Merging of PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV!!

slave1

PGA TOUR, DP World Tour and PIF announce newly formed commercial entity to unify golf

RoadRunner

They are all in love with each other again 😃

Mushy

Interesting to see how this pans out, will it be an actual worldwide tour now or just more money pumped into the same old thing

dan_ep82

Thought this was a joke when i first seen it but the PGA have their own article

https://www.pgatour.com/article/news/latest/2023/06/06/pga-tour-dp-world-tour-and-pif-announce-newly-formed--commercial-entity-to-unify-golf

dublin49

I wonder will the Westwood,Poults,Sergio gang get all their loot or will this supercede it,

PropJoe10

Quite a bizarre turn of events but if it puts an end to all this litigation, ensures that the best players are playing against each other more often, and develops the game at the grass-roots level, its a good thing.

Russman

Didn't see that coming !!

Could be some awkward catching up between some of the players now 😁

TinaTiernan

What a joke.

PGA weak pussies

Deeper Blue

Did anyone expect this? I certainly didn't. It'll be great to have all the best players playing the same tournaments again.

Interesting to see the impact on the Ryder cup, will Mickelson/Poulter etc get to be captain now I wonder.

zocklie

This feels so slimy, I don't like it. Seems quite vague as to what this actually means for the players, are they going to have 200 players at each event now they've combined 3 tours?

Great move for Thomas pieters, just moved over and now gets paid out and straight back into all your events.

Ryder cup will be a shitshow, so many dynamics between the players

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup

been a while since a sports story nearly knocked me over. first I'd to check the whatsapp group image to see if I'd see something obscene when I clicked in, then I double-checked it wasn't april 1st.

UsBus

The moral of the story here is if you ever get the chance to make easy money, snap it up. The bank balance will ease the possibility of any consequences.

Keano

Nothing will change but everything will change in the end. Money trumps everything

Mantis Toboggan

Saudi win wow 😮😮

callaway92

Ya it’s kinda vile to be honest.

If I was to take a genuine guess at how this has happened, my assumption is that a couple more top brass players have said they’ll be jumping ship. PGA had to act

Mushy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120682758#Comment_120682758

Don't think it's that easy. LIV wasn't going to last, but pga didn't have the pockets to drag it out long term. Of course, won't know for sure until more details emerge, like how season is structured or if there's any other changes

Brief_Lives

So the Saudis now own golf.. disgusting move by the PGA and DP tour...

Deeper Blue

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120682772#Comment_120682772

This is what I'm thinking aswell, wonder did Koepka winning the PGA have an impact on the top players' perception of LIV

Mantis Toboggan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120682772#Comment_120682772

Think Brooks winning the PGA was the beginning of the end for the PGA tour.

Trampas

One thing for sure is European tour will be even less as a result of it

sligeach

So that's why Rory stopped talking about LIV around about a month ago. He probably got wind of what was coming down the road.

Keano

By all accounts the player's didn't know about it coming either. Jay is going to sit in a room with them and explain how the Saudi's made him a billionaire and sure what else was he supposed to do....

Brief_Lives

https://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2022/08/03/liv-announces-inaugural-khashoggi-cup/

wwn

FortuneChip

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120682774#Comment_120682774

This pretty much sums it up. I'd say PGA will be heralded as the "face" but behind the scenes it'll be LIV & Co running the show.

https://twitter.com/AmateurStatus/status/1666083990246424578?s=20

PGA have the history.

LIV have the world class investing.

kowloonkev

How are they going to square this with the players who didn't join and didn't get the big pay off? How about the players who didn't want the blood money? Are they now forced to take it with no other option available?

PGA also seem to be taking on the team golf aspect.

Honestly think I'll delete the PGA app. Not to make a stand or that it'll make a difference, just not interested in this sh*te.

sligeach

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120682740#Comment_120682740

That's what I take out of this. A load of players made truck loads of cash signing for LIV. Were minority inconvenienced for a year and now get to carry on like nothing ever happened. Win-win for them.

Lionel Fusco

Rory McIlroy's next interview will be interesting. LOL at the people who think there's morals in Golf.

Russman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120682801#Comment_120682801

Bet he feels like a F'ing idiot now. Should be fun when/if he meets up with Phil or Sergio next.

Just shows though, all the same, money trumps everything these days and if you've enough of it, a way will be found for you. Honestly I've no strong feelings either way on LIV golf or the Saudi angle, but its kinda sickening to read that statement from Monahan, given all that's been said before.

PARlance

I'm glad they both saw fit and decided to grow the game globally... very admirable.

On a selfish level, delighted that we'll be seeing the best players competing more often.

Mushy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120682857#Comment_120682857

Weren't Phil and Rory at a champions dinner at the USPGA? Lot of that will be overblown. I think he'll have more of a bone to pick with Jay though, the man constantly hid behind the players and has now sold them down a river.

TinaTiernan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120682813#Comment_120682813

And Europe has the Double Penetration

Larbre34

My take would be different.

Although I'm aware LIV was shaped as one big sportswash for the Saudi techno-royals, I suspect its complete lack of any commercial traction has demonstrated that even the Sheiks won't throw good money after bad.

I think this "merger" is just a mechanism to get some of the bigger names back under the main Tours' umbrella while saving a bit of face for them and dispensing with any major circus around the readmission process. It also means the Ryder Cup headache can be mostly avoided, apart from damage already done obviously.

If LIV had any real merits to the game, to the demands of golf fans, it would have caught on. And it did not.

My prediction would be that by next Spring, the PGA and DP calendars will be back more or less as they always were; almost entirely singles stroke-play events for the main men's tours, with a traditional sprinkling of matchplay and team competitions.

