Following the afternoon session, the tour released a joint statement from Monahan, Woods and Scott:

“We have just concluded a constructive working session at the White House with President Trump and H.E. Yasir Al-Rumayyan. Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, we have initiated a discussion about the reunification of golf. We are committed to moving as quickly as possible and will share additional details as appropriate. We share a passion for the game and the importance of reunification. Most importantly, we all want the best players in the world playing together more often and are committed to doing all we can to deliver that outcome for our fans.”

After the meeting, Woods also made an appearance with Trump at a White House reception for Black History Month. Trump asked Woods to speak and acknowledged Scott and Monahan being at the White House, telling the crowd: “We had some interesting discussions.”

Last week, Monahan met with the media at the Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines and expressed optimism that a deal with PIF—originally announced as a framework agreement on June 6, 2023—was close to coming to fruition. Monahan, along with player representative Scott, met with Trump two weeks prior, which Monahan called a “productive visit” and asserted the goal was for “the game of golf operating under one tour with all the top players playing on that one tour.” When asked if that meant the end of LIV Golf, Monahan referred to the “reunification of the game.”

“Candidly, that’s what fans want,” Monahan explained. “So when you talk about reunification, that’s all the best players in the world competing with each other and against each other.”

The commissioner’s comments were noteworthy, as there has been belief in golf circles that—should the tour and LIV’s financial backer ultimately finalize a peace treaty—the entities would remain separate in some capacity in order to appease United States government anti-trust regulations. While that may still come to pass, Monahan’s repeated insistence last week of a singular, unified tour could not be ignored.

“Listen, if you think about what the fans want, the fans want reunification. That’s what we’re focused on. We’ve operated in a world where there’s more than one and the PGA Tour has performed very well,” Monahan said. “But in the long run, is that the best thing for fans? Is that the best thing for the game? We’re trying to solve it so everybody benefits.”

While Woods did not attend the previous meeting due to the passing of his mother, Woods also expressed conviction about a possible deal when appearing on CBS Sports’ final round coverage of the Genesis Invitational.

“Jay and Adam did great during the meeting. And we have another subsequent meeting coming up,” Woods said. “So I think that things are going to heal quickly. We’re going to get this game going in the right direction. We’ve been heading in the wrong direction for a number of years. The fans want all of us, all the top players playing together. And we’re going to make it happen.”

Trump was brought into the negotiations earlier this month at the tour’s insistence. There has been belief that the Department of Justice under Trump would be more willing to greenlight a potential PGA Tour-PIF deal. Shortly after the 2024 election, Trump played a round of golf with Monahan in Florida. Helping matters as well is Trump’s relationship with Saudi Arabia and LIV Golf. Trump has had business ties with the Saudi league since its emergence in 2022, with LIV hosting events at Trump venues in New Jersey, Florida and outside of Washington, D.C.

When asked if the tour may incorporate Trump properties into the tour’s plans going forward, Monahan replied, “We’ve played at Trump venues in the past. While we haven’t talked about that with the president, I certainly see a day where we’re adding Trump venues to our schedule.”

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Namely, how does O’Neil see LIV fitting into the framework agreement between the league’s financiers, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), and PGA Tour Enterprises? That deal, according to reports, has been ramping up. There’s also an interest in learning how O’Neil sees former LIV CEO, Greg Norman remaining with the league and, lastly, O’Neil’s vision for LIV as a tour.

As the former CEO of companies and organizations such as Merlin Entertainment and the Philadelphia 76ers, O’Neil has been getting the lay of the land in his first 40 days in golf. He’s overseen the announcement of a TV deal for LIV with FOX and a U.K. broadcast agreement with ITV. He was even spotted at last month’s TGL debut in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Now, with LIV’s third campaign kicking off last week under lights in Saudi Arabia, he’s into season mode.

“It’s been a short 40 days here,” O’Neil said in Adelaide. “I grew up in New York, if you haven’t been able to tell so far by my funny accent, and the state motto is ‘Excelsior,’ which means kind of onwards and upwards.”

It will certainly speed up this week at the league’s flagship event, LIV Adelaide. Tournament organizers are expecting more than 100,000 fans through the gates over three days at The Grange Golf Club. That would be a record for the 3-year-old league, known for its 14 tournaments having a non-traditional format: no cut, 54 holes and a team element.

