Players on the PGA Tour and LIV Golf can now finally agree on one thing: the division and status quo of professional golf are untenable.
A week before the two teams reunite for the first major of the year at the 2024 Masters—13 LIV players will tee it off at Augusta National—a few of LIV’s captains discussed why the game needs to get back together sooner rather than later. Rory McIlroy has been vocal about the issue in recent months.
“This sport is driven by its fans.” There would be no golf if there were no fans. We’re not amusing ourselves up here. As of right now, that low-hanging fruit is the most important thing. Before this week’s LIV Golf Miami competition at Trump National Doral, Bryson DeChambeau stated, “There has to be a way to come together.” “It’s undeniably unsustainable, and we all appreciate, acknowledge, and wish the best for the game of golf. We all adore this game, and we want to continue competing in it and playing it.
And it must happen quickly. It’s not a two-year endeavor,” he continued. As if, for the sake of the sport, it must occur sooner rather than later. People are becoming disinterested in excess.
According to Jon Rahm, the most well-known player to move from the PGA Tour to LIV before the 2024 season, there is enough room in the professional golf sandbox for both circuits.
“I believe that both are appropriate. That is all there is to it. A little bit more variety doesn’t really hurt anybody, in my opinion, and we have the chance to create an even better product for the game’s fans and spectators,” stated Rahm, who will attempt to defend his Masters title the following week. “I’m hoping that when things are done right, we can end up with a much better product that can take golf to the next level worldwide.”
“I concur with that. Three-time Masters champion Phil Mickelson continued, “I think that ultimately, we are in a transitional state where we now have competition and that’s leading to a lot of disruption and change but in the end it’s going to make golf more global where the best players travel more.”
“I have no idea how it will turn out in detail or how it will look. I’m placing my faith in Yasir and the direction that the game is taking on a global scale. But once everything is worked out, I believe it will be in a much better position where we can bring in the best players from around the globe, and it will create more chances for production, course development, and players to get inspired and join the game from different places in the world. It will, in my opinion, be in a much better location.
According to Mickelson, the game entered a “disruption phase” in 2022 when he and the younger players joined the league supported by Saudi Arabia. Since then, the Strategic Sports Group, an outside investment group made up of different owners of teams in other professional sports leagues, has contributed $1.5 billion to the creation of PGA Tour Enterprises, a for-profit organization, and the PGA Tour has drastically altered its schedule.
As part of the framework agreement that shocked the golf world on June 6, 2023, PGA Tour Enterprises was originally supposed to be supported by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, LIV’s longstanding financier. Following a meeting between PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan and the Tour’s leadership in the Bahamas last month, the new organization is still considering a $3 billion investment from the PIF.
The proposed deal appears to be nowhere near completion, much to the dismay of players on both sides of the professional golf divide, but it is of great interest to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Senate.
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