A new report claims to reveal the real issues holding up a PGA Tour and LIV Golf merger. And it is not the rumor of PGA players wanting their counterparts to give their Saudi money back.
A few years ago, an unexpected war began in the world of pro golf. After a century of dominance over the sport, the PGA Tour all of a sudden had serious competition when with the creation of LIV Golf. The upstart league immediately became a major threat due to having the bottomless bank accounts of the Saudi Public Investment Fund.
It allowed them to lure away many PGA stars with absurd contracts that the Tour could never match. But, the bitter war seemed over when it was announced last year that an agreement had been reached to merge the rival leagues. However, a deal has yet to be finalized despite months of negotiations.
This month, talks restarted and one report claimed that discussions had been productive. However, on Tuesday a wild new rumor claimed that a major sticking point in talks was that players loyal to the PGA wanted their LIV counterparts to give back the millions they took from the Saudi PIF to leave the Tour.
Integrating LIV Golfers is reportedly the biggest challenge in current merger talks with PGA Tour
Well, there is another report on the ongoing discussions. And they now claim the demand that LIV Golfers give back their Saudi money to return to the PGA isn’t what’s holding up a merger from being finalized.
“LIV players returning money — specifically Rahm — is not what’s holding up a potential PGA Tour-PIF deal, sources tell me. It’s how to integrate LIV players back, and what LIV’s future looks like in a unified game,” Golf Digest Senior Write Joel Beall reported this week.
Beall also dropped an interesting nugget of news on the future of LIV. The expectation is that the brand will still continue. However, he claims that the “current LIV iteration is likely done.”