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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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:)

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.

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.

Trump was right so

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.

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

Surely a lot of the top players who stayed with the PGA tour could have grounds to sue them for essentially defrauding them through threats of expulsion and law suits for players who went to LIV (all of which are now meaningless) thereby causing them not to defect.

Why should McIlroy be embarrassed now? Its out of his hands? Its not like he was vocally against LIV but secretly working on this deal in the background.,

As for the brooks comments, he's right, brooks deserves to be on the US Ryder cup team given how he's been playing in the majors. Poutler / Sergio have no business being near the ryder cup given their form.

I presume McIlroy will retire now?

He'd hardly be a super hypocrite and take Saudi money now, after all his palaver, would he??

Why are people saying McElroy looks like a fool now?

He was against LIV, and either he was right in his personal stance or he wasn't, the fact that the PGA went and did a deal doesn't change that in any way that I can see?

If I decry Russia and then Ukraine agrees a ceasefire, does that make me a fool for earlier speaking out against Russia?