PGA Tour and LIV Golf Agree to Merger

Ending a bitter cut up in males’s skilled golf, the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, the rebel league bankrolled by billions of {dollars} from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, stated Tuesday that that they had agreed to a merger.

The announcement was directly beautiful — the 2 sides had angrily clashed for months in litigation that can now draw to an in depth — and an finish end result that many in golf had believed was a definite chance from the time LIV burst into the game final yr.

In a joint assertion on Tuesday with the DP World Tour, which can be lined by the settlement, the wealth fund and the PGA Tour stated the previous rivals would “implement a plan to grow these combined commercial businesses, drive greater fan engagement and accelerate growth initiatives already underway.”

“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,” Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, stated in a press release.

Under the phrases of the tentative settlement introduced on Tuesday, the Saudi wealth fund, referred to as the Public Investment Fund, will at first be the unique investor within the blended operation, together with the established excursions and LIV. Monahan is predicted to be the brand new group’s chief govt, with Yasir al-Rumayyan, the wealth fund’s governor, put in as its chairman.

LIV charged into skilled golf final yr, luring a few of the world’s most distinguished gamers, together with Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson, with assured contracts typically stated to be price $100 million or extra and match prize funds that have been the richest in golf historical past.

The PGA Tour, lengthy the dominant pressure in skilled golf, furiously retaliated and argued that the Saudi-backed league was compromising the game’s integrity and performing as little greater than a entrance for Saudi ambitions to restore the dominion’s fame.