, given the paymasters, but I guess bonesaw start would have been too much. Twelve teams of four play in a match-play format, with individual members also competing in a strokeplay competition. There is no cut to miss. So far, so mildly diverting.

However, toe-curlingly twee “Camden Market-style” stalls, a Craig David and Jessie J gig and Sporty Spice on the decks post-match does not sound like much of an answer to the organiser’s promise to “supercharge” golf.

Read Matt’s full analysis here

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The PGA Tour-LIV Golf merger, explained: Who won, who lost, what it means for fans

The pga tour-liv golf merger raises more questions than answers. here's an explanation of what it all means now, and what it could mean in the future..

In one of the most consequential moments in golf history, the PGA Tour and LIV Golf announced on Tuesday morning that they would combine operations to create an as-yet-unnamed new worldwide golf entity . The agreement ends litigation between the two tours, provides a potential pathway for LIV Golf players to rejoin the PGA Tour, and sets up a framework where Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) now has a significant stake in the future of men's professional golf.

Much will come to light in the coming hours, days and weeks, but here's what we know and can reasonably speculate so far.

What was the original source of the friction between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf?

LIV, funded by Saudi Arabia's virtually bottomless PIF, grew out of a long-running series of discussions between Tour and Saudi officials that ultimately went nowhere. The LIV Golf tour launched last year with the promise of vast paychecks, a limited schedule, vast paychecks, 54-hole no-cut events, vast paychecks ... and also vast paychecks. Players like Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson leaped at reported nine-figure offerings to play for LIV, and even unknown players were suddenly cashing mammoth checks just for joining the breakaway tour.

The PGA Tour branded those who jumped to LIV as, in effect, traitors to the Tour's legacy. Players like Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy offered impassioned defenses of the Tour. Players who joined LIV were criticized for taking money from Saudi Arabia, which has a horrendous record of documented human rights violations. Many were dismissed as irrelevant faded stars, and all saw their world rankings plummet as they played in events not sanctioned by the Official World Golf Rankings.

But LIV players currently hold two of the four major titles, rendering the "LIV is irrelevant" argument obsolete. Not only that, the PGA Tour has adopted (or is planning to adopt) many of LIV's most notable features, from elevated paychecks to no-cut events to team competition, a sign that LIV was posing a threat from a golf perspective, if not a moral one.

Both sides engaged in litigation against the other, and both sides' defenders — from players to commentators to fans — launched broadsides against the other that ranged from angry to downright vicious. How those antagonists will reconcile in the wake of this announcement is an open question.

How did this agreement come about so suddenly?

That's a question a whole lot of people, starting with the players on the PGA Tour, would like to know. Apparently no one outside of a small coterie of top-of-the-organization members of the tours knew this was coming. Players expressed shock and surprise — two-time major winner Collin Morikawa, for instance, found out on Twitter . Even Greg Norman, the brash, outspoken CEO of LIV Golf, apparently only found out via phone call just moments before the announcement was made.

What led to this agreement?

It's still unclear why the two tours (three, including the DP World Tour, the former European Tour) chose this moment to make the deal, but several factors are obviously in play. LIV Golf is struggling to attract both viewers and a network to show its tournaments. The PGA Tour is facing a Department of Justice investigation over potential anticompetitive behavior related to LIV. The PIF was subject to discovery, and a potential in-depth review of its operations, in the lawsuits and counter-lawsuits involving the Tour. And the Tour was facing growing discontent from its star members, who wanted a larger share of purses and guaranteed money.

In short, both sides had wolves at the door, and both are now — at least in theory — stronger together rather than apart.

What does the structure of this agreement mean for golf?

In broad terms, the merger agreement — at least, according to the press release announced Tuesday morning — calls for the PGA Tour to handle golf-related oversight, the "governance" of the new merged entity. Each of the three tours would be responsible for the so-called "inside-the-ropes" operations of its own tour — site selection, tournament operations, rules enforcement, and so on.

The more significant element of the merger concerns its financial structure. Per the press release, PIF "will make a capital investment into the new entity to facilitate its growth and success." Further down in the release is this more significant element: "PIF will initially be the exclusive investor in the new entity, alongside the PGA TOUR, LIV Golf and the DP World Tour. Going forward, PIF will have the exclusive right to further invest in the new entity, including a right of first refusal on any capital that may be invested in the new entity, including into the PGA TOUR, LIV Golf and DP World Tour (emphasis added)." In other words, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund will provide the seed money for the new operation, will be the only investor, and will have the right to invest — and refuse outside investment — in the PGA Tour itself.

It may be too early to say that LIV Golf bought the PGA Tour, but according to the Tour's own words, Saudi Arabia will own a significant percentage of whatever golf is to become.

What does this mean for the players on the PGA Tour?

If there's a "loser" in this whole scenario, it's the Tour players who were cajoled, guilt-tripped and outright threatened not to leave the Tour for the vast riches of the PIF-backed LIV ... only to watch the Tour dip right into those same riches. And while the money available to players through tournaments will grow, the generational sums offered to LIV's first players surely won't.

Tiger Woods, for instance, turned down a reported $800 million to join LIV. But Woods will be fine without that money. A player like Rickie Fowler, for instance, was offered as much as $75 million to join LIV, but opted to stay with the PGA Tour. It's highly unlikely he'll be offered that sum to join LIV now.

What does this mean for the players on the LIV Golf tour?

Vindication and salvation. Players who jumped to LIV late in their careers, like Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter, have cashed in sums that they never would have earned on the PGA Tour or the DP World Tour. All the criticism they took for accepting Saudi "blood money" is, in effect, irrelevant, since that same money now bankrolls the entire venture of men's professional golf.

Plus, LIV players now have a pathway back onto the PGA Tour and into the majors, which was one of the key reasons against joining LIV in the first place. LIV players can enjoy the riches they were granted in 2022, and then potentially jump right back onto the PGA Tour in 2024.

What does the merger mean for the fans?

From a pure golf perspective, this is nothing but good news. The best in the game will once again potentially play against one another on a regular basis. Interesting new versions of golf, including team play, will come to the game as a whole, not just LIV. The game will expand far beyond the boundaries of the United States, bringing in a whole new international contingent of fans and, eventually, players.

However, the fans who were disgusted at LIV for its Saudi origins will be no more inclined to watch a Saudi-backed PGA Tour, either. The new venture will test American fans' appetite for Saudi-backed ventures ... which could factor significantly into American sports in the future.

What does the PGA Tour-LIV agreement mean for future Saudi investment in American sports?

Golf, as embodied by Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods, is as American as it gets: dramatic, big-hitting, celebratory. But golf now is under the financial auspices of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Previously, Saudi investment in existing major sports had been limited to individual teams (Newcastle United in the Premier League, for instance) or individual events (as with Formula 1), but this marks the first time that Saudi Arabia has taken a significant financial stake in an established worldwide league. The implications for the future of golf — as well as other major sports — are unclear, but the PIF is clearly making a play to take a key role in the biggest sports on the planet.

Much remains to be revealed, and much more to play out, but this much is clear: Tuesday marked a historic day in golf, one whose effects will resonate for decades — one way or another.

clock This article was published more than  2 years ago

Who are the LIV golfers? They range from the famous to the anonymous.

LIV Golf’s fourth tournament this week near Boston will feature a 48-player field of golfers who have decided to give the Saudi-funded breakaway circuit a chance. Some of these players are well known, while others are familiar only to golf fanatics. Eight golfers will be playing in their first LIV tournament, with the league letting go of eight lesser-known players who had played in previous tournaments to make room.

Twelve of the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking have joined the LIV Golf Invitational Series. The 48 players in the field at The International can be roughly divided into four categories: golfers who still were relevant on the PGA or European tours when they joined LIV; those whose best years are behind them; grinders who have been plying their trade anonymously around the world; and younger players who are getting their first real taste of professional golf.

World rankings and ages are as of Aug. 30. Wins came on the PGA Tour, the European tour, in World Golf Championships or at majors.

Still relevant

Cameron Smith

World ranking: 2

Career top-level wins: 8

Most recent: 2022

Smith joined LIV this week, becoming its highest-ranked golfer and most recent major-championship winner.

Joaquin Niemann

World ranking: 19

Career top-level wins: 2

The LIV newcomer won in February but has never finished higher than T-23 in 15 major-championship appearances.

Dustin Johnson

World ranking: 22

Career top-level wins: 31

Most recent: 2021

The two-time major champion hasn’t won anything since his Masters title in November 2020.

Abraham Ancer

World ranking: 24

Career top-level wins: 1

Ancer tied for 11th and tied for ninth at the past two major championships, but he had just three top-10s this season before departing for LIV.

Brooks Koepka

World ranking: 26

Career top-level wins: 9

The former world No. 1 won four of eight majors played between the 2017 U.S. Open and 2019 PGA Championship, but injuries have slowed him since.

Louis Oosthuizen

World ranking: 31

Most recent: 2018

The 2010 British Open winner finished second or third at the final three majors in 2021; this year’s results haven’t been as good.

Bryson DeChambeau

World ranking: 37

The brainy, beefy big hitter ran away with the 2020 U.S. Open before dealing with a host of injuries.

World ranking: 34

Career top-level wins: 5

Na went seven years between victories before a career resurgence in his late 30s.

Jason Kokrak

World ranking: 38

Career top-level wins: 3

Before leaving for LIV, Kokrak didn’t have a top-10 PGA Tour finish since winning the Houston Open in November.

Talor Gooch

World ranking: 45

Gooch earned a spot in all four majors for the first time this year but finished no better than 14th, with one missed cut.

Harold Varner III

World ranking: 46

Varner’s lone professional win came on a miracle shot at a European tour event in Saudi Arabia earlier this year.

Patrick Reed

World ranking: 50

Reed won the 2018 Masters but has dealt with on- and off-course controversies.

Cameron Tringale

World ranking: 55

Most recent: 2014

Tringale posted five top 10s this season but his lone win came at a team event eight years ago.

Marc Leishman

World ranking: 62

Career top-level wins: 7

Leishman missed the cut in 5 of 10 tournaments to close his PGA Tour season.

Matthew Wolff

World ranking: 100

Most recent: 2019

Only Ben Crenshaw, Tiger Woods and Wolff have won an NCAA championship and a PGA Tour event in the same year.

Branden Grace

World ranking: 145

Career top-level wins: 12

Grace won the second LIV Golf tournament in Oregon in early July.

On the downswing

World ranking: 33

Career top-level wins: 18

He’s one of the better LIV players to never win a major; 16 of his 18 career wins were in 2015 or earlier.

Sergio Garcia

World ranking: 74

Career top-level wins: 26

Most recent: 2020

Garcia has one win since his 2017 Masters title and has seen his world ranking steadily decline.

Richard Bland

World ranking: 79

The journeyman scored his only pro win last year at 48, when he also cracked the top 100 for the first time.

Lee Westwood

World ranking: 102

Career top-level wins: 27

The former world No. 1 has 19 top-10 major finishes without a win.

Phil Mickelson

World ranking: 109

Career top-level wins: 47

Once one of the sport’s most beloved players, the six-time major winner decided to spend his twilight golf years playing for LIV.