“[Adelaide] is the pinnacle of our events, and hopefully in the future this is the bar that we set,” Koepka said, sitting beside O’Neil.

Ultimately, raising that bar will start with O’Neil and end with Koepka and his fellow LIV stars, such as U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith and Jon Rahm creating a compelling product. While LIV has struggled to gain traction in the U.S., apart from healthy crowds at its Doral tournament in Miami, some of its overseas events have performed well.

LIV Adelaide remains the league’s showpiece, but it has also found a reliable home in Spain at Valderrama (prior to the Open Championship) and in the Midlands of England with LIV Golf U.K., where an announced 45,000 fans watched last year as Jon Rahm grabbed his first LIV individual victory. Then there’s LIV Golf Hong Kong, where a reported 25,000 fans showed up last year. This year, LIV will head to Club Golf de Chapultepec in Mexico City, the former host of the PGA Tour’s WGC-Mexico Championship from 2017-2020, as well as Korea in May.

O’Neil wants LIV to retain its global emphasis going forward.

“The Australian Open here is a good example with tennis; it’s a world-class event, and for a moment, the tennis world starts and stops here, and golf seems to be very centred on the United States,” O’Neil said. “Yet when you look at the golf world and you look at Australia and the U.K. and Hong Kong and Singapore and all the incredible cities where we’re blessed to go play … we’re taking the game to where golf fans around the world want to see the greatest players on the biggest stages. We feel like that is an opportunity.”

LIV’s desire to serve underutilized markets around the world, such as Australia, has long been the ambition of Norman, a two-time Open champion. He attempted to create a world tour in the 1990s and finally got his wish as the CEO of LIV from its inception in 2022. While O’Neil took the reins last month, Norman remains in the LIV ecosystem. O’Neil hopes he stays with the league.

“I spent quite a bit of time with him in my 30-day lead up to this role and every day since engaging, asking questions and learning, and I hope that he is part of LIV forever,” O’Neil said. “If you’re smart and humble and earnest enough, you spend quite a bit of time with your predecessor. Mine just happens to be one of the greatest golfers of all time, of which I am not, sadly. Nonetheless, Greg is an icon. He is a friend. He is the reason I’m here today.”

Norman also remains on the board of LIV.

“We just had a board meeting last week,” O’Neil added. “We can tap into his experience, his leadership, his friendship, and any challenges, too, at the board meeting. I was hoping for a friendly face on the other side of the table, but he mixes it up pretty good.”

In the bigger picture, O’Neil will also need to navigate whatever LIV’s role may be in negotiations between the PIF and PGA Tour Enterprises. The PGA Tour announced that it has asked President Donald Trump to help with the talks and that commissioner, Jay Monahan and player director Adam Scott met with Trump last week. Tiger Woods played golf with Trump last weekend.

Complementing those discussions was news that the USGA created one spot in the U.S. Open field for the top LIV points earner. This week, the R&A followed by making one spot at the Open Championship via the LIV standings.

While the golf world waits to see if the two tours will come together, O’Neil said he was enthusiastic about the potential for a deal.

“For us at LIV, we are hoping that [a deal] unlocks opportunity,” he said. “That may unlock opportunity with markets, with courses, with marketing partners, with television networks, with growing the game, with competition opportunities, with new formats … effectively, we’re very excited about the potential investment with PIF and PGA Tour Enterprises.”

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LIV Golf will play its first event of the 2025 season under lights.

The Saudi-backed circuit will tee off next month in Riyadh at night. Though there is a novelty to the game being played after dark, the move is to cater to American television audiences at the request of LIV’s new television partner, FOX Sports. The event will begin at 6:15 p.m. local time in Saudi Arabia, meaning a start time of 10:15 a.m. in the eastern time zone.

A source familiar with FOX Sports leadership tells Golf Digest that other events may be televised under the lights, specifically international competitions. “You can’t tape delay events, not in 2025” the source said. “If it’s not live it’s a ratings killer.”