Gusser09

Rory left with a lot of egg on the face over this one. And then the players who refused Millions upon Millions to join up believing they were on the right side of some moral crusade. I bet they are counting the cost of it now.

I've always argued that if footballers, Horse racing and F1 drivers take the Saudi money then why should golfers be treated any differently. LIV have thrown some money at the PGA over this.

Can't wait to hear what Saint Rory has to say on this. Squirming and back tracking will be the order of the day. Or he'll probably just refuse to give interviews on it.

Mushy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120682935#Comment_120682935

Well they were/are on the right side either way. And I'm sure they'll survive with the pittance they've earned. Wonder will the players who signed up be eligible for the big sign on fees....would assume so once it wasn't based off future earnings for them.

Comparison to other sports doesn't quite work, Saudis just invested in them, didn't start up competing ventures

youcancallmeal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120682772#Comment_120682772

I think it's more likely that PIF decided to stop going after the players and went for the top brass execs instead

This reads like whopper pay offs to PGA and DP World Tour officials "In addition, PIF will make a capital investment into the new entity to facilitate its growth and success."

Genius move really

Larbre34

LIV failed to get a competitive TV broadcast deal in the United States. That was the ballgame.

Jay Monahan of the PGA is going to be the boss of this new entity. That means LIV is being absorbed, nothing less. It lasted less that the length of Greg Norman's first morning fart.

I think sports organisations generally do underestimate the extent to which sports washing matters to ordinary people. And if it wasn't a high profile issue until recent times, well all the towel heads can thank UEFA and Qatar '22 for shining the shame lamp right in their faces. And that included the model behind LIV.

The Saudis are saying today that they look forward to investing much more into golf, but what hasn't been picked up on yet, is that if the new joint commercial body is registered in the US or UK or EU, which it will, then the regulatory environment will greatly affect the ability to freely move large sums through it from outside those territories.

gypsy79

Yeah people are making huge assumptions here

Sounds to me like the Saudis are paying the PGA to make the disaster of LIV go away

Cosmo Kramer

Initial reaction is that Monahan struggles to survive in post for longer than a few months. Either he goes for getting into bed with the Saudis or he goes because so many PGA players turned down millions to join them only for him to screw them over.

I think he probably knows that but he doesn't care now because he'll have been paid so much to agree to this that he can just collect his millions and retire.

Mushy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120683161#Comment_120683161

Yeah definitely think he's a goner sooner rather than later and if he's thinking he's staying on, he's dumber than he looks.

Wonder how Greg feels that they're binning his product after 2 years and he didn't know about it

Quahog217

Are all the people on here who were against liv and refused to watch now going to have to stop watching all golf as the Saudi money is now behind everything

Quahog217

I wonder will Brandle continue to work for the tour now that Saudi is part of it...if he's true to his word then he won't but money talks......

Infoseeker1975

Obviously need to see the details though first impression it seems incredibly impressive from the Saudi Arabia government, in essence they bought a sport today.

Next stop a soccer league in financial difficulty that cannot complete with the Premier League, hmmmm lets buy La Liga tomorrow and then cut oil output for the rest of the year:)

awec

The likes of Reed, Koepka, Johnson etc all back on the PGA tour with massively inflated bank balances.

If you were one of the holdouts it's hard to see how you wouldn't be furious.

Lil Fred

Mcilroy comes out of the looking like a tool

slave1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120682866#Comment_120682866

This, and I agree with others that Monahan's statement is such bollix and does not talk to his previous stand.

Rory and Jack should be quite embarrassed after their vocal distaste of LIV.

Capital Investment from LIV also mentioned and they all have a year or so to work it all out.

Just time for everyone involved to realise life is short and time to move on time.

PokeHerKing

Man I'm beyond shocked. Didn't see this coming. Would presume the top brass in the PGA/ET have made out like absolute bandits from this.

Hard to see how some posters are painting this as a win for the PGA. Its a complete sell out. The Saudis have bought joint ownership of the PGA Tour.

PARlance

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120683410#Comment_120683410

I wonder if that's what Jack was talking about when he greeted Rory off the 18th on Sunday... I think his words were something like "we need to talk".

Mushy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120683449#Comment_120683449

It's a win for the pga in as much as their product was clearly better. LIV is gone, it wasn't the LIV top dogs who did it, it was the PIF who stepped in to get it done. Players meeting in Canada today could be fun. Pga top brass won't be getting much respect from the players.

PokeHerKing

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120683469#Comment_120683469

Not withstanding the finer details are still to be released. I don't see how that conclusion can be reached.

I think this shows that the PGA felt threatened enough that they were willing to give half their product away along with a good chunk of their dignity, givin the chatter that preceded all this.

MisterAnarchy

Trump was right so

https://twitter.com/jbutler718/status/1666097386803052544

Mcilroy comes out of the looking like a tool

He was only saying last week that Koepka and the other LIV guys should be on the US Ryder cup team but he didnt want any Liv guys on the European team, complete clown.

Jay Monahan of the PGA is going to be the boss of this new entity.

I dont think he will be the boss, Yasir Al-Rumayyan will chair the new commercial entity between the PGA tour and LIV Golf.

Mushy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120683504#Comment_120683504

True that, but there is only mention of team format being included. Maybe they'll have a few novelty/exhibition events in later part of the year/wherever will suit in the calendar for some shotgun start events. Either way, LIV is gone so that'll be enough of a win for pga top brass.

With some luck some European events will get a raft of bigger names, otherwise there'll be little to no impact for us here.