OAN’s Noah Herring
11:35 AM – Tuesday, June 6, 2023
The PGA Tour announced on Tuesday in a landmark agreement that it will be merging with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit.
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The deal comes a year after PGA Tour commissioner, Jay Monahan, said that any truce between the two leagues would be “off the table.”
Both parties have signed an agreement that combines PIF’s golf-related commercial businesses (including LIV Golf) with the commercial businesses and rights to the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.
“After two years of disruption and distraction, this is a historic day for the game we all know and love,” said PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan 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.”
“Going forward, fans can be confident that we will, collectively, deliver on the promise we’ve always made – to promote competition of the best in professional golf and that we are committed to securing and driving the game’s future,” Monahan said.
The agreement will merge the PGA Tour and LIV Golf into a “new, collectively owned, for-profit entity to ensure that all stakeholders benefit from a model that delivers maximum excitement and competition among the game’s best players.”
Part of the agreement has the Saudi PIF making a “capital investment” into the newly established entity. All litigation between the two will also end allowing players that left their respective tours to be reinstated following the 2023 season.
“We are pleased to move forward, in step with LIV and PIF’s world-class investing experience, and I applaud PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan for his vision and collaborative and forward-thinking approach that is not just a solution to the rift in our game, but also a commitment to taking it to new heights,” Monahan said.
During the inaugural season of LIV Golf in 2022, there was immediate pushback from the PGA announcing indefinite suspensions for any members looking to play in LIV.
The DP World Tour followed in the PGA’s footsteps, prompting lawsuits. Some players including Rory McIlroy also spoke out publicly against the Saudi-backed tour.
During this time, Former President Donald Trump weighed in on the matter saying, “All of those golfers that remain “loyal” to the very disloyal PGA, in all of its different forms, will pay a big price when the inevitable MERGER with LIV comes.”
“If you don’t take the money now, you will get nothing after the merger takes place,” Trump posted on Truth Social on July 18th, 2022, effectively predicting the merger.
Trump’s prediction proved to come true as the merger is taking place as the LIV Golf tour is now in its second season.
White House Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, refused to comment on the recent merger when asked about it in a briefing.
According to a statement released by the PGA Tour, all parties are working to finalize the terms of the agreement in the coming months, with details to be announced soon.
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