Ian Poulter

World ranking: 111

Career top-level wins: 15

All but one of the Englishman’s victories came in 2012 or earlier. He’s better known for his Ryder Cup prowess.

Charl Schwartzel

World ranking: 126

Most recent: 2016

Schwartzel’s final-round 66 to win the 2011 Masters was memorable, but the bulk of his success has come in Europe.

Charles Howell III

World ranking: 197

The PGA Tour veteran has earned millions over a lengthy career despite not winning all that often.

Henrik Stenson

World ranking: 179

Career top-level wins: 16

Most recent: 2017

The former British Open champion won the first LIV tournament he played in July.

World ranking: 196

Perez once was No. 16 in the world but now is better known for his collection of Jordan sneakers.

Martin Kaymer

World ranking: 338

Kaymer’s three wins on U.S. soil were impressive — two majors and the 2014 Players Championship — but he hasn’t been relevant in years.

Wade Ormsby

World ranking: 362

The Australian has split time among the European, Asian and Australian tours, never making much of an impact.

Graeme McDowell

World ranking: 399

Career top-level wins: 14

McDowell won the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, but his best years are well behind him.

Anonymous journeymen

Scott Vincent

World ranking: 81

Career top-level wins: 0

Vincent, from Zimbabwe, has won four times on Asian tours since August.

World ranking: 82

The Australian’s PGA Tour victories came nearly seven years apart — in 2014 and 2021.

Anirban Lahiri

World ranking: 92

Most recent: 2015

Both of the Indian golfer’s top-level wins came on the European tour in 2015.

Shaun Norris

World ranking: 93

Norris has played much of his career in Asia, Africa and Australia, but he won a European tour event in March.

Bernd Wiesberger

World ranking: 110

The Austrian has one top-10 finish this year and was near the bottom of the leader board at the first two LIV events.

Hudson Swafford

World ranking: 115

After winning in January at the American Express, Swafford missed seven cuts in 12 PGA Tour events before leaving for LIV.

Laurie Canter

World ranking: 139

The Englishman has 11 career top-10 finishes, all since 2019 and all on the European tour.

Carlos Ortiz

World ranking: 146

With his win at the Houston Open, Ortiz became the third Mexican golfer to win on the PGA Tour and the first since Victor Regalado in 1978.

World ranking: 157

The American has spent nearly his entire career on the European and Asian Tours.

Adrian Otaegui

World ranking: 159

Otaegui has qualified for only four majors and missed the cut in three of them.

Peter Uihlein

World ranking: 361

Most recent: 2013

Uihlein never lived up to the billing after becoming one of the world’s top amateurs.

Chase Koepka

World ranking: 1,615

Brooks’s younger brother missed the cut in seven of his previous nine tournaments before joining LIV.

Sam Horsfield

World ranking: 95

The budding English star won in Belgium this year but missed the cut in all three major appearances.

Sadom Kaewkanjana

World ranking: 91

The Thai golfer won an Asian Tour event this year, his second victory on that circuit.

Phachara Khongwatmai

World ranking: 142

Another up-and-coming Thai golfer, Khongwatmai won an Asian Tour event in December.

Jediah Morgan

World ranking: 296

Morgan won a PGA Tour of Australasia event in January in only his fourth professional tournament.

Turk Pettit

World ranking: 650

Pettit won the 2021 NCAA championship at Clemson. He finished 45th and 46th out of 48 at the first two LIV tournaments.

World ranking: 2,326

Piot turned pro in May and jumped to LIV after missing the cut at all six PGA Tour events he played.

Eugenio Chacarra

The Spaniard left Oklahoma State early — he was a first-team all-American — to join LIV.

PGA and LIV Merger Deal Increases Saudi Arabia’s Influence in Golf

The partnership is a major victory for Saudi ambitions in sports, but the announcement split players. PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan described his meeting with golfers late in the afternoon as “heated.”

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Alan Blinder

The alliance between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf ends a bitter fight in the sport.

The PGA Tour, the dominant force in men’s professional golf for generations, and LIV Golf, which made its debut just last year and is backed by hundreds of millions of dollars in Saudi money, will together form an industry powerhouse that is expected to transform the sport, executives announced Tuesday.

The rival circuits had spent the last year clashing in public, and the tentative agreement that emerged from secret negotiations blindsided virtually all of the world’s top players, agents and broadcasters. The deal would create a new company that would consolidate the PGA Tour’s prestige, television contracts and marketing muscle with Saudi money.

The new company came together so quickly that it does not yet even have a name and is referred to in the agreement documents simply as “NewCo.” It would be controlled by the PGA Tour but significantly financed by the Saudi government’s Public Investment Fund . The fund’s governor, Yasir al-Rumayyan, will be the new company’s chairman.

The deal, coming when Saudi Arabia is increasingly looking to assert itself on the world stage as something besides one of the world’s largest oil producers, has implications beyond sports. The Saudi money will give the new organization greater clout, but it comes with the troubling association of the kingdom’s human rights record, its treatment of women and accusations that it was responsible for the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a leading critic.

The agreement does not immediately amount to a Saudi takeover of professional golf, but it positions the nation’s top officials to have enormous sway over the game. It also represents an escalation in Saudi ambitions in sports, moving beyond its corporate sponsorship of Formula 1 racing and ownership of an English soccer team into a place where it can exert influence over the highest reaches of a global game.

“Everybody is in shock,” said Paul Azinger, the winner of the 1993 P.G.A. Championship and the lead golf analyst for NBC Sports. “The future of golf is forever different.”

Since LIV began play last year, it has used some of the richest contracts and prize money in the sport’s history to entice players away from the PGA Tour. Until Tuesday morning, the PGA Tour had been publicly uncompromising: LIV was a threat to the game and a glamorous way for Saudi Arabia to rehabilitate its reputation. The PGA Tour’s commissioner, Jay Monahan, had even avoided uttering LIV’s name in public.

But a series of springtime meetings in London, Venice and San Francisco led to a framework agreement that stunned the golf industry for its timing and scope. Monahan, who defended the decision as a sound business choice and said he had accepted that he would be accused of hypocrisy, met with PGA Tour players in Toronto on Tuesday in what he called an “intense” and “certainly heated” exchange.

The deal, though, proved right the predictions that there could eventually be an uneasy patching-up of the sport’s fractures. The PGA Tour’s board, which includes a handful of players like Patrick Cantlay and Rory McIlroy, must still approve the agreement, a process that could be tumultuous.

It was only a year ago this week that LIV Golf held its inaugural tournament, prompting the PGA Tour to suspend players who competed in it. But by the end of the year, even though the circuit was locked in an antitrust battle with the PGA Tour and its stars were confronting uncertain futures at the sport’s marquee competitions, LIV had some of the biggest names in golf on its payroll. Its players have included the major tournament champions Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson and Cameron Smith.

The players were familiar, but LIV’s 54-hole events — the name derives from the Roman numerals for that number — were jarring, with blaring music and golfers in shorts not facing the specter of being unceremoniously cut midway through. The PGA Tour, meanwhile, defended its 72-hole events, where low performers do not compete into the weekend, as rigorous athletic tests that adhered to the traditions of an ancient game.

The less-starchy LIV concept drew plenty of headlines, and the league won even greater attention because of its links to former President Donald J. Trump, who hosted LIV tournaments and emerged as one of its most enthusiastic boosters. The league, however, was still largely dependent on the largess of a wealth fund that had been warned that a rebel golf circuit was no certain financial bonanza. It stumbled to a television deal with the CW Network, and big corporate sponsorships were scarce.

The league accrued some athletic successes, even as its players faced the risk of eventual exclusion from golf’s major tournaments, which are run by organizations that are close to, but distinct from, the PGA Tour.

Last month, Koepka won the P.G.A. Championship , which was organized by the P.G.A. of America. Koepka, Mickelson and Patrick Reed were among the LIV players who fared especially well at the Masters Tournament, administered by Augusta National Golf Club, in early April.

Within weeks of the Masters, though, after a run of mutual overtures and months of bravado, PGA Tour and Saudi executives were convening in secret to see if there was a way toward some kind of coexistence, in part, Monahan suggested, because he did not think it was “right or sustainable to have this tension in our sport.” The result was an agreement that gives the tour the upper hand but is poised to make permanent Saudi Arabia’s influence over golf’s starry ranks.

Monahan, the tour’s commissioner, is in line to be the chief executive of the new company, which will include an executive committee stocked with tour loyalists. But al-Rumayyan's presence, as well as the promise that the wealth fund can play a pivotal role in how the company is ultimately funded, means that Saudi Arabia could do much to shape the sport’s future.

In a memorandum to players on Tuesday, Monahan insisted that his tour’s “history, legacy and pro-competitive model not only remains intact, but is supercharged for the future.”

That was hardly a consensus view. Mackenzie Hughes, a PGA Tour player, acidly noted on Twitter that there was “nothing like finding out through Twitter that we’re merging with a tour that we said we’d never do that with.” And Terry Strada, the chairwoman of 9/11 Families United, who had assailed the Saudi foray into golf because of misgivings about the kingdom after the 2001 terrorist attacks, said Monahan and the tour had “become just more paid Saudi shills, taking billions of dollars to cleanse the Saudi reputation.”

The tour and the wealth fund both had incentives to forge an agreement, besides the prospect of concluding a chaotic chapter marked by allegations of betrayal and greed.

LIV had faced setbacks in civil litigation against the PGA Tour that threatened to drag al-Rumayyan into sworn testimony and force the wealth fund to turn over documents that could have become public. The tour has been under scrutiny from Justice Department antitrust investigators , who had examined in recent months whether the tour’s tactics to counter LIV had undermined golf’s labor market.

The litigation between the tour and LIV will end under the terms of the agreement announced Tuesday. The fate of the antitrust inquiry was less clear — experts said the new arrangement would not automatically immunize the tour from potential legal trouble — but LIV’s standing as its leading cheerleader evaporated.

For this year, the world’s professional golfers are unlikely to see seismic changes in their schedules or playing formats, with LIV and the PGA Tour expected to hold competitions as planned. There may be far more consequential changes later, though, chiefly because the new PGA Tour-controlled company will determine whether and how LIV’s team-oriented format might be blended with the tour’s more familiar offerings.

LIV players are expected to have pathways to apply for reinstatement to the PGA Tour or the DP World Tour, circuits from which some had resigned when faced with fines and suspensions, but they could face residual penalties for leaving in the first place. Through a spokeswoman, Greg Norman, the two-time major tournament champion who has been LIV’s commissioner, declined to be interviewed on Tuesday.

No matter what comes of the LIV brand or style, Tuesday’s announcement is a singular milestone in the Saudi quest to become a titan in global sports. With the deal, the kingdom can move, at least in golf, from a well-heeled disrupter to a seat of power at the establishment’s table.

Saudi officials have repeatedly denied that political or public relations motives undergird their eager pursuit of sports investments. Instead, they have framed the investments as necessary for shoring up the resource-rich kingdom’s finances and to enhance its standing on the world stage.

Beyond its imprint on golf , the wealth fund previously purchased Newcastle United, a potent English soccer team, and a company with close ties to the fund has eyed investments in cricket, tennis and e-sports. And Saudi Arabia has tried to become a host of major sporting events, from boxing matches to its pending bid to host the World Cup in 2030.