Ratings have been a major issue for professional golf the past year—PGA Tour Sunday ratings were down 19 percent in 2024—although LIV has struggled to attract an audience since its launch in 2022. While forming a partnership with CW in 2023 was initially seen as progress, reruns of syndicated shows routinely outperformed live LIV events. It’s performance on the CW was so poor that LIV began reporting their own metrics, although the self-reporting stopped as those numbers continued to spiral. In the LIV individual championship in Chicago last fall, only 89,000 people tuned through the CW to watch Jon Rahm clinch the title; for context, the Solheim Cup’s audience that weekend was seven times bigger.

FOX was in discussions with LIV during its inaugural season in 2022, and the company originally partnered with former LIV CEO Greg Norman to launch a rival league against the PGA Tour in the 1990s that ultimately failed to come to fruition. Why a new deal came to pass now has ties to Fox’s grander plans with the World Cup. Fox has held U.S. broadcasting rights for soccer’s premier event since 2015, although Netflix recently acquired domestic streaming rights for the 2027 and 2031 Women’s World Cups. Of specific pursuit, however, is the 2034 Men’s World Cup, scheduled to be held in Saudi Arabia, the financial backer of LIV Golf. Technically FIFA will reward those rights; conversely, it is widely considered in the industry that Saudi Arabia will ultimately decide who gets said rights.

Main Image: Kevin C. Cox

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Sources tell Golf Digest that Scott O’Neil, a sports and entertainment executive, is expected to be hired as the league’s CEO, replacing Greg Norman in that role, with a formal announcement to come in the next month.

Sources: LIV Golf on the lookout for Greg Norman replacement

Scott O’Neil speaks at a New Jersey Devils press conference in 2014 – Andy Marlin

O’Neil seemingly cleared the path for his hiring by stepping down on Wednesday from his current job as CEO with Merlin Entertainments, a London-based company that operates upwards of 150 theme parks and resorts throughout the world. His expected hiring by LIV was initially reported by Sports Business Journal and The Athletic

Norman’s future with the breakaway circuit is unclear. In 2021, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, LIV’s financial backers, hired the World Golf Hall of Famer to help launch the upstart league, giving him the dual titles of CEO and commissioner. Norman’s bombastic style help garner plenty of attention for LIV Golf when it debuted in June 2022, but also created animosity from PGA Tour pros upset the schism that LIV created in the world of men’s professional golf. In an interview with Sports Illustrated last month, Norman said that his contract with LIV runs through August 2025. It is considered likely he would remain with the league in an unspecified senior role.

O’Neil’s experience in the sports world includes time working for the NBA and as president of Madison Square Garden from 2008-12. He then went to work for the Philadelphia 76ers as CEO in 2013 before becoming the head of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment in 2017, a company formed to manage the 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils.

REPORT: Deal done between LIV Golf and PGA Tour worth over $1 billion

Where O’Neil takes the LIV Golf League in the future is contingent on what happens in the ongoing negotiations between the PGA Tour, the PIF and the DP World Tour. Officials with the three groups are in discussion to finalize a framework agreement outlined in June 2023 that would have them combine assets into a single for-profit entity (PGA Tour Enterprises). In the meantime, LIV officials are moving forward on a 14-event schedule for 2025 with 10 events already announced.

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INDIVIDUAL STANDINGS: LOCK ZONE, OPEN ZONE, DROP ZONE

LIV Golf’s unique team and individual format features two season-long leaderboards, with points earned at each tournament. The player with the most points at the conclusion of the final stroke-play event, the Individual Championship, is the season’s Individual Champion while final team standings determine seeding for the season-ending Team Championship. Legion XIII’s Jon Rahm won this year’s Individual title in his first season with LIV Golf, and the all-Australian Ripper GC, captained by Cameron Smith, took home the Team Champion title.

The individual standings are broken down into three categories, with final positions determining a player’s status in the league:

• Lock Zone: Players finishing in the Top 24 secure an opportunity with the league next season
• Open Zone: Players finishing 25-48 whose contracts are expiring become free agents
• Drop Zone: Players finishing 49 and below are relegated, with chances to earn their spot back next season

Players who finished in the Top 24 Lock Zone of the Individual Standings at the conclusion of the regular season are guaranteed an opportunity to play in the 2025 LIV Golf League season. Those in the Top 24 whose contracts are expiring following the 2024 season are offered a minimum one-year contract extension by their existing team. If a player in this group decides not to accept the offer from his current team, he will become a free agent and may be signed by another team with an open roster spot. Teams that have open roster spots will fill those positions during free agency.

Sergio Garcia confirms Eugenio Chacarra will not be returning to Fireballs

FREE AGENCY, TRADES AND PLAYER RECRUITMENT

In addition to any Top 24 players who opt to become free agents, players who finished 25th to 48th (Open Zone) whose contracts have expired also become free agents. These players may be re-signed by their previous team or can negotiate a contract with another team that has an open roster spot. Teams are not obligated to re-sign their free agents from the Open Zone and can instead create an open roster spot. Teams with open spots have the option to:

• Sign a Top 24 player who opted to enter free agency
• Sign any player in the Open Zone whose contract has expired
• Sign or trade for a player contracted with a different team if agreed upon by both teams (Note: A team may not recruit a player under contract with another team unless it has received permission from that player’s team to do so)
• Sign a Wild Card player
• Sign the winner of The International Series 2024 Rankings
• Sign the winner of LIV Golf Promotions 2024
• Sign an *external player who was not a regular member of any 2024 LIV Golf team roster

*Note: players must meet a minimum criteria determined by LIV Golf to ensure the competitive integrity of the league

THE INTERNATIONAL SERIES AND LIV GOLF PROMOTIONS

During the LIV Golf League offseason, The International Series is hitting its homestretch – with the winner of The International Series 2024 Rankings guaranteed to compete in the League in 2025. American John Catlin, who was selected by three different teams to compete as a reserve player on the LIV Golf League this past season, currently sits in first place on the International Series rankings with 900.58 points. Three events remain on this year’s 10 tournament International Series schedule, where top players throughout the world have a chance to compete in these elevated global events within the Asian Tour calendar. The remaining tournaments include:

• November 21-24: LINK Hong Kong Open (Hong Kong Golf Club, Hong Kong, China)
• November 27-30: International Series Qatar (Doha Golf Club, Qatar)
• December 4-7: PIF Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers (Riyadh Golf Club, Saudi Arabia)

LIV Golf Promotions also presents an exciting pathway for the world’s leading amateur and professional golfers to play in the LIV Golf League in 2025. The tournament’s second edition will be staged December 12-14 at Riyadh Golf Club in Saudi Arabia’s capital, with four stroke-play rounds over three days, including 36 holes played on the final day. LIV Golf Promotions will offer overall prize money of US $1.5 million, and the top finisher will earn a place in the LIV Golf League next season with the opportunity to be signed by a team. In addition, the top 10 finishers, including ties, will earn full exemption into all 2025 events on The International Series.

Highlighting the global aspect of the LIV Golf League, leading players from all over the world will be eligible to participate. Relegated players finishing 49th and below in the 2024 LIV Golf League standings (the Drop Zone), and those without a team contract for 2025 who finished in the Open Zone also have the opportunity to regain their playing rights for 2025. The deadline for players to register is November 18.

As free agency progresses, player signings will be announced by LIV Golf League teams in the leadup to the 2025 season. The League’s third official campaign tees off February in marquee global markets across Asia, Australia and the Middle East.

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Reports emerged earlier this week that one of the obstacles in the negotiations between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund involves the idea of LIV Golf members—specifically, Jon Rahm and his supposed $300 million signing bonus—returning the money received from their LIV contracts.

That’s not the problem, multiple sources familiar with the talks have told Golf Digest. The real crux is much simpler … and much more complicated. As a preface, yes, there is a set of PGA Tour players who would like LIV defectors to inject their financial windfalls into a theoretical unified ecosystem. Or hope that this prerequisite keeps LIV players from returning altogether.

However, no one involved in the talks with PIF officials seriously believes that will be an option. Enforcing signing bonus clawbacks is legally dubious, to put it mildly, and ultimately the goal is to bring the game back together. It’s also worth remembering that players have mostly been sidelined in these negotiations, so even if the returned money was a want, well, it’s not their call.

As for Rahm’s part in this, it’s no secret that those within the tour view Rahm’s defection as detrimental to the peace accords (although LIV folks will counter it was the tour that broke the detente first by courting private-equity investment), which is why Rahm’s name has likely been leaked in reference to the above reports.

There are real issues to be hammered out between the PGA Tour and PIF coming together, and the first deals with re-assimilation of LIV members to the PGA and DP World tours. It’s not as easy as just letting everyone back. For starters, many LIV players already had tenuous PGA Tour status as is, and that status they did have has run out. Other players—most notably Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia and Louis Oosthuizen—resigned their memberships when leaving for the Saudi circuit.

Hard feelings remain towards the 11 players who sued the PGA Tour, a lawsuit that (according to tour leadership) put the league in a vulnerable financial position that ultimately spurred the framework agreement with PIF. Those 11 are Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford, Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Ian Poulter, Pat Perez, Jason Kokrak, Peter Uihlein and Matt Jones. A majority of tour players had no personal qualms with players chasing Saudi money; why these defectors had to legally hurt their former employer (and employees) is a different matter. A number of individuals on the tour side want separate penalties and conditions for these LIV members.

Yet separate enforcement could cause more legal issues, sources familiar with the matter have told Golf Digest. Same goes for withholding FedEx Cup prize money or leaving players out of the new equity program. Even a proposal that would put LIV players back in Q School to regain their cards is problematic, as there’s the very real chance some LIVers pass on the opportunity and go elsewhere, which—optically speaking—could be bad for the tour.

Specifically, with one player: DeChambeau. Which brings us to perhaps the main question from the tour’s side, which is: Who do they exactly want or need, back? In some corners, the answer is only three:

•Rahm, undoubtedly a top-five player in the game.

•Brooks Koepka, someone who remains in good standing with tour players, and whose major performances threaten to keep LIV relevant during the sport’s four biggest weeks of the year.

•DeChambeau. It’s no secret that, prior to his 2022 departure, DeChambeau was a headache for tour officials behind the scenes. But in the ensuing seasons DeChambeau has gone from a divisive figure into one of the game’s most popular entities, and he’s coming off a season where he captured his second U.S. Open title and finished runner-up at the PGA Championship. The case can be made that DeChambeau is LIV’s best asset.

The appetite for other LIV returns varies. Dustin Johnson is another player who continues to be held in high regard by tour players, although there is some thought Johnson may retire after his LIV deal is over. Cam Smith won the Players and Open Championship two years ago, yet doesn’t hold the global appeal of DeChambeau or Rahm. Joaquin Niemann’s game has had flashes of brilliance, yet his constant complaints about the perceived treatment of LIV players have worn thin at tour headquarters, sources tell Golf Digest. After that, most of LIV’s membership is composed of those who are past their primes or were rank-and-file players. That includes Mickelson, who—given his role in golf’s civil war—most tour leadership would be OK never seeing again.

What will likely happen will be multiple avenues for players to return, sources say. That could include exemptions for major winners and the top-three finishers of LIV’s individual standings (Rahm, Niemann, Garcia this year). Others may get opportunities at the DP World and Korn Ferry tour levels, with Monday qualifying to be open as well. Q School entrance remains up for debate, specifically if players should get a pass from any stages of qualifying. As previously noted, there’s also the chance they don’t want to return, bringing up the second issue: LIV’s future. Getting a PIF-PGA Tour deal past government regulators is not an elementary task; there’s a reason Rory McIlroy stated the “Department of Justice” when asked what’s holding up a potential agreement. Conversely, many of those involved in these negotiations are lawyers and firms that specialize in mergers and antitrust law.

Despite how haphazard and freewheeling the past three years have been in professional golf, this is one point that cannot be made up on the fly. And one of the needs for a deal to get done, sources say, is to have a competitor to the PGA Tour exist in some fashion. That means LIV will likely live on, although likely not in the same form or capacity as its current construction. A team element is expected to persist, and though the focus is on bringing LIV players back to the tour, some element of allowing PGA and DP World tour players to go back and forth is also envisioned, sources tell Golf Digest.

One consistent rumour is that LIV would take over the fall portion of the golf calendar. For the moment, sources say, that is not the plan, as LIV would likely be a year-round circuit. Perhaps most importantly, progress is being made on talks. Sources would not put a timetable on a potential agreement being reached, only pointing to the NFL’s recent approval of private-equity funding helped revive talks after a dormant period. LIV Golf and its return are also just a part of the conversation, as the newly formed PGA Tour Enterprises has future efforts and acquisitions in mind that would only be possible thanks to PIF financial infusion.

