Question of the week [August 19-25]: Do you believe the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which backs LIV Golf, will ever reach an agreement? If, yes, what would be the time frame?
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They’ll never reach a deal. It’s been over a year since this so-called agreement. If a bunch of adults, can’t solve this within a year, and apparently aren’t even closer to a deal, forget about it. LIV Golf will eventually just fade away. Maybe it already has.
Jeff McCrory
Atlanta, Georgia
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Typically, a merger and acquisition once announced to the public does not take this long to complete. Indeed, this delay is unusual and unexpected. To the degree we can believe the public pronouncements of progress suggests the two parties are moving toward a final agreement.
In normal circumstances I would be very skeptical as the endless delay suggests something is terminally wrong with the proposed marriage. In this case, I remain optimistic because I firmly believe the current path/status quo is not sustainable for either party. As such, I remain cautiously optimistic the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund will come to some kind of agreement.
Reid Farrill
Toronto, Ontario
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I believe there will be an agreement between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, effective sometime in the 2026 season. If it doesn’t get done for January 2026, then it won’t make it until the Fall series.
Barry Duckworth
Knoxville, Tennessee
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Yes, though it is for only one powerful tournament. Should be announced in October of this year. The start is for one tournament a year that will be a match play event with the 32 top golfers from LIV Golf against the 32 top PGA Tour players. Tournament time should be the last weekend in October — an open week on the PGA Tour schedule — beginning in 2025. LIV provides lots of money.
Duane Zeurcher
Albuquerque, New Mexico
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Great question. As for me, I don't see an agreement happening under the current situation and structure. It takes three basic elements to get a deal as big and as impactful as this one done.
Each party must win something meaningful; each party must accept losing something meaningful; and, most importantly, there must be a proven trust amongst each party's leadership.
Briefly:
1. The trust factor clearly isn't there.
2. The PGA Tour's leadership has no intention of giving up its bountiful salaries and bonuses.
3. LIV Golf has no reason to accept a pittance position in this deal, as they know they will win the long game anyway.
4. As time goes on, it will become clearer and clearer to the key PGA Tour players that they can be — and perhaps should be — in the driver's seat here. And they know exactly the two people they could turn to make this happen. Meaning PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and the boys would be replaced.
I believe No. 4 above will eventually come about, and the players will eventually gain an equity share of the vast amount of gold they have put in the vault they have created in the new business structure — thru their play and their ties to corporate sponsors. And I believe the fans, the real basis for any professional sport to succeed, will accept this business structure.
Alas, I don't see a Curt Flood or a Greg Norman amongst the current set of Tour players, suggesting that this business structure is likely well off into the future.
Tom Powers
Bradenton, Florida
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The PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund had zero chance in succeeding from the outset. A combination of general public outcry and feelings from the players that this was done behind their backs started the negative slide down the failure path from the beginning.
The players wanted the money but not the marriage and it appears the spoiled are getting their way. The money has increased enough to quiet the kids, while the Saudi’s are tiring of the noise. They will soon announce they are taking their money and going home. They love the game but hate the publicity. They can read between the lines enough to see the marriage has no future. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan sees that his future has been thrown a lifeline, as thin as it may be and he is not dumb enough to pursue the relationship, once described as his demise.
It sounds like all is well in Tourland, but, alas, like any broken relationship there is a loser in all of this. It’s the remaining sponsors who have been asked to cough up more money to satisfy the players. They too will eventually say “no mas” and walk from the sport they have been in love with and supported for years.
The ship is taking on water and the communications link with the mainland has gone silent. The PGA Tour soon will be no more and who is really to blame? Seems pretty clear to me.
PJ Vicary
The Villages, Florida
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I just don't see it.
Do you think the LIV golfers will return their signing bonuses or pay a huge fine? Do you think the PGA Tour players will accept bypassing those huge bonuses and simply accept the LIV guys back? Will the Saudis pony up another $15-20 billion to pay bonuses to the PGA Tour golfers just to appease them?
I just don't see any of those scenarios coming to pass.
For most of us, LIV Golf is simply irrelevant. Don't watch it, read about it or care about it. If 10 more PGA Tour guys left, I wouldn't care. The PGA Tour is more than the players, it's the history of the Tour and the courses that they play.
I have to assume that the PGA Tour finds itself in a stronger position today than they thought they would be in after Jon Rahm left. Only Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Rahm are players that move any type of needle, and three players do not make a tour. If everything remained status quo, LIV would simply go away. It's not self-sustaining financially. I expect that if nothing changes, the Saudis will try to lure six or eight more top players and see if that changes the golf landscape. I think that's a more realistic future than a merger.
Terry Fraser
Huntsville, Alabama
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I do believe there will be some consensus in a future arrangement although I have no idea exactly what it will look like. The current trend for the PGA Tour is to manipulate all aspects of operation in favor of fewer players earning a higher percentage of ever-increasing purses.
As the previous big business advisors suggested, this is very likely unsustainable as the sponsors struggle to find a positive cost-benefit to their involvement. The PGA Tour brass will continue to rearrange the deck chairs in a futile attempt to preserve their positions. The players will continue to accept what they’re offered until they face the reality that there is a better deal elsewhere. They, like everyone else, will eventually follow the money.
What will PIF do in the meantime? Watch and wait for the PGA Tour business model to continue to deteriorate. They don’t need a crystal ball to know the final solution, the financial salvation is waiting on their side of the bargaining table.
Once all the other options have been tried, the collective PGA Tour will recognize this is just how business works. Ineffective businesses are replaced by better businesses every day. It is merely a matter of how long the Tour’s pride will get in the way.
Mostly, it’s all about the Benjamins.
Peter Croppo
Bayfield, Ontario
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Front: A view of LIV Golf signage on the driving range before the final round of 2024 LIV Golf Jeddah in March at the Royal Greens Golf and Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia.
Photo: Matthew Harris / LIV Golf