But when Saudi Arabia barged into golf last year, it was nearly unthinkable that al-Rumayyan would so swiftly become a formal ally of Monahan and the sport’s other power brokers.

“Anybody who thought about it logically would see that something was going to have to happen,” Adam Hadwin, a PGA Tour player, said on Tuesday. It was inconceivable, he suggested, that the world’s best players would only compete against each other at the four major tournaments, but an armistice “happening this quick and in this way is surprising.”

For much of the last year, LIV players have deflected questions about Saudi Arabia’s history on human rights and other matters that helped make the kingdom’s surge into golf an international flashpoint. They were, they often said, merely golfers and entertainers.

Until Tuesday, Monahan had tried to use the stain of Saudi Arabia to undercut the new league and its golfers.

“I would ask any player that has left, or any player that would ever consider leaving: Have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?” he said last year.

On Tuesday, when Monahan declared that the leaders of golf’s factions had “realized that we were better off together than we were fighting or apart,” it was his tour’s players facing questions about lucrative connections to Riyadh.

“I’ve dedicated my entire life to being at golf’s highest level,” Hadwin, the tour player, said. “I’m not about to stop playing golf because the entity that I play for has joined forces with the Saudi government.”

Reporting was contributed by Andrew Das , Kevin Draper , Lauren Hirsch , Eric Lipton , Victor Mather , Ahmed Al Omran and Bill Pennington .

Kevin Draper

The PGA Tour commissioner acknowledges secrecy and hurdles on the deal.

Tuesday morning’s announcement from the PGA Tour hailed its deal to merge operations with LIV Golf as a “landmark agreement to unify the game” and end the contentious litigation between the competing golf tours.

But when Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, finally spoke to news reporters eight hours later, the agreement sounded far more tentative. He described his meeting with players about the agreement as “intense” and “certainly heated.” Monahan also acknowledged that most of the PGA Tour’s policy board — which is made up of five independent directors and five golfers — was kept in the dark about the tour’s negotiations with LIV over the last seven weeks.

He called the deal a “framework agreement” and said there were numerous issues that needed to be worked through before a “definitive agreement” was presented to the policy board to ratify, raising the possibility that it could be rejected and golf’s cold war could stretch on.

Among the issues that Monahan said were still unsettled included the future of LIV itself as an independent golf tour; the pathway for LIV players to rejoin the PGA Tour or the DP World Tour in Europe; whether PGA Tour players who declined to join LIV would somehow be financially compensated; and whether LIV players would have to forfeit some of their compensation.

“Ultimately, everything needs to be considered,” Monahan said.

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Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, said that many members of the PGA Tour policy board — more or less its board of directors — were kept in the dark about the negotiations. The agreement reached with LIV is only a framework agreement; once there is a finalized agreement, the policy board, which includes players, will have to vote to approve it.

Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, says there is no definitive agreement on whether PGA Tour players will somehow be made whole for money they turned down when they declined to join LIV, or whether LIV players will somehow have to give up money to rejoin the PGA Tour. “Ultimately, everything needs to be considered,” Monahan said.

Monahan is being asked repeatedly about his past criticism of the morals of taking LIV and Saudi money. “I recognize that people are going to call me a hypocrite,” the PGA Tour commissioner said. “Anytime I said anything, I said it based on the information I had at the moment, and based on someone trying to compete for the PGA Tour and our players. I accept those criticisms. But circumstances do change.”

The PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan on his just-completed meeting with players: “I would describe the meeting as intense. Certainly heated.”

More details about the merger, and how PGA Tour players feel about it, should be emerging soon. Jay Monahan, the commissioner of the PGA Tour, is hosting a players meeting in Toronto at the site of this week’s RBC Open. After that, Monahan will take questions from the news media.

The talks of a merger began in secret meetings after the Masters in April.

For month after month, the PGA Tour and LIV Golf were content to bludgeon one another in news conferences and court filings. But in the weeks after the Masters Tournament in early April, rival executives began a series of private meetings.

Convening first in London and then Venice and ultimately San Francisco, PGA Tour leaders met with representatives of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, including Yasir al-Rumayyan, the golf fiend who is the wealth fund’s governor. According to a person familiar with the discussions, who insisted on anonymity to describe private talks, the sides effectively reached an agreement around Memorial Day but kept word of it secret from even leading executives and players until Tuesday.

The nature of the agreement — for now — keeps the PGA Tour in control, thanks to a provision that allows it to have a majority of board seats in the new company that will house the tour and LIV Golf. The wealth fund will control a minority stake in the new company, but its exclusive right to invest in it going forward opens the door for Riyadh to grow its influence in the years ahead.

But in the interim, the fate of the LIV Golf league itself appears to rest most clearly with the PGA Tour and its allies, with the new company expected to undertake an extensive analysis of the LIV format to determine whether and how it can coexist with the long-dominant tour.

A group of 9/11 relatives called the PGA Tour’s planned merger with LIV a ‘betrayal.’

A group of relatives of people killed on Sept. 11 issued a blistering criticism of the planned merger between the Saudi-backed LIV Golf series and the PGA Tour, calling the tour and its commissioner “paid Saudi shills” for agreeing to it.

Relatives of 9/11 victims have been vocal in their opposition to the Saudi-backed LIV series almost since its inception. Most of the hijackers of the planes used in the 2001 attacks were Saudi. The 9/11 families have saved some of their harshest criticisms for those who have taken part in LIV events and hosted its tournaments. The latter group includes former President Donald J. Trump and his family, who were urged last year to cancel an event at a Trump golf course in New Jersey.

On Tuesday, one group of relatives, called 9/11 Families United, declared that its members were “shocked and deeply offended” by the merger deal. In a statement, the group called it a “betrayal” by the PGA Tour and its commissioner, Jay Monahan.

“The PGA and Monahan appear to have become just more paid Saudi shills, taking billions of dollars to cleanse the Saudi reputation,” said the 9/11 Families United chairman, Terry Strada.

Critics of Saudi Arabia frequently deride its investments in teams and leagues as “sportswashing” and say it is a thinly veiled effort to rehabilitate the kingdom’s reputation amid accusations that it has financed terrorism and murdered a Washington Post journalist, Jamal Khashoggi .

Strada criticized Monahan for “co-opting” the 9/11 community last year in the PGA Tour’s initial and strident opposition to the Saudi-backed golf tour, only to cut a merger deal this week.

“Mr. Monahan talked last summer about knowing people who lost loved ones on 9/11, then wondered aloud on national television whether LIV golfers ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour,” Strade wrote. “They do now — as does he. PGA Tour leaders should be ashamed of their hypocrisy and greed.”

Members of Congress from both parties weighed in.

“So weird. PGA officials were in my office just months ago talking about how the Saudis’ human rights record should disqualify them from having a stake in a major American sport,” said Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat of Connecticut, in a message posted on Twitter . “I guess maybe their concerns weren’t really about human rights?”

And Representative Chip Roy, a Republican of Texas, added : “In the end, it’s always about the money. Saudi Arabia just bought themselves a one-world golf government.”

During the 2020 presidential campaign, President Biden vowed to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” for human rights abuses, most notably the killing of Mr. Khashoggi, who lived in Virginia and was a columnist for The Washington Post who wrote critically of the Saudi crown prince and the country’s government.

As one of his first foreign policy actions in office, Mr. Biden authorized the release of a U.S. intelligence report that said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had approved the killing.

Mr. Khashoggi was killed by Saudi agents while visiting Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018 to get documents for his upcoming wedding. He was strangled by Saudi agents and then dismembered.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken happened to be in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for talks this week with Saudi leaders and other Gulf state officials about the possibility of the kingdom normalizing ties with Israel. It wasn’t clear if the PGA-LIV merger would be a part of discussions.

An earlier version of this blog item incorrectly stated Chris Murphy’s position in Congress. He is a senator, not a representative.

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The deal sets up a structure combining nonprofit and for-profit entities.

The merger establishes an unusual structure for how golf will be governed going forward.

The PGA Tour, which is a nonprofit organization, will remain that way and retain oversight over the “sanctioning of events and administration of the competition and rules” for the tour, according to the release announcing the merger. Basically, the PGA Tour will still have full control over how its tournaments are played.

But all of the PGA Tour’s commercial businesses and rights — such as the rights to televise its tournaments, which garner hundreds of millions of dollars annually — will be owned by a new, as-of-yet unnamed for-profit entity. That entity will also own LIV Golf as well as the commercial and business rights of the PGA European Tour, known as the DP World Tour.

The board of directors for the new for-profit entity will be chaired by Yasir al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, who also oversees LIV. Three other members of the board’s executive committee will be current members of the PGA Tour’s board, and the tour will appoint the majority of the board and hold a majority voting interest.

With the PGA Tour controlling the for-profit holding company and remaining in charge of administering its own tournaments, it may seem as though the PGA Tour will forever remain the dominant voice in men’s professional golf. But that could change.

The Public Investment Fund will invest “billions,” according to al-Rumayyan, into the new for-profit entity, and it will also hold “the exclusive right to further invest in the new entity, including a right of first refusal on any capital that may be invested in the new entity, including into the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and DP World Tour,” according to the release.

If the Public Investment Fund invests more money — because the economy goes south and sponsors pull out of tournaments, for instance — in the for-profit entity, it will surely demand more board seats and greater voting rights, potentially tilting control of men’s professional golf toward Saudi Arabia.

The merger doesn’t end the U.S. antitrust inquiry into the PGA Tour.

What does this merger mean for the Department of Justice’s antitrust inquiry into the PGA Tour ? In short: Not much.

For about a year, cheered on by LIV Golf, the Justice Department has been investigating the tight-knit relationship between the PGA Tour and other powerful entities in golf, and whether there has been any collusion within the Official World Golf Rankings. A number of high-profile LIV players, like Phil Mickelson, have been interviewed in the inquiry, and lawyers representing the PGA Tour met with Justice Department officials in Washington as recently as last month.

But while Tuesday’s merger will end litigation between LIV and the PGA Tour, it will not necessarily change the Justice Department’s case. The department’s inquiry has looked into allegations of past conduct; if there was any illegal conduct, a merger does not prevent the PGA Tour from being punished for it.

“The announcement of a merger doesn’t forgive past sins,” said Bill Baer, who led the Justice Department’s antitrust division during the Obama administration.

In fact, the merger could cause the Justice Department to even more closely scrutinize the PGA Tour, for a separate but related reason.

The federal government, through the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, reviews over 1,000 mergers for approval each year. It is not yet clear which agency will lead the review of the PGA Tour and LIV’s proposed merger, but if it is the Justice Department, it will certainly scrutinize what looks to be on its face “a merger to monopoly, eliminating competition between these two competing professional golf organizations,” Baer said.

The Department of Justice declined to comment on the merger announcement.

Victor Mather

Here is what tour leaders and players are saying about the merger.

PGA Tour officials and LIV leaders hailed the announcement on Tuesday that their competing golf series would be joining forces, but players were split on the news. Here’s what they were saying:

“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 , who is expected to be the chief executive of the new entity.