Like everything since the schism began, much remains up in the air about the state of professional golf and nothing is certain. But, at least for now, progress is being made towards unification.

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“I’m glad for the opportunity to get back on the horse again,” he said of that recent loss in his homeland. “There may be a misconception that it hit me harder than it maybe did. I didn’t really feel like I necessarily lost the tournament. I felt like Rasmus went out and won it. Shot 31 on the back nine. So yeah, I shouldn’t have missed the green right on 15 and misjudged the first putt on 17. But looking back on Sunday and the support of the crowds and that scene on 18 and everything, it was amazing to be a part of it all.”

With that out of the way, McIlroy was inevitably quizzed on the latest developments (or lack thereof) in the seemingly never-ending PGA Tour/PIF negotiations. Asked for what he felt was holding back a resolution, the Northern Irishman identified the U.S. Department of Justice and the wide range of views prevalent on both the PGA Tour and the LIV Golf League.

“I’d say maybe half the players on LIV want the deal to get done; half probably don’t,” he said. “I’d say it’s probably similar on the PGA Tour. Everyone’s looking out for themselves and their best interests. It would benefit some people for a deal not to get done, but it would obviously benefit some people for a deal to get done.

“When you have a members-run organisation, it complicates things a little bit, especially when players are having to make decisions on the business side of things. The tours want it to happen. The investors certainly want it to happen because they can see the benefit for themselves.”

Still, amidst that apparent maze of opinions, wants and needs, McIlroy was hopeful that an end might just be in sight.

“It seems like the people that are really making the decisions are all rowing in the same direction, which is a really good thing,” he said. “That still doesn’t mean a deal may get done because it’s just a very complicated set of circumstances. But yeah, from what I hear, there’s optimism there, and that’s good to see.”

Rory McIlroy reacts to a shot during the Wednesday Pro-Am at the BMW PGA Championship, the DP World Tour’s flagship event – Warren Little

Complicated but straightforward might also be the verdict when it comes to McIlroy’s thoughts on Jon Rahm and whether he should he be allowed to play in the Ryder Cup. Asked if he could conceive of a European team without the former U.S. Open and Masters champion, McIlroy played, in cricket parlance, a straight bat. As if reading from a DP World Tour rulebook, he cited the applicable regulations.

“He could be injured; his game could go off,” he said. “But the way he’s playing right now and the way he’s played since he turned pro, Jon is a wonderful addition to the European Team. From my understanding, he is following the rules.

“He appealed the decision [to fine and suspended him for playing in LIV events opposite DP World Tour events] so that makes him eligible, as long as he plays his minimum number of events. I wouldn’t expect a member of the tour to not know what the rules are to be able to play a Ryder Cup and be eligible. And as long as you meet that criteria, then you’re OK to play.”

Not finished with the Ryder Cup theme—it never really goes away for the U.K. media—another LIV player, Ian Poulter, provided the next question winging its way towards McIlroy. Earlier this week, the Englishman revealed his hope that he might still be a Ryder Cup captain sometime in the future.

That isn’t going to happen, of course. DP World Tour regulations (them again!) state that, to be eligible for the captaincy, a player must be a tour member.

So, as things stand, Poulter will never lead the Old World in the biennial contest with the United States. But, angling for an angle, the media posed the question to McIlroy: Would you have any objections to being captained by Ian Poulter or Lee Westwood or whoever else?

“It’s such a grey area,” he said. “There’s some that I would be OK with and others I wouldn’t be OK with. I think it’s hard because we don’t really see them anymore. You need someone around that’s comfortable. Look at what Luke [Donald] has done. He’s really made an effort to come over. He played in the Czech Republic. He was in Switzerland. He’s making an effort to be around the up-and-comers that haven’t had a chance yet to be on a team.

“With the guys that left like Poulter and Westwood, how can these young up and comers build a rapport with them when they are never here? You can’t see them. I think that’s a really important part of a Ryder Cup and a Ryder Cup captaincy. I’m not saying that Poulter doesn’t have the credentials to be a Ryder Cup captain. But with the current state of where everything is, you need someone that’s around and showing their face as much as they can. Right now, that honestly just can’t be them because they are elsewhere.”

