In June 2023, we learned the major news that the PGA Tour was planning to merge with LIV Golf. This was quite the shock— up to that point, the PGA Tour had derided the alternative league backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Several dozen PGA Tour players, including Phil Mickelson and Jon Rahm, had left to earn far more money during a less strenuous LIV Golf schedule.
The merger made it seem like the two sides were willing to work together. Perhaps the PGA Tour would relent on some issues the defected players had brought up. Of course, the PGA Tour would also have to do something for the players who remained loyal and, in some cases, turned down massive payouts to do so.
As is so often the case in the sports world, talks have stalled over money disagreements. It’s been well over a year, and the two sides still haven’t finalized a deal. In fact, the merger might fall apart completely.
Jon Rahm (L) joined LIV Golf, benefitting Scottie Scheffler (R) this past PGA Tour season. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
The new venture, PGA Tour Enterprises, would be valued at about $12 billion. Yet, the two sides haven’t decided how to best reintegrate the players who left the established league for the up and coming one. Some suggestions included having the LIV players return their earnings, pay fines to participate, donate their winnings to charity, or be prohibited from winning any money from future events.
Naturally, players like Rahm are opposed to those ideas. He signed a deal with LIV worth a reported $300 million and won $22 million as the league’s champion last year. He understandably doesn’t want to give any of that back.
The departure of so many LIV stars benefitted some PGA Tour players, too. Scottie Scheffler had a record-breaking year; he won so much money that even his caddie would be a top-20 player in earnings.
PGA stars, including Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, will have a say in the negotiations. Another sticking point is LIV wanting more events around the world. PGA Tour players typically have preferred to stay in North America for most events.
One other fun wrinkle: PGA Tour Enterprises welcomed an investment of $1.5 billion from Strategic Sports Group earlier this year. SSG is a consortium which includes Fenway Sports Group and New York Mets owner Steve Cohen. The investment could potentially be doubled, though obviously, there’d have to be a merger in the first place.
We’ll see how the two sides shake out—there’s clearly still work to be done.