“There is no question that the LIV model has been positively transformative for golf. We believe there are opportunities for the game to evolve while also maintaining its storied history and tradition.” — The Public Investment Fund governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan , who will become chairman of the board of the merged tour.

“Awesome day today.” — Phil Mickelson , who left the PGA Tour to join LIV Golf.

“Nothing like finding out through Twitter that we’re merging with a tour that we said we’d never do that with.” — Mackenzie Hughes , PGA Tour player.

“Very curious how many people knew this deal was happening. About 5-7 people? Player run organization right?” — Michael Kim , PGA Tour player.

“This is one of the saddest days in the history of professional golf. I do believe that the governing bodies, the entities, the professional entities, have sacrificed their principles for profits.” — Brandel Chamblee , a Golf Channel analyst who has been sharply critical of the LIV Tour.

“Welfare check on Chamblee.” — LIV golfer Brooks Koepka , referring to Chamblee, who last week declared that “any yielding to or agreement with them is a deal with a murderous dictator.”

“Now that we’re all friends, is it too late for us to workshop some of these team names?” — Max Homa , PGA Tour player, referring to LIV teams like Crushers, Iron Heads and Majesticks.

While the merger is a tectonic shift for golf, nothing will change immediately in how fans watch golf. The PGA Tour, LIV Tour and DP World Tour are expected to proceed as scheduled and separately, at least through 2023. Afterward, it is unclear whether LIV will continue, and whether LIV golfers will apply to re-join the PGA Tour or DP World Tour.

Ahmed al-Omran

Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi state entity bankrolling LIV, the Public Investment Fund, said the agreement was reached after he held talks with PGA Tour officials in London. “The way we’re doing our partnership, it’s gonna be really big in many senses,” he said during an appearance on CNBC.

“We will be investing in the game of golf and doing many new things that I think will have better engagement from the players, the fans, the broadcasters, the sponsors, everyone else,” Al-Rumayyan said. He added that the PIF would invest “billions of dollars” into the sport without giving a specific timeline. “Whatever it takes,” he said.

Eric Lipton

Trump praises the PGA and LIV golf merger.

The Trump family, which has been the host of LIV tournaments in the United States and a big booster of the series’ efforts to break away from the PGA Tour, expects to continue to see tournaments played at its golf courses once the merger is complete.

“This merger is a wonderful thing for the game of golf,” Eric Trump said in an interview on Tuesday. “I truly believe that.”

His father, Donald J. Trump, also praised the deal. On Truth Social, the former president’s social media platform and personal megaphone, he wrote: “Great news from LIV Golf. A big, beautiful, and glamorous deal for the wonderful world of golf.”

The LIV series has been a boon for the Trump family, which lost major tournaments after the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the capitol, including the one of golf’s four majors, the 2022 P.G.A. Championship. That tournament had been scheduled to be played at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey, but its organizer, the P.G.A. of America, stripped the club of the hosting rights days after the capitol attack.

Last July, just before the first LIV tournament was played at Trump National Bedminster, Mr. Trump predicted that the series would ultimately merge, and he suggested that players that stayed loyal to the PGA Tour were making a financial mistake.

“All of those that remain ‘loyal’ to the very disloyal PGA, in all its different forms, will pay a big price when the inevitable MERGER with LIV comes, and you will get nothing but a big ‘thank you’ from PGA officials who are making Millions of Dollars a year,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social in July 2022 . “If you don’t take the money now, you will get nothing after the merger takes place, and only say how smart the original signees were.”

LIV has tournaments scheduled this year at Trump-owned golf courses in Florida and New Jersey, and it just completed a tournament at a Trump course in Virginia. Negotiations are underway for more potential tournaments at Trump-owned facilities next year, though it is now unclear if the series will continue in its current format.

When asked if the Trump family had played a role in urging the PGA and LIV groups to merge, Eric Trump on Tuesday declined to comment. But he did say that the family has close friends developed over many years in the golf world, including those associated with the PGA and LIV groups.

Ahmed Al Omran

reporting from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

The merger is seen as a victory for Saudi Arabia.

The deal to merge the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, the rival league financed by billions of dollars from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, was seen as a victory for Saudi Arabia on multiple levels.

The merger marked the greatest success to date of Saudi Arabia’s ambition to become a player in global sports. From the outset, its billion-dollar play for control of golf seemed like nothing less than an attempt to seize control of an entire sport.

Now, by merging with the PGA Tour, the oil-rich kingdom has gained a foothold that guarantees it outsize influence in the game’s future. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi state entity bankrolling LIV, the Public Investment Fund, will become chairman of the new golf organization. The sovereign wealth fund will have right of first refusal on new investments in the merged tour, according to the statement announcing the merger .

The rival tours had clashed for months in litigation that will now draw to a close, so the deal will protect Mr. Al-Rumayyan, a golf aficionado, from the prospect of being deposed and scrutinized in American courtrooms. He also serves as chairman of Aramco, the Saudi state oil company, which has been a major sponsor of Formula 1 racing.

The deal could also lend legitimacy to the kingdom’s entry as a major player in global sports in the form of a serious partner and not just a well-funded disrupter.

Critics have accused Saudi Arabia of using its spending power in sports to distract from its poor human rights record, but Saudi officials have repeatedly rejected these allegations.

At the same time, this deal could serve as a blueprint for future moves as the kingdom grows its ambitions to further expand its influence and reach in sports and entertainment. ‌‌

By establishing a start-up golf tour that rose rapidly to become enough of a threat for the PGA Tour and bring them to the negotiation table, Saudi Arabia could see potential to do the same in other arenas. Under the terms of the deal, the Public Investment Fund holds veto power on bringing any new investors, giving themselves insurance from any possible dilution of their power in the new arrangement.

The sovereign wealth fund has already managed to achieve a quick return for their investment in Newcastle United as the English soccer club qualified for the UEFA Champions League merely 18 months after it was purchased.

The announcement of the merger with the PGA Tour comes less than one year since LIV’s first event in June 2022 .

In addition to soccer and golf, Saudi Arabia is eyeing investments in cricket, tennis and e-sports via Savvy Games Group, which is backed by the sovereign wealth fund. The group plans to invest $37.8 billion to make Saudi Arabia a global hub for gaming.

The kingdom has also served as host to major sports events including Formula 1 races, major boxing matches and WWE as part of plans to diversify its economy away from heavy reliance on oil.

Saudi Arabia is making a major push in soccer, too.

Golf is not the only sport where Saudi Arabia is looking to increase its influence: It is also making a major play in soccer.

Its most prominent investment to date was its purchase last year of the English Premier League team Newcastle United, a deal that gave the kingdom, through its huge Public Investment Fund, a foothold in the world’s richest soccer competition. But Saudi Arabia is also bidding to host soccer’s World Cup in 2030, and this week the country’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, announced that the PIF would invest more than $1 billion in the country’s domestic league in hopes of making it one of the 10 best leagues in the world.

As Tariq Panja and Ahmed Al Omran reported in The Times last week, the plan is focused on attracting more than a dozen of the world’s best players to the Saudi league by offering them some of the richest deals in sports history. Cristiano Ronaldo, a five-time world player of the year, moved to Saudi Arabia in January, and reports of nine-figure offers to others — including Lionel Messi — are rampant. The French striker Karim Benzema accepted one this week : He will join the Jeddah-based club Al-Ittihad in a multiyear deal that will make him one of the world’s best-paid players.

Similar in ambition to the Saudi-financed LIV series in golf, the kingdom’s plan for soccer involves the PIF. This week it took a controlling stake in four of the Saudi league’s biggest clubs in what appears to be a centralized effort — supported at the highest levels of the Saudi state — to turn the country’s domestic league, a footnote on the global soccer stage, into a destination for top talent.

The basics of the sweeping golf merger.

After two years of sniping, lawsuits and ill will, the major men’s golf tours agreed to merge on Tuesday. The blockbuster announcement came as a surprise given the fierce competition and legal action among the tours. Here’s what we know, and don’t know.

What happened on Tuesday?

The PGA Tour, which runs golf in North America; the PGA European Tour, which is known as the DP World Tour and holds events in much of the rest of the world; and the upstart LIV Tour agreed to merge their operations.

The Saudi sovereign wealth fund, which spent billions to launch the LIV Tour, will invest in the new company, and the governor of that fund will become its chairman.

All the lawsuits among the tours will be ended as part of the deal.

How did we get here?

The LIV Tour started last year and offered big-name players from the other tours huge sums to jump ship. Many did, notably Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed and Cameron Smith. Some veterans like Phil Mickelson also joined. Those players were suspended from the PGA Tour as a result.

Others, including Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, did not take reported offers. Many players and officials of the PGA Tour were sharply critical of LIV, both for dividing the golf world and for associating with the Saudi government and its poor human rights record.

How will things change?

There is a lot we don’t know at this point. The LIV Tour had team events as a focus of its model, and in its statement, the PGA Tour mentioned that the tours planned to “grow team golf going forward.”

But there are many unknowns. Will the tours continue to operate separately? The statement referred only to “a cohesive schedule of events.”

Will the enormous disparity between the LIV purses and the purses on the other tours remain? Will LIV continue to hold 54-hole, three-day tournaments with shotgun starts and no cuts, while the other tours maintain their traditional four-day formats?

The PGA Tour did say that the tours would develop a process for LIV players who want to reapply for membership with the two older tours after the 2023 season.

LIV Golf's final rosters set as four more jump from PGA Tour

The final four golfers who are making the switch from the PGA Tour to the LIV tour were announced as play is set to start for the controversial tour's second season. 

Thomas Pieters , Dean Burmester,  Brendan Steele and Danny Lee are the final members of the 12-team, 48-player field.

The LIV tour starts Friday and will be played at the El Camaleón Golf Course in Mayakoba, Mexico.

"In less than a year, LIV Golf has reinvigorated the professional game and laid the foundation for the sport’s future. In 2023, the LIV Golf League comes to life," said Greg Norman, LIV Golf CEO, and Commissioner said in a statement. "The most popular sports in the world are team sports, and our league format has already begun to build connections with new audiences around the globe. Major champions, current and future Hall of Famers, and up-and-coming stars are all committed to creating this new platform for world-class competition as the sport evolves for the next generation."

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Pieters will join teammates Harold Varner III, and Talor Gooch on a team captained by Bubba Watson.

Burmester teams up Louis Oosthuizen (captain), Charl Schwartzel, and Branden Grace, while Steele joins Phil Mickelson's team with Cameron Tringale and James Piot. 

Kevin Na (captain), Sihwan Kim, Scott Vincent, and Lee make up the final new team.

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What is LIV Golf? Players, field, tour schedule, news for league with Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson

Everything to know about the pga tour's newest rival.

LIV Golf is now more than halfway through its inaugural season after completion of play in Chicago. Making headlines both on and off the golf course, LIV Golf has taken its battle to the courtroom, social media and beyond. While the actual play in LIV Golf has been compelling at times, the overall structure, presence and future of the organization remains its most intriguing component in the context of men's professional golf.

Plenty of questions have been answered since its inaugural event in London from June 9-11, but still more remain without a response. What will the future of this rival tour look like? How will the team aspect of the competition clash with the individual side? Will LIV Golf be able to recruit some of the best players in the world with its Official World Golf Rankings status in the air? Is a court date with the PGA Tour inevitable?

