PGA Tour to Merge With Saudi-Owned LIV Golf

The Saudi-backed LIV Golf plans to merge with the PGA Tour, a unexpected end to ongoing controversy between the organizations.

The PGA Tour says the agreement is a "landmark agreement to unify the game of golf, on a global basis."

The two groups will combine the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF) golf-related commercial businesses, including LIV Golf, into a single entity. It has not yet been named.

The deal would see the competitors end all pending litigation and PIF will initially be the exclusive investor in the new entity, as well as the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and the DP World Tour. The PGA Tour also says PIF will have "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."

The PGA Tour will appoint a majority of the board and hold a majority voting interest in the combined entity.

“After two years of disruption and distraction, this is a historic day for the game we all know and love,” PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said in a statement. “This transformational partnership recognizes the immeasurable strength of the PGA Tour’s history, legacy and pro-competitive model and combines with it the DP World Tour and LIV – including the team golf concept – to create an organization that will benefit golf’s players, commercial and charitable partners and fans."

The parties will work in the coming months to finalize terms of the agreement and likely ends a bitter dispute between the two organizations.

“They were going down their path, we were going down ours, and after a lot of introspection you realize all this tension in the game is not a good thing,” Monahan said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. He added that the decision was made over the last several weeks. 

“We have a responsibility to our tour and to the game, and we felt like the time was right to have that conversation.”

LIV Golf debuted in June 2022 after offering some of the game’s top players big contracts. Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund bankrolled the LIV series with at least $2 billion, in hopes of providing a player-driven alternative to the PGA Tour. 

It’s unclear how and when stars such as Brooks Koepka - who won his third PGA Championship last month - and Dustin Johnson can rejoin the PGA Tour. According to published reports, Koepka was given a $100 million guarantee, Johnson got $125 million and Phil Mickelson received $200 million to join the new league. 

Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed, and Cameron Smith also received multimillion-dollar offerings from LIV Golf. 

"Today is a very exciting day for this special game and the people it touches around the world," said PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan.

The modern-day PGA Tour formed in 1968 as a non-profit corporation run by its board of directors, executive leadership team and player advisory council.

For months, it argued the Saudi-backed LIV comprised the integrity of the sport. The PGA Tour filed a suit against LIV arguing that LIV and the PIF interfered in the PGA Tour’s business by offering players big money to break their Tour contracts. 

The news Tuesday morning appeared to come as a surprise to top golfers. “I love finding out morning news on Twitter," Collin Morikawa, a two-time major champion, said on Twitter. Here are other reactions from around pro golf: