Unless a secret deal was struck by President Trump in Saudi Arabia last week, professional golf barrels towards its fourth summer as a divided sport. Since the collapse of White House-brokered negotiations in February, the PGA Tour’s insistence on dictating terms reveals its confidence in its position. LIV Golf continues to struggle to capture American audiences, and aside from one notable Spanish champion, no major stars have defected since 2022. PGA Tour officials figure LIV has already fulfilled its fundamental purpose, delivering the kingdom unprecedented direct access to Washington, D.C.

With this channel established, what incentive exists for PIF—currently operating under cost-cutting mandates, to continue haemorrhaging capital? Adding to the tour’s position is a rediscovered swagger. Viewership is climbing, and its premier players are dominating signature events, with Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy leading the way. The tour’s reluctance to compromise seems logical—challenging the Saudi Public Investment Fund to continue pouring billions into what amounts to an extravagant exhibition series.

Yet this strategy could prove disastrous, as the recent PGA Championship demonstrated. The final battle at Quail Hollow featured just three contenders: Scheffler versus LIV Golf stars Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm. This wasn’t an anomaly. DeChambeau has contended in five of the last six majors, highlighted by his U.S. Open victory at Pinehurst that won both the trophy and public adoration. Brooks Koepka, despite his current major drought, claimed victory at Oak Hill merely two years ago after a runner-up finish at Augusta. While Joaquin Niemann isn’t truly a top-five player globally (despite Phil Mickelson’s claims and LIV supporters’ insistence), he’s undeniably elite, and discounting him in future majors would be misguided. Augusta National rewards experience, suggesting Rahm, Koepka, DeChambeau, and Patrick Reed will remain factors for years to come.

It can’t be overstated how much a pain in the behind this is for the PGA Tour. Had LIV golfers consistently faltered at majors, dismissing the Saudi circuit would be effortless. The tour could confidently wave off PIF’s blank checks, secure in the knowledge that defectors were entering competitive oblivion. It was a pervasive narrative—bordering on wishful thinking—suggesting that LIV defectors would inevitably deteriorate when competing against a roster of journeymen, aging veterans and unproven talents. This sentiment persists; respected analyst Paul McGinley attributed Rahm’s major championship struggles to precisely this competitive deterioration. Yet McGinley’s assessment, despite his renowned golf intellect, collapses under the weight of evidence.

More ominously, while not facing catastrophe, storm clouds gather on the horizon. The PGA Tour has wielded major championship access as its ultimate player retention weapon. This advantage has eroded dramatically as three major championships have established explicit (or de facto) exemption categories for LIV competitors this year, while LIV’s aggressive new CEO actively revitalises their campaign for coveted recognition from the Official World Golf Ranking—potentially expanding their major championship pipeline.

Though OWGR approval remains less imminent than optimistic reports suggest, meaningful dialogue has resumed. Moreover, the once-unified golf establishment has fractured under pressures from equipment rollback controversies, federal antitrust investigations and the tour shocking framework agreement with PIF. Four years of turmoil have revealed that golf’s power brokers ultimately prioritise self-interest; for major championships, this means assembling the best fields regardless of tour politics.

Jon Rahm – Kevin C. Cox

Should this pipeline fully materialise, the PGA Tour faces potential long-term complications. The competitive deterioration argument lies in ruins, while moral superiority claims ring hollow—how can the tour denounce Saudi funding while simultaneously negotiating for those same billions?

Though the tour’s position retains validity, focusing on reclaiming just three transcendent talents (DeChambeau, Rahm and Koepka), the prevailing theory that recovering even one could mortally wound LIV represents dangerous wishful thinking beyond their control. Despite the tour’s recent ratings bumps, four tournaments annually eclipse all others in significance. Some argue they constitute golf’s only truly consequential events, and the tour exercises zero authority over them. As long as LIV Golf has a habitual presence on major leaderboards, they will matter, too.

Follow Golf Digest Middle East on social media

Instagram

X

Facebook

YouTube

Main Image: Jared C. Tilton

The post Why the majors continue to be LIV Golf’s best weapon against the PGA Tour appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

On Tuesday, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan pushed back on the notion that there may have been a setback when he was joined by board members Adam Scott and Tiger Woods in negotiations with Yassir Al-Rumayyan, head of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia that backs LIV. Monahan called the second meeting a “huge step” forward. However, Rory McIlroy countered on Wednesday at Bay Hill Club that, “the landscape might have looked a little different [before that meeting] than it does now.”

Report: Donald Trump urged to buy home of DP World Tour

Phil Mickelson rips Fred Couples over ‘low class move’ for saying Brooks Koepka wants to return to PGA Tour

He further echoed a comment Jordan Spieth made last year at Pebble Beach when the tour announced that Strategic Sports Group had invested $1.5 billion into a new for-profit company, PGA Tour Enterprises. That the tour, at this point, with recent sponsorship renewals by Valspar and 3M and long-term commitments from other sponsors, possibly doesn’t need a deal with PIF.

“I don’t think it’s ever felt that close,” McIlroy said of a proposed deal that dates back to June 2023 with the framework agreement between the tour and PIF. “But it doesn’t feel like it’s any closer.”

That’s not to say that a reunification of professional men’s golf isn’t desirable. The tour’s Fan Forward initiative surveying its core audience and other supporters shows that by a 70-30 margin support for bringing back LIV players. But apparently that seems less likely in the near term.

“I think the narrative around golf, I wouldn’t say needs a deal, I think the narrative around golf would welcome a deal in terms of just having all the best players together again. But I don’t think the PGA TOUR needs a deal,” McIlroy said at Bay Hill Club during a pre-tournament press conference for the Arnold Palmer Invitational. “I think the momentum is pretty strong. As you say, TV’s been good, TGL’s been, hopefully, pretty additive to the overall situation. And yeah, I would say, again, I answered this question at Torrey Pines [three] weeks ago, the landscape might have looked a little different then than it does now over these past couple of weeks, and I think a deal would … still be the ideal scenario for golf as a whole. But from a pure PGA Tour perspective, I don’t think it necessarily needs it.”

Asked what has changed in these last few weeks, McIlroy said flatly, “Look, I think it takes two to tango. So if one party is willing and ready and the other isn’t, it sort of makes it tough.”

McIlroy later told another reporter that negotiations, “have taken a step back.”

This is more like a few giant leaps back from Woods’ assessment of the progress made after the Feb. 4 meeting.

“We’re in a very positive place right now,” Woods said at the Genesis Invitational during a television interview on CBS Sports. “We had a meeting with the President. Unfortunately, I had some other circumstances that came up, but Jay and Adam, they did great during the meeting, and we have another subsequent meeting coming up.

“I think that things are going to heal quickly,” Woods continued. “We’re going to get this game going in the right direction. It’s been heading in the wrong direction for a number of years and the fans want all of us to play together, all the top players playing together and we’re going to make that happen.”

Monahan and Scott expressed similar optimism after the Feb. 4 meeting in which both Woods and Al-Rumayyan joined via teleconference with President Trump. All parties were on hand for the meeting on Feb. 20. Those with knowledge of that meeting suggest it is the PIF leader who took a harder line in the talks.

At the Genesis, McIlroy seemed to have changed direction from his more hard-line stance against LIV Golf and extolled the virtues of reunification. He still supports that, as well as a hefty investment from PIF. He wouldn’t necessarily prefer one over the other.

“Their billion dollars would be nice, too,” he said, grinning, before going into how LIV players might be re-incorporated in tour fields.

“I gave a lot of thought to it a couple of years ago, but less now,” said the World No. 2 player. “You could create exemption categories that you try to capture who you want to capture—major winners in the last three years, plus Players champions, I don’t know. But, yeah, that’s, again, not my department.”

Main Image: Keyur Khamar

The post Rory McIlroy offers counter opinion on progress of PGA Tour-Saudi talks: ‘It doesn’t feel any closer’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Well, in LIV terms, at any rate.

Report: Donald Trump urged to buy home of DP World Tour

Phil Mickelson rips Fred Couples over ‘low class move’ for saying Brooks Koepka wants to return to PGA Tour

As it turns out, though, DeChambeau, has been doing some short-term planning about his future, namely visiting Augusta National before the LIV season began January to get a look at the home of the Masters. The 31-year-old is preparing early for a run at a third career major championship win in 2025.

“I went there on the 6th of January, so I had a little practice round,” DeChambeau said in a pre-tournament press conference at Hong Kong Golf Club, where LIV’s third event of the season tees off Friday.

DeChambeau, the captain of the Crushers GC team with Anirban Lahiri, Charles Howell III and Paul Casey, was asked about speculation that a contract renewal proposal had been rebuffed.

“No, I’m very excited about the future of LIV Golf,” DeChambeau said. “I’m very excited to be the captain of the Crushers and continue our legacy that we’re starting to create. That’s my goal, to create this lasting legacy where we impact millions and millions of golfers’ lives around the world. That should tell you everything you should know.”

The Californian, who left the PGA Tour to join LIV in 2022, was also asked separately about “where he sees LIV Golf in six years” after the league signed an extension with its flagship Adelaide (Australia) event through 2031.

“I continue to see LIV Golf growing,” he said. “It’s going to grow at an exponentiating pace for years to come, and we aren’t going anywhere.”

DeChambeau also hopes his major championship trophy cabinet grows after a stellar season at the majors in 2024. He earned a career-best T-6 at Augusta last April before finishing second to Xander Schauffele at the PGA Championship at Valhalla in May. That set up his resounding victory over Rory McIlroy at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst in June.

Bryson Dechambeau signs autographs during Day 1 of LIV Golf Adelaide tournament in February – Erick W. Rasco

With less than 40 days until the Masters, DeChambeau now turns his non-league attention to Augusta National, a place that should be tailor made for his sublime length and putting.

“Yeah, I’m excited,” he said. “I’m ready. I feel like I’m ready at least. I’ve made some switches with the golf ball, and this week we’re trying it out. It’s been pretty solid so far, so we’ll see how that works.

“But I’m just comfortable. I’m excited is really what it comes down to. However, the cards play out, they’ll play out, but I am genuinely excited for this year.”

LIV’s popular Hong Kong event, won last year by Abraham Ancer in a playoff over Cameron Smith and Casey, will be followed by stops at Singapore (March 14-16) and then Miami in early April at the famed Trump National Doral. Doral will be held the week before the Masters. DeChambeau hopes to squeeze in one more scouting trip to Augusta “before Miami.”

Main Image: Ross Kinnaird

The post Bryson DeChambeau addresses talk that he’s planning to ditch LIV Golf for a return to the PGA Tour appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Fred Couples has pulled no punches when it comes to LIV Golf, and more, specifically, his former teammate and fellow Ryder Cup vice captain Phil Mickelson.

In the summer that Mickelson defected to LIV Golf in 2022, Couples opined, “These guys—you’ve seen their interviews, right? Have you ever seen Phil look so stupid in his life? They know it’s a joke.” Then in March 2023, Couples again took shots at Lefty, “If you’re willing to give Phil Mickelson $200 million at age 53 to shoot 74 and 75, God bless you.”

The barbs from a mostly beloved character like Couples had to sting Mickelson, especially with Couples nailing it on Mickelson’s play, which has been wholly mediocre in his time on the Saudi Arabia-backed circuit.

The feud had seemingly quieted of late, but that changed on Tuesday when Mickelson responded to a Golf Digest social media post by calling an opinion Couples had expressed as a “low class move.” Mickelson later deleted the comment.

Fred Couples revealed in an interview that Brooks Koepka wants to return to the PGA Tour.

Do want Brooks back on the PGA Tour? pic.twitter.com/dmxfnKbzEr

— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) March 3, 2025

The skirmish started when Couples did an interview with Sports Radio 93.3 KJR in his hometown of Seattle last week and suggested that his friend and five-time major winner Brooks Koepka wants to return to the PGA Tour.

“He wants to come back. I will say that, believe me, he really wants to come back and play the PGA Tour,” Couples said.

Those comments, first reported nationally by Golfweek, were the jumping off point for a Golf Digest X post that asked, “Do [you] want Brooks back on the PGA Tour?” As of Tuesday evening, there were 113,000 views of the post and 135 comments, but not the one that Mickelson posted. Before it was deleted, he said, “If it’s not true he damaged a relationship which he cares about. If it is true he took away Brook’s [sic] control of the timeline and narrative. Either way this is a low class jerk move by Fred.”

The only place at which Couples and Mickelson would seem to cross paths these days is at Augusta National because they’re both Masters winners who still compete and attend the Champions Dinner each year. Asked at the 2023 Masters after his “comment” if he thought it would be awkward with Mickelson at that year’s dinner, Couples said, “I’m not expecting anything different. I sit in a great spot … down by all the beautiful people that I’ve sat with … [Jack] Nicklaus, Tiger [Woods], [Raymond] Floyd, Sandy Lyle.”

Couples said he would also welcome a Thursday grouping with Mickelson. “People have asked me are you going to get paired … I’m, like, I would love to be paired with Phil,” he said. “I mean, he’s one of the best players that ever played. He loves this place as much as I do, and if we did, we’d look at each other on the first hole and we’d have a good time.”

Wonder if that’s still the case, and once again, oh to be in that Champions locker room on Tuesday night in this year or any other.

Main Image: Harry How

The post Phil Mickelson rips Fred Couples over ‘low class move’ for saying Brooks Koepka wants to return to PGA Tour appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.