At every step along the way, answers about this league have only produced more questions and clarification has only made the future more complicated. 

The breakdown below is our attempt to share with you everything that's known to this point as we head into the whatever LIV Golf is going to look like in the future. Whether this turns out to be a fork or bump in the road of professional golf remains to be seen (only the future will retroactively determine that), but it does feel monumental in the moment.

LIV Golf, empowered by its unlimited war chest of resources to throw at the best players, is officially at odds with the PGA Tour. It's a period of time that has been promised for a long time, and is finally taking place. Let's take a look at what we know and what we can expect in the weeks, months and years ahead as LIV Golf wraps up its first season at the end of October.

What is LIV Golf?

LIV Golf is a rival golf league to the PGA Tour where the tournaments consist of 54 holes, the fields are limited to 48 golfers and the purses are an astronomical $25 million. Twelve, four-man teams will compete in each event, and the individual purses will be $20 million while the other $5 million will be divided up among the best teams each week.

Who leads LIV Golf?

LIV Golf Investments runs the league, and its CEO is two-time major champion Greg Norman. It is funded by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, which is effectively the financial arm of the Saudi Arabian government. These funds are seemingly limitless as the league has paid hundreds of millions of dollars to players just to guarantee their appearances at the LIV Golf Invitational Series events.

Who is playing for LIV Golf?

It began with Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson headlining the London event and has since grown into a respectable roster. Major champions Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed quickly followed the lead of their fellow Americans. 

More recently, and more importantly, world No. 3 and Champion Golfer of the Year Cameron Smith made the leap after the completion of the 2022 Tour Championship. He was joined by young Chilean Joaquin Niemann as two international players who chose to forgo the Presidents Cup in lieu of playing in the LIV Golf event in Boston. While the initial demographics skewed towards older players like Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Mickelson, there has been an influx of younger talent with Abraham Ancer and Harold Varner III among others.

Here's a look at the 49 men who currently play for LIV Golf and their Official World Golf Rankings (Bubba Watson is a non-playing captain and is set to compete once fully recovered from injury).

What is going on legally between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour?

Originally, 11 LIV Golf players were a part of an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. This suit also sought a temporary restraining order for Hudson Swafford, Matt Jones and Talor Gooch to participate in the 2021-22 FedEx Cup Playoffs -- which was ultimately denied and barred them from playing in the PGA Tour postseason.

Since then, slowly but surely, more and more of the original members have removed their names from the lawsuit. Previously, Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Jason Kokrak and Pat Perez left the suit. More recently, Talor Gooch, Mickelson, Poulter and Swafford followed in their footsteps. 

This leaves only three players seeking punitive damages in a legal battle with the PGA Tour: Bryson DeChambeau, Peter Uihlein and Jones. The trial is set to begin in January 2024.

The Tour has over and over again pointed back to its rules and regulations in this matter and remains set on keeping those who have played on LIV Golf off the PGA Tour. Commissioner Jay Monahan was asked at the Tour Championship if there was any chance LIV Golf members would be welcomed back onto the PGA Tour to which he blatantly answered, "no."

How has the PGA Tour reacted to LIV Golf?

After a players-only meeting at the BMW Championship led by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, sweeping changes have been made to the PGA Tour schedule and the treatment of its star players. Here are the spark notes of this new-look PGA Tour starting this season.

• Top players will commit to at least 20 PGA Tour events:  These tournaments will include the eight elevated events as previously designated, four additional elevated events with purses of at least $20 million (to be announced), The Players Championship, the four major championships and three other FedEx Cup events of players' choosing.
• The PIP will be expanded:  The PIP has been increased from the top 10 players to the top 20 for 2022 and 2023. Not only has the player pool expanded, so has the prize pool, which will now total $100 million, double the $50 million previously announced. It is from these top 20 lists that "top players" will be defined.
• Modifications  made for Lifetime Membership:  No longer will 15 seasons of membership be necessary. Once a player reaches 20 wins, he will be eligible. With this change, McIlroy has secured his lifetime membership with Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth only being a handful of wins away.

Will LIV Golf receive Official World Golf Rankings points?

LIV Golf is still awaiting the status of its OWGR application despite its best attempts to expedite the process. All 49 players recently sent a letter to the OWGR chairman requesting that world ranking points be retroactively applied to its events. Comparing the OWGR without LIV to college football without the SEC or FIFA without Belgium, it is unlikely this holds any merit. 

Meanwhile, players have begun to tee it up on the DP World Tour with some consistency on weeks in which there is no LIV Golf event. The top 50 players in the OWGR at the end of the calendar year will be invited to the 2023 Masters making it a mad dash for players to accumulate as many points as possible before then.

Will the majors allow golfers to play?

That's an even better question that has at least some clarity.  The answer in the short term is: yes . The major organizations -- PGA of America, USGA, R&A and Augusta National -- likely won't announce suspensions or bans of players who participate. There is a potential that qualifying criterias are modified in the future, however as of now if a LIV player gains entry through previous exemptions or the adequate OWGR (points which LIV has yet to secure) he should be able to compete.

What is the LIV Golf schedule?

Five events have already taken place in 2022, with three remaining. Here's a look at what's left on the schedule for the inaugural season.

• Bangkok, Thailand: Oct. 7-9
• Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: Oct. 14-16
• Miami, Florida: Oct. 27-30

LIV Golf has released a tentative schedule for 2023 with 14 stops around the globe spanning Washington D.C., Spain and Australia.  This is unofficial as details have yet to be confirmed.

• February: Florida (course TBD)
• February: California (course TBD)
• March: Tucson (Dove Mountain or the Gallery)
• April: Australia (Sydney or Queensland)
• April: Singapore (Sentosa)
• May: Washington D.C. (CBS Sports can confirm Trump National DC the week after PGA Championship)
• June: Philadelphia (course TBD)
• July: London (Centurion)
• July: Spain (Valderrama the week before The Open)
• August: New Jersey (Trump National Bedminster)
• August: West Virginia (The Greenbrier)
• September: Chicago (course TBD)
• September: Toronto or Mexico (course TBD)
• September: Florida (Trump National Doral)

What does LIV Golf's season finale look like?

It will not look like the Tour Championship, that is for certain. Taking place from Oct. 28-30, the top four teams in LIV will receive a bye on the first day while teams 5-12 will compete in match-play competitions with the higher-ranked teams selecting their opponents. For each matchup, three matches consisting of two singles matches and one alternate-shot match will take place.

The same format will be used for Day 2 of competition with the four victors from Day 1 and the four teams which received a bye all playing. From there, the four winners from Day 2 will advance to the final stage which will be different.

The four winning teams will compete in stroke play on the final day of competition. All 16 players will compete and all four scores will count towards the team's score. The lowest team score will be crowned the LIV Golf Invitational Series Team Champion.

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Liv players eligible for ryder cup, pga championship, pga of america says.

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The PGA of America has made LIV players eligible for the PGA Championship and U.S. Ryder Cup team after the organization added LIV to its list of approved tours.

“It’s more of a cleanup,” Kerry Haigh, the association’s chief championships officer and interim CEO, told GolfChannel.com. “We’ve added the LIV tour to the list of tours that are eligible towards A-3 membership, which all [PGA] Tour members are eligible for. The LIV players had previously been [PGA of America] members but had we not done this they would have had to go through more requirements which no other tour members are asked to do.”

Players who had joined LIV Golf had been granted a “grace period” for last year’s Ryder Cup – which allowed Zach Johnson to select Brooks Koepka as one of his captain’s picks – but it had been unclear how the PGA of America would continue to navigate the divide in professional golf.

Although the move stops short of granting Ryder Cup team points for earnings or finishes on LIV Golf, it does pave the way for players like Bryson DeChambeau, who won the U.S. Open in June and is currently third on the U.S. points list, to play for the American side next year at Bethpage Black as well as to continue to play in the PGA Championship.

Historically, the PGA has used the major championships and select PGA Tour events to award points for U.S. Ryder Cup team qualification and when asked if the association has considered adding finishes at LIV events to that criteria Haigh said, “That has not been discussed.”

“I’m going to have the best 12 players, so the PGA of America, they – we’re going to have the 12 best players, so they need to figure that out, if that’s their problem,” U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley said at last month’s BMW Championship. “I know you have to be a PGA member to play in the Ryder Cup. That’s the only stipulation that you need. So we’ll make sure if some of those guys that we think might make the team, we’ll make sure that they are a member.”

LIV players will be offered A-3 membership into the PGA of America, the same granted PGA Tour players as well as players on nine other circuits around the world including the DP World Tour.

“All these players would have still been eligible in the short term but they would have had to do additional requirements [to maintain membership],” said Haigh, who was tabbed as the interim CEO after former chief executive Seth Waugh stepped down in June. “LIV players have always been eligible and this cleanup of the bylaws just makes it more consistent with the other tours and will allow the best players in the world to play the PGA Championship and represent the U.S. team at the Ryder Cup, which has always been the case.”

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The European Ryder Cup team had already created a pathway for LIV golfers to play in the biennial matches, albeit a much more expensive option that has been criticized by Jon Rahm. The only stipulation for a European player is that they maintain their membership on the DP World Tour, which means they must play a minimum of four European tour events per year. However, those who joined LIV Golf are required to pay fines for violating the circuit’s policies for conflicting events and media right releases.

Last week, LIV Golf’s Rahm appealed those fines and said he planned to play the DP World Tour minimum, which counts his start at the Paris Olympics, that would make him eligible for next year’s matches.

“I’m not a big fan of the fines,” Rahm said last week. “I think I’ve been outspoken about that. I don’t intend to pay the fines, and we keep trying to have a discussion with them about how we can make this happen.”

Here's why the PGA Tour just merged with LIV Golf

The PGA Tour announced Tuesday it would merge with LIV Golf, a Saudi-backed men's golf organization that formed last year to compete with the PGA.

News of the merger sent shock waves through the sports world and even reached the highest echelons of the U.S. government, after a reporter sought comment from the Biden administration about the Saudi government's taking such a large stake in men's golf. Biden spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment.

Here's what it all means.

What is LIV Golf?

LIV was created in 2022 by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) alongside two of the world's most prominent players, Phil Mickelson and Greg Norman, and others.

Norman was appointed CEO, but it was Mickelson who helped LIV come into existence. Mickelson accused the PGA Tour of not fairly compensating players for things like highlight clips and other media rights , accusing the organization of "obnoxious greed."

Eventually, Mickelson helped persuade 48 players to abandon the PGA Tour for LIV.

The merger has shown that Saudi Arabia and its interests cannot be isolated, veteran U.S. diplomat Richard N. Haass said.

“It's not as big as the Biden visit or agreement with Iran , and it doesn't offset their recent failure to raise oil prices,” said Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations . "But it does send the signal they are a player who cannot be ignored."

Why did the PGA Tour initially bar players from participating in LIV?

The PGA Tour immediately viewed LIV Golf as a direct competitor — and many in the golf world agreed, often referring to it as a “breakaway league.”

So the Tour decided to force players to pick a side, creating harsh divisions in the golf world.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan also seemed to disparage the presence of the Saudis in LIV, asking rhetorically in a June 2022 interview , “Have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?”