There was just time for one last potential curveball. And again, McIlroy made his feelings clear. While there might be benefits to the DP World Tour breaking from any connection with the PGA Tour and in turn benefiting from the possibility of Saudi money, that isn’t necessarily the end result he would prefer to see.

“If things don’t materialise with the PGA Tour, it would maybe bring the European Tour back to like the ’80s and ’90s when there was like really two strong tours,” he said. “But it keeps the game divided, and I don’t like that. I really want the game to come back together. It would be Plan B. It would be maybe an alternative to the best solution.

“Selfishly, as a European, it would be wonderful to get that investment and to use that money in the right way for this tour. But it still keeps the game divided, which I just can’t quite get on board with. I’d love to see everything and everyone come back together.”

And with one last cough, he was gone.

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Take, for instance, new reporting from Bloomberg on Tuesday which states that a potential armistice “inched closer” during a meeting between the PGA Tour and PIF last week. On its own, that’s good news, but it comes with a major—and potentially very messy—caveat:

“Some PGA Tour players” reportedly want LIV players to pay back the massive sums given to them by LIV Golf before being granted a return to their former employer.

. @business says after meeting last week, an agreement between the @PGATOUR and PIF on financial details "inched closer."

More: https://t.co/XnNoI66IQE pic.twitter.com/wlfT7JzZxh

— Josh Carpenter (@JoshACarpenter) September 17, 2024

According to Bloomberg, other financial makeweights such as LIV players paying PGA Tour and DP World Tour fines, donating their money to charity or forfeiting future earnings have reportedly been floated, but LIV pros are said to be unwilling to agree to any deal that penalises them for joining the disruptor league.

It should be noted that Golf Digest’s own sources have not independently confirmed these rumours, but fact and fiction have been difficult to parse throughout this ordeal. The one thing we can say for sure is that money (or “obnoxious greed” as Phil Mickelson once called it) has been the driving force of the division since the very start.

So what comes next? As is the case with all disagreements, an eventual compromise. The speed and shape of that compromise, however, seemingly depends on the influence of the PGA Tour players endorsing financial sanctions for the LIV ex-pats. While the idea of LIV pros giving their career paydays to charity, having their future wages garnished or simply paying back money that already sits in their bank accounts seems as unrealistic as cats and dogs living together in harmony, if the voices calling for it are loud enough, this impasse could very well stretch on through the winter.

Main Image: IconSportswire

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By Dan Rapaport
RIVIERA MAYA, Mexico — Greg Norman is fronting a group that will pump money into the Asian Tour, but its eventual goal is to start a new tour that will compete with the PGA Tour, and it’s complicated because it’s Saudi money, and there’s also another upstart tour without Saudi money, but its backers want to work with the PGA Tour rather than overtake it.

Got all that?

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Yes, if one shadowy challenger to the establishment wasn’t enough, there are two. Last week, Greg Norman was officially named CEO of LIV Golf Investments, a Saudi Arabian-backed organisation that will invest $200 million and host 10 events on the Asian Tour beginning next year. Some of that money will go toward prize money, but perhaps, even more, will go towards appearance fees, which are not permitted on the PGA Tour.

Not wanting to cede the spotlight, Andrew Gardiner outlined to ESPN his vision for the Premier Golf League, a separate group also looking to change the dynamics in men’s professional golf. A main difference between his organization and Norman’s, as cheekily referenced above, is that Gardiner’s vision is for the PGL to host 18 events that would exist under the PGA Tour umbrella, rather than seek to overtake it. The events would reportedly each have $20 million purses—which equals the new purse for the Players Championship, the highest on the PGA Tour schedule this year—and, crucially, pay the last-place finisher $400,000.

The common denominator in both proposals is a white whale tour players have coveted for decades: guaranteed money. It’s the reason these proposals remain alive despite the PGA Tour’s repeated attempts to squash them, and at the heart of a debate that seemingly is only getting more heated.

Professional golf is perhaps the most meritocratic of professional sports, at least in terms of money doled out by the league itself. How much a player makes per week is a direct