And in response to a lawsuit from players who'd joined LIV and said the PGA Tour had retaliated against them, lawyers for the organization condemned LIV as “a strategy by the Saudi government to use sports in an effort to improve its reputation for human rights abuses and other atrocities.”

So why is the PGA Tour merging with LIV?

The two leagues ended up suing each other — but acrimony and lawsuits ultimately proved bad business for the PGA Tour, which made the calculated decision to endure the blowback of turning 180 degrees in exchange for a unified effort with its former rival.

Lawsuits filed by suspended players and a federal probe into possible antitrust actions by the PGA Tour against LIV may also be moot in the wake of Tuesday's announcement.

"We've recognized that together we can have a far greater impact on this game than we can working apart," Monahan told CNBC, seated next to his LIV counterpart, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund. "And I give Yasir great credit for coming to the table, coming to the discussions with an open heart and open mind."

Despite the vast financial resources at its disposal thanks to its Saudi backing, LIV had failed to secure major TV deals to broadcast its events, which were often instead relegated to livestreams on YouTube.

With its commercial viability in doubt, LIV officials may have decided it was better to cut their losses and approach the PGA Tour with an offering of peace — and money.

How much money is involved? What are the financial incentives on both sides?

Terms of the merger haven't been disclosed, but LIV Golf players were reportedly being promised eight- and nine-figure earnings to join the league, thanks to the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which is worth about $676 billion.

CNBC's David Faber, who helped break Tuesday's news with an exclusive interview with Monahan and Al-Rumayyan, said the PIF plans to invest "billions" into the newly formed entity while it retains a minority stake.

How will major golf events be affected?

They won't.

The Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open (now known as The Open) and the PGA Championship (which, despite its name, isn't actually owned by the PGA Tour) are all separate entities from the PGA Tour.

Nor does the Tour control the biennial team-based Ryder Cup tournament — though heading into this year's event, there were questions about whether U.S. team captain Zach Johnson would forgo selecting LIV members.

Have there been mergers in professional sports before?

All four of North America's major professional team sports leagues have some kind of merger in their histories, most notably the NFL-AFL union that led to the Super Bowl.

The first World Series in 1903 , the 1976 NBA-ABA deal and the NHL's 1979 takeover of the upstart WHA , though, all pale in comparison to the geopolitical stage where the PGA Tour-LIV drama played out.

What are people in golf saying?

As expected, reaction to the stunning deal ran the gamut — from LIV backers' spiking the ball to 9/11 survivors' criticizing the PGA Tour for merging with the Saudi-backed LIV, which they likened to “terrorists,” with others resigned to money's simply ruling the day.

Former President Donald Trump typed in all caps on Truth Social, boasting that he predicted that the PGA Tour would have to come to terms with LIV.

A key Sept. 11 support group, 9/11 Families United, said it was "shocked and deeply offended" and claimed the merger is "bankrolled by billions in sportswashing money from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia." It added: "Saudi operatives played a key role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and now it is bankrolling all of professional golf."

George Washington University sports marketing professor Lisa Delpy Neirotti verbally shrugged her shoulders and said the deal shouldn't have been a shock.

"I ask my students how to spell the word 'sports?' It's m-o-n-e-y," she said. "Fans have a short memory. They really want to see their stars. They want to see a better product."

Rob Wile is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist covering breaking business stories for NBCNews.com.

Senior Breaking News Reporter

LIV Golf's future and players' return at the center of PGA Tour-PIF talks

R eports emerged earlier this week that one of the obstacles in the negotiations between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund involves the idea of LIV Golf members—specifically, Jon Rahm and his supposed $300 million signing bonus—returning the money received from their LIV contracts. That’s not the problem, multiple sources familiar with the talks have told Golf Digest. The real crux is much simpler … and much more complicated. As a preface, yes, there is a sect of PGA Tour players who would like LIV defectors to inject their financial windfalls into a theoretical unified ecosystem. Or hope that this prerequisite keeps LIV players from returning altogether. However, no one involved in the talks with PIF officials seriously believes that will be an option. Enforcing signing bonus claw backs is legally dubious, to put it mildly, and ultimately the goal is to bring the game back together. It’s also worth remembering that players have mostly been sidelined in these negotiations, so even if the returned money was a want, well, it’s not their call.

As for Rahm’s part in this, it’s no secret that those within the tour view Rahm’s defection as detrimental to the peace accords (although LIV folks will counter it was the tour that broke the detente first by courting private-equity investment), which is why Rahm’s name has likely been leaked in reference to the above reports.

There are real issues to be hammered out between the PGA Tour and PIF coming together, and the first deals with re-assimilation of LIV members to the PGA and DP World tours. It’s not as easy as just letting everyone back. For starters, many LIV players already had tenuous PGA Tour status as is, and that status they did have has run out. Other players—most notably Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia and Louis Oosthuizen—resigned their memberships when leaving for the Saudi circuit.

Hard feelings remain towards the 11 players who sued the PGA Tour, a lawsuit that (according to tour leadership) put the league in a vulnerable financial position that ultimately spurred the framework agreement with PIF. Those 11 are Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford, Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Ian Poulter, Pat Perez, Jason Kokrak, Peter Uihlein and Matt Jones. A majority of tour players had no personal qualms with players chasing Saudi money; why these defectors had to legally hurt their former employer (and employees) is a different matter. A number of individuals on the tour side want separate penalties and conditions for these LIV members.

Yet separate enforcement could cause more legal issues, sources familiar with the matter have told Golf Digest. Same goes for withholding FedEx Cup prize money or leaving players out of the new equity program. Even a proposal that would put LIV players back in Q School to regain their cards is problematic, as there’s the very real chance some LIVers pass on the opportunity and go elsewhere, which—optically speaking—could be bad for the tour.

Specifically, with one player: DeChambeau. Which brings us to perhaps the main question from the tour’s side: Who do they exactly want or need, back? In some corners, the answer is only three:

• Rahm, undoubtedly a top-five player in the game.

• Brooks Koepka, someone who remains in good standing with tour players, and whose major performances threaten to keep LIV relevant during the sport’s four biggest weeks of the year.

• DeChambeau. It’s no secret that, prior to his 2022 departure, DeChambeau was a headache for tour officials behind the scenes. But in the ensuing seasons DeChambeau has gone from a divisive figure into one of the game’s most popular entities, and he’s coming off a season where he captured his second U.S. Open title and finished runner-up at the PGA Championship. The case can be made that DeChambeau is LIV’s best asset. The appetite for other LIV returns varies. Dustin Johnson is another player who continues to be held in high regard by tour players, although there is some thought Johnson may retire after his LIV deal is over. Cam Smith won the Players and Open Championship two years ago, yet doesn’t hold the global appeal of DeChambeau or Rahm. Joaquin Niemann’s game has had flashes of brilliance, yet his constant complaints about the perceived treatment of LIV players have worn thin at tour headquarters, sources tell Golf Digest. After that, most of LIV’s membership is composed of those who are past their primes or were rank-and-file players. That includes Mickelson, who—given his role in golf’s civil war—most tour leadership would be OK never seeing again.

What will likely happen will be multiple avenues for players to return, sources say. That could include exemptions for major winners and the top-three finishers of LIV’s individual standings (Rahm, Niemann, Garcia this year). Others may get opportunities at the DP World and Korn Ferry tour levels, with Monday qualifying to be open as well. Q School entrance remains up for debate, specifically if players should get a pass from any stages of qualifying. As previously noted, there’s also the chance they don’t want to return, bringing up the second issue: LIV’s future. Getting a PIF-PGA Tour deal past government regulators is not an elementary task; there’s a reason Rory McIlroy stated the “Department of Justice” when asked what’s holding up a potential agreement. Conversely, many of those involved in these negotiations are lawyers and firms that specialize in mergers and antitrust law.

Despite how haphazard and freewheeling the past three years have been in professional golf, this is one point that cannot be made up on the fly. And one of the needs for a deal to get done, sources say, is to have a competitor to the PGA Tour exist in some fashion. That means LIV will likely live on, although likely not in the same form or capacity as its current construction. A team element is expected to persist, and though the focus is on bringing LIV players back to the tour, some element of allowing PGA and DP World tour players to go back and forth is also envisioned, sources tell Golf Digest.

One consistent rumor is that LIV would take over the fall portion of the golf calendar. For the moment, sources say, that is not the plan, as LIV would likely be a year-round circuit. Perhaps most importantly, progress is being made on talks. Sources would not put a timetable on a potential agreement being reached, only pointing to the NFL’s recent approval of private-equity funding helping revive talks after a dormant period. LIV Golf and its return are also just a part of the conversation, as the newly formed PGA Tour Enterprises has future efforts and acquisitions in mind that would only be possible thanks to PIF financial infusion.

Like everything since the schism began, much remains up in the air about the state of professional golf and nothing is certain. But, at least for now, progress is being made towards unification.

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Jon Rahm is leaving the PGA Tour for LIV Golf. What it means for both sides

Jon rahm is the biggest name yet to bolt to saudi-funded liv golf, by doug ferguson | the associated press • published december 8, 2023.

Jon Rahm has been saying that he plays golf for history and for legacy, not for money. And now he's playing for the Saudi-funded LIV Golf League in a shocking departure from the PG A Tour.

A week of speculation on social media ended with Rahm in a jacket — not the green jacket he won at the Master this year but a black letterman's jacket with LIV Golf across the front — as he discussed reasons for bolting during an appearance on Fox News.

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“I think the innovation and the vision of LIV Golf is what pushed me over to at least give it a chance and hear the pitch,” Rahm said in  an interview  with LIV broadcaster David Feherty. “Ultimately, it ended up being what I wanted to hear.”

How much? Rahm wasn't sharing details, but it's a lot. Various reports put it in the neighborhood of $500 million, which includes equity in his new team. Consider the entire prize fund on the PGA Tour in 2023 was about $460 million.

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This creates as many questions as answers, from who Rahm brings with him to how it affects the PGA Tour's negotiations with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund on a commercial deal.

How important is this to LIV Golf?

Rahm is the Masters champion, currently No. 3 in the world and has 20 victories in his seven full years as a pro. He is the biggest catch for LIV since it began in 2022.

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One of the knocks on LIV was that so many of its big names were in the twilights of their careers. Rahm is just coming into his prime, and seven of the last 14 major championship winners now are with LIV — Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Cameron Smith, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau.

LIV players have won at least one major every year since 2015. Rahm gives the roster a major boost, and with a new team, that creates openings for more players to defect.

Rahm, Koepka and Rory McIlroy were the first players to denounce the idea of a Saudi-funded rival league even before LIV Golf was established. Since then, Rahm has spoken about his loyalty to the PGA Tour, how money doesn't motivate him and as recently as August, he said he “laughs” when he hears rumors about him going to LIV.

Look back to June 6, when the PGA Tour went from battling LIV Golf to a shocking announcement of its private deal to partner with the Public Investment Fund, the financial backers of LIV Golf. Rahm said a week later, “I think the general feeling is that a lot of people feel a bit of betrayal from management.”

If the PGA Tour was willing to do business with the Saudis, it raises a natural question: Is there any problem with a PGA Tour star joining them?

“Obviously, the past two years there’s been a lot of evolving on the game of golf, things have changed a lot and so have I," he said.

Rahm is certain to lose fans over this, as have most marquee players who have gone to LIV. He said he has heard negativity before and it's part of the business.

Wasn’t there an agreement to not recruit players?

There was, but not for long. The framework agreement had a non-solicitation clause in which all sides agreed not to poach players. Just over a month later, they rescinded that clause on a request from the Justice Department over antitrust concerns.

That didn't seem to be a problem for the tour back then.

The tour said in July, "While we believe the language is lawful, we also consider it unnecessary in the spirit of cooperation and because all parties are negotiating in good faith.”

That no longer would seem to be the case.

What does this mean for the PGA Tour?

For starters, the PGA Tour has lost more market shares — in the case of Rahm, a big one.

It also can't help the tour in its the race to reach a final agreement on the commercial deal with PIF and the European tour. PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan had said he would be meeting this week with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the PIF governor. That meeting had been pushed back to next week, and its status was uncertain.

The tour has said it was narrowing down the list of U.S.-based private equity firms that wanted in on the deal. If PIF saw that as the PGA Tour having leverage, now the Saudis have big leverage in being able to snag one of golf's biggest stars.

One player who might benefit from this is Mackenzie Hughes. He finished 51st in the FedEx Cup. With Rahm not having PGA Tour membership next year, the tour is likely to remove him from the list, that would bump Hughes to No. 50 and make him eligible for the $20 million signature events in 2024. It also would move Carl Yuan to No. 125 to keep a full tour card.

What does this mean for Jon Rahm?

He's a lot richer. His career earnings on the PGA Tour were at $51.5 million and he'll be getting somewhere around 10 times that much (the length of the LIV deal was not disclosed).

As Masters champion, he can play for life. He has a 10-year exemption to the U.S. Open as a champion (through 2031), and he has five-year exemptions to the PGA Championship and the British Open.

Still to be determined is the Ryder Cup. The European tour is in charge of its team, and no European from LIV was on the team this year that won in Rome. McIlroy said in a Sky Sports interview that Europe would need to change the rules to get Rahm on the team for 2025.

There's also the possibility of Rahm keeping his European tour membership and paying fines for the tournaments he plays in LIV Golf. He can probably afford it.

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Brooks Koepka becomes latest star golfer to leave PGA Tour for LIV Golf Series, sources confirm

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Four-time major champion Brooks Koepka is the latest golfer to defect from the PGA Tour to the LIV Golf Invitational Series, sources have confirmed to ESPN.

Koepka, 32, is one of the highest-profile players to join the breakaway circuit, which is being funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and is fronted by two-time Open winner Greg Norman .

LIV Golf is expected to announce the addition of Koepka in the coming days, sources have confirmed. Koepka, who is ranked 19th in the Official World Golf Ranking, is expected to compete in the first LIV Golf event in the United States, at Pumpkin Ridge in Portland, Oregon, starting June 30.

Koepka's pending departure from the PGA Tour was first reported Tuesday by the Telegraph of London.

LIV Golf announced later Tuesday that Abraham Ancer , who is ranked 20th in the world, also is leaving the PGA Tour for the new series.

"Abraham Ancer has been a rising star who's established himself as one of the world's top golfers in a very short period of time. He is a consistent contender which continues to elevate our competition," Norman said in a statement. "Abraham's global reach and star power in Mexico and Latin America makes him a great fit for LIV Golf, which is committed to growing the sport on a global scale, particularly in new and emerging markets. We are thrilled to have him on board and look forward to having him in the field in Portland and beyond."

Earlier Tuesday, world No. 4 Collin Morikawa denied rumors that he also was planning to join LIV Golf, tweeting that he is "here to stay" on the PGA Tour and "nothing has changed."

To state for the record, once again, you all are absolutely wrong. I've said it since February at Riviera that I'm here to stay on the @PGATOUR and nothing has changed. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some cereal to pour in my milk — Collin Morikawa (@collin_morikawa) June 21, 2022

LIV Golf has now signed eight of the top 50 players in the world; Bryson DeChambeau (ranked 30th) and Patrick Reed (38th) are expected to compete in the event in Portland as well.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan suspended 17 players, including two-time major winner Dustin Johnson and six-time major winner Phil Mickelson , for competing in LIV Golf's inaugural event outside London two weeks ago. Monahan had said that tour players who competed in future LIV Golf tournaments without a conflicting-event release would face similar punishment.

Monahan is meeting with players Tuesday morning at the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Connecticut. The PGA Tour's players advisory council also was meeting Tuesday.

Koepka, who is 84th in the FedEx Cup standings, remained in the field for the Travelers Championship, though he was not at the meeting at the TPC River Highlands.

Monahan is scheduled to speak with media Wednesday.

In 2019, Koepka became the first player in history to hold back-to-back victories in two major championships simultaneously; he won the U.S. Open in 2017-18 and the PGA Championship in 2018-19.

Koepka joins his longtime friend Johnson and his brother, Chase Koepka , who also competed in the London-based LIV event.

Koepka was the No. 1 player in the world for 47 weeks but has been bothered by back, hip and wrist injuries in recent months. Koepka has two top-10s in 15 starts but didn't fare well in the first three majors this season. He missed the cut at the Masters, tied for 55th at the PGA Championship and was 55th in last week's U.S. Open at The Country Club outside Boston.

Koepka criticized reporters last week for casting a "black cloud" over the U.S. Open with questions about LIV Golf.

"I'm here at the U.S. Open," he said. "I'm ready to play the U.S. Open, and I think it kind of sucks, too, you are all throwing this black cloud over the U.S. Open. It's one of my favorite events. I don't know why you guys keep doing that. The more legs you give [LIV Golf], the more you keep talking about it."

Ancer, a dual citizen of Mexico and the U.S., played at Oklahoma. He claimed his first and only PGA Tour victory at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis in August. He also finished in the top 10 in each of the past two PGA Championships, including a tie for ninth at Southern Hills last month.

Ancer pulled out of last week's U.S. Open at the last minute, citing illness. He is not in the field for the Travelers.

Ancer was one of the bright spots for the International Team in the 2019 Presidents Cup in Melbourne, Australia. He had a 3-1-1 record, with his only loss coming against Tiger Woods in a singles match.

PGA Tour Suspends Players Competing in First LIV Golf Tournament

Phil mickelson, dustin johnson and 15 other golfers have been suspended by the pga tour, by mike gavin • published june 9, 2022 • updated on june 9, 2022 at 11:08 am.

Shortly after the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational Series teed off, the PGA Tour announced that all 17 members participating in the event have been suspended.

In a memo to PGA Tour members, commissioner Jay Monahan said players competing in LIV Golf, a Saudi-backed rival league , did not receive conflicting event and media rights release and are being notified that they no longer will be eligible to participate in PGA Tour tournament play and other sanctioned tours.

Suspended players listed on the letter, 10 of whom had previously resigned their PGA Tour membership, include LIV Golf headliners Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, as well as Sergio Garcia, Talor Gooch, Branden Grace, Matt Jones, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Kevin Na, Andy Ogletree, Louis Oosthuizen, Turk Pettit, Ian Poulter, Charl Schwartzel, Hudson Swafford, Peter Uihlein and Lee Westwood.

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Players who participate in future LIV Golf events will face the same sanctions. 

PGA Tour suspends current and future LIV players. pic.twitter.com/lKhxo27Ida — Eamon Lynch (@eamonlynch) June 9, 2022

"We have followed the Tournament Regulations from start to finish in responding to those players who have decided to turn their backs on the PGA Tour by willfully violating a regulation," Monahan wrote.

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The rival league began play on Thursday with the LIV Golf Invitational at the Centurion Club outside of London, conflicting directly with the PGA Tour's RBC Canadian Open being held in Toronto.

Report: Major Winners Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed Set to Join LIV Golf Series

Dustin Johnson Quits PGA Membership to Play in Saudi League

LIV Golf issued a statement in response to the disciplinary action taken by the PGA Tour.

"Today's announcement by the PGA Tour is vindictive and it deepens the divide between the Tour and its members," LIV Golf said. "It's troubling that the Tour, an organization dedicated to creating opportunities for golfers to play the game, is the entity blocking golfers from playing. This certainly is not the last word on this topic. The era of free agency is beginning as we are proud to have a full field of players joining us in London, and beyond."

Official statement from LIV Golf pic.twitter.com/UBt4DpRdS4 — LIV Golf (@LIVGolfInv) June 9, 2022

Funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, with the Saudi Arabian government initially pledging $400 million to start the league, LIV Golf recruited PGA Tour members with lucrative contracts. According to reports, Mickelson's deal was worth approximately $200 million, and Johnson's contract was around $125 million. With Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed reportedly set to join, the league currently includes at least nine former major winners.

All of whom will be banned indefinitely from the PGA Tour events and sanctioned tours, including the Korn Ferry Tour, PGA Tour Champions, PGA Tour Canada and PGA Tour Latinoamerica. That does not include the sport's four majors - the Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open or Open Championship - which are run by respective governing bodies. The Open Championship, which is the fourth and final major of 2022, will be held in July.      

Players who resigned their PGA Tour memberships will be removed from FedExCup Points List and be ineligible for the Presidents Cup, Monahan wrote. Those players will not be eligible to play under a sponsor exemption or any other eligibility category.

"These players have made their choice for their own financial-based reasons," Monahan wrote. "But they can't expect the same PGA TOUR membership benefits, considerations, opportunities and platforms as you. That expectation disrespects you, our fans and our partners. You have made a different choice, which is to abide by the Tournament Regulations you agreed to when you accomplished the dream of earning a PGA TOUR card and - more importantly - to compete as part of the preeminent organization in the world of professional golf.

"I am certain our fans and partners - who are surely tired of all this talk of money, money and more money - will continue to be entertained and compelled by the world-class competition you display each and every week, where there are true consequences for every shot you take and your rightful place in history whenever you reach that elusive winner's circle."

LIV Golf's next event is scheduled to begin on June 30 in Oregon at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club, the same day as the PGA Tour's John Deere Classic.

"You are the PGA Tour, and this moment is about what we stand for: The PGA Tour membership as a whole," Monahan wrote. "It's about lifting up those who choose to not only benefit from the Tour, but who also play an integral role in building it. I know you are with us, and vice versa. Our partners are with us, too. The fact that your former Tour colleagues can't say the same should be telling."

This article tagged under:

PGA Tour player admits he doesn't care if LIV Golf merger happens after Rory McIlroy comments

PGA Tour member Michael Kim has responded to Rory McIlroy's claim that certain players do not want a merger with LIV Golf to happen, admitting his desire for the tours to stay separate

• 13:57, 19 Sep 2024
• Updated 14:57, 19 Sep 2024

PGA Tour member Michael Kim admits he does not want the PGA Tour to strike a merger deal with LIV Golf after Rory McIlroy claimed some players on both sides of the divide are happy for the split to remain.

World No. 3 McIlroy has thrown his support behind attempts for the tour and the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF), which bankrolls LIV, to strike a deal in hope of getting the best players from the rival leagues competing against each other more often. A "framework agreement" was announced last year, but material progress has been slow since.

Ahead of this week's BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, McIlroy suggested a deal is being stymied by an unwillingness from certain members on both tours to see the game reunified. The Northern Irishman said: "I'd say maybe half the players on LIV want the deal to get done; half probably don't. I'd say it's probably similar on the PGA Tour.

"Just like anything, everyone's looking out for themselves and their best interests. You know, it would benefit some people for a deal not to get done, but it would obviously benefit some people for a deal to get done. Yeah, I think there's different opinions amongst the players about what should happen."

In response to McIlroy's comments, rank-and-file PGA Tour member Kim – a one-time winner and the world No. 164 – admitted a merger is not in the best interests of players like him.

"Do I want a deal? My short answer is no but I don’t care much," he posted on X. "Whether the tour and LIV make a deal or not, it will not affect my bottom line. It won’t change my schedule in the slightest bit and won’t change my earnings.

"This realistically only affects the top 30ish golfers on the PGA Tour and they’ll probably make more money after this deal. You can make the argument that if the players come back, it’ll be better for the PGA Tour, and bring more interest but I find that hard to believe.

"It’s not gonna be a big mashup, it’s only going to be for a few events with a big purse if I were to guess. How many LIV guys actually affect ratings and events? Phil [Mickelson] Bryson [DeChambeau], [Jon] Rahm? Will it increase ratings and earnings by more than 1 per cent? Sure, the first couple events would be cool but after that? I might be totally wrong but that’s my opinion."

Kim argues the PGA Tour should instead focus its efforts on "making the TV product much better" rather than a merger. But if it were to happen, he believes players who quit to join LIV should be punished upon their return.

"I just think there needs to be a consequence to their decision to leave and sue the tour. You can call that petty but the LIV guys sued the pgatour mainly for their PIP (Player Impact Programme) money. The same PGA Tour that was the reason why you even got the big payday in the first place. That’s just as petty in my eyes."

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Procore Championship

Silverado Resort (North Course)

THREE AT HOME GOLF EXERCISES

News & Tours

Players 2024: We asked fans if PGA Tour needs to unite with LIV. They didn't lack opinions

Scottie Scheffler signs autographs at the Players Championship.

Kevin C. Cox

PONTE VEDRA BEACH — The pitch was simple as I approached people individually and in groups on a sunny Tuesday afternoon at the Players Championship: This is a quick survey, I only have one question, and I don't need your name—just your opinion. In fact, I had two questions, the second of which was more important.

Question 1: Do you think the PGA Tour and LIV should unite?

Question 2: Why?

As you may have gathered, question 1 is incomplete; it doesn't say how they would unite, what kind of golf they'd be playing, or if there would be any penalty for LIV players returning. That was OK by me, because I wanted to keep this very simple, get the raw, instinctive opinion of the vox populi, and let them interpret it however they wanted.

In all, I spoke to 33 people. By my rough count, 16 wanted a reconciliation, 12 wanted them to stay apart, and four had no idea what I was talking about. Here's what they had to say.

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Fans 1, 2, 3, and 4

Two couples, perhaps in their late 50s, walked up beside me by the 18th green, which gave me permission to waylay them with my question. They joked that I could take their picture if I wanted, and I declined.

"Yes," the first man said. "I think it's going to be a constant battle, and if there can be some unity within professional golf, I think it would be good for golf. And I think for the majors and Ryder Cups, that the fans miss out a lot if certain ones are unable to play."

Behind him, one of the women was shaking her head, and when I asked why, she laughed and said, "Don't ask me." I asked her anyway.

"Like I know anything about golf. Are you recording? I think no, but don't ask me why. I just don't like the whole LIV thing. That's my whole reason. Just where the money comes from, how the players just went for the money. I don't know. It's a moral thing for me."

"I think they should merge," said the man. "Because everybody in the world wants to see the best golfers compete, versus a couple times in a major."

That left one woman, and I duly turned to her.

"I don't know what LIV is," she said.

Fans 5 and 6

I approached two friends next, and the first gave me an answer that I didn't think I would hear if I asked 1,000 people.

"I would say no," he said. "I think that just keeping them two separate entities, because they seem to have two different styles, I think is probably more beneficial to the sport."

"So you like it better when they're separated?" I asked, still processing the idea that the schism is actually better for professional golf.

"Yeah, I think so."

"I'm torn," said his friend. "Because I feel like I do like them separate, but then you're not getting to see all the best players. I like watching the majors the best because all the best players are getting the best competition."

Fans 7 and 8

Two more men, one middle-aged, one younger, and the younger and quiet one went first.

"Yeah," he said. "I think it would be more entertaining to see both groups of players. More storylines, more entertainment. So, small and simple reason honestly."

His friend was not so content with a simple answer and grilled me for a while on what a joint venture would actually look. "What are the details of it?" A fair question, which I eventually defined for him as LIV golfers returning to the PGA Tour, with maybe some team golf mixed in. This satisfied him.

"I'd like for the LIV guys to return," he said.

Fans 9, 10, 11

Here, I found three younger women in light dresses holding beers on a walkway behind the 18th green.

"I don't know anything about LIV Golf," said the first. "What is LIV Golf?"

I explained, very briefly, the broad details.

"Yeah, rejoin!" she said, happy to have a verdict.

"Why not?" added her friend.

"I know a lot of PGA people on the tour don’t want them to return," said the third. “So I say the people that left for LIV should stay there. That's dissolving, isn't it? Or am I wrong?"

I said I hadn't heard that it was dissolving.

"I think the guys that left for LIV shouldn't be coming back,” the third said. “Enough of them. They made their choice to go."

"True," said her friend, with the fervor of the newly converted.

"I agree," said her other friend. "I bandwagon on that one."

"So now you're on her side?" I asked.

"She's got more knowledge," she said.

Fans 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

Ryan Moore high fives a fan at the Players Championship.

Jennifer Perez

Now I found five college-age-or-just-beyond men, also with beers, also on that same walkway.

"Separate them," said the first. "Two separate companies, no need to join them."

"Players left already," his friend concurred.

But soon there was disagreement.

"I say you want all the best guys all competing together, everyone's in the same place."

"I'd say they left for the money, don't let 'em back."

"I kind of agree with that. I do like how LIV's doing it though. The teams and everything."

There was still one I hadn't heard from, but he just shrugged.

"I don't know jack s--t about golf."

Fans 17, 18, 19

Three more men, about 30, more beers.

"Yes. It's dividing the tour up, like now, the big names on LIV, none of them's going to be on there. So if they were here, it'd be way cooler."

"I'd just say no," his friend disagreed. "Once they leave, they leave, they're out. Kinda like man, screw it, you jump ship, we cut ties. Kinda like Rory [McIlroy]. I'm with Rory, man, screw 'em. Get out of here, you're not good enough, go."

(Note: This is not McIlroy’s position.)

"I say yes, we want them back together," opined the third, breaking the tie. "We just want to see the best players all in one tournament, all competing."

Fans 20, 21

I figured I should go for a couple with kids to cover all demographics, so when I spotted a pair dragging two impatient little ones with them, I made their lives a little more complicated by asking my question.

"Oh yeah, I do," said the guy. "We want to see the best players compete. Same golfers competing in the same place. We're missing golfers here. I want to see them together."

I looked to the woman.

"She doesn't care," he said.

"Yes. Let's go with yes," she said with a laugh.

"I don't know what the answer is!" their daughter shouted. For statistical purposes, I didn’t count her.

Fans 22, 23, 24, 25

Next, by the putting green, I approached an older couple standing with a father and his teenage son. The son wore a Travis Matthews black hat, and he was the first to answer.

"Yes. It would be better and, like, the tournaments would be more fun with all the big guys there."

The father told me that it was going to be a hard road back for the LIV players, but that he wanted them all back together. The older man concurred.

"You don't want my opinion," said his wife.

"I do want your opinion!"

"I don't think it's fair to the players that did not go to LIV. That's just how I feel.”

"So you'd want to keep them separate?"

"Yeah, or pay the players that stayed a little bit more."

"I've never watched a LIV tournament," her husband added. "I've never even tried it."

"Not in real life," the boy added. "On TV."

"It's a little challenging to watch, for sure," his father agreed, almost ruefully.

Fans 26, 27, 28

A middle-aged woman and an older woman were walking down the path, and they seemed like the first who weren't over the moon to talk to me, and while they agreed, they didn't slow their stride.

"I don't know what LIV Golf is," the younger of the two said. "Yes! What do you want me to say?"

"The answer is yes," her friend said. "It's just fracturing golf too much. You don't have people here because of LIV."

At that point, an older man ahead slowed his stride and joined us.

"It's like the AFL and NFL before you were born," he said. "I hope they can come back together."

Fans 29, 30, 31

Three more men, three more standard yes answers.

"A thousand percent. It's better for golf to have the best players in every field. Plus, you get more money, you get to increase the purses across the board. It's just better for golf. They're all contractors; let them make their money."

"I think it's a lot more fun to watch those kind of [LIV] events. It doesn't always have to be stroke play. You can have team events and things like that."

They had a fourth friend with them, but when I asked him, he just smiled and took yet another official credential out of his pocket. The place was crawling with us.

Fans 32, 33

On my way back to the media center, I spotted two men in their fifties speaking to each other in animated gestures, and I thought I detected Irish accents. I decided to turn around and stop them—everything to that point had been Americans. I was right; they were Irish, and, not to stereotype, eager to talk. They began to answer my questions, but at a certain point seemed to forget I was there and just conducted a dialogue with each other.

"No, absolutely not!" said the man in a pink shirt. "The real reason is, there's a greed element here, and a lot of the guys on the PGA Tour—and we're both big into our golf—"

"Yes."

"—have been paid a serious amount of money to move to LIV. And it's not for the growth of the game. The game actually, as far as I'm concerned, is down the drain. And it's pure greed. And the fact that a lot of the guys in LIV who were probably in the top 20 or 30 a year or two ago are causing a big issue now for the PGA. … A lot of my friends who are big into our sport and golf in Ireland, they're not watching the PGA anymore. … It could be Bryson DeChambeau, it could be Phil Mickelson, it could be Cam Smith, they're no longer on the PGA, and I won't watch them, because I just don't agree with the fact that … the likes of [Jon] Rahm [making] $300 million. Is 300 million going to make any difference to them? Absolutely not. No, and it's wrong; it's greed. And I actually think they're killing the game.”

"Now, hang on," his friend interjected. "You don't want them to come back together as is, or you want something different?"

"Something different."

"But a lot of these guys have just got way too much money. How much money do they need? And I know for a fact that a lot of guys would have been asked on the PGA to move over [to LIV]. They refused because their alliance was to stay in the PGA, but they're now looking for compensation. Because they didn't move.

"Yes, but there's too many demands on the players, and the PGA Tour are not running this properly either; the PGA Tour model is flawed—"

"Will you look at this week? It's $25 million purse, four and a half million purse prize for what, four days? Yeah. It's not bad, is it?"

"But there's only very few, there's only 10 people that can win this tournament."

"But they still complain. It's ruined European soccer. There's no question about it ..."

And it went on in this manner for some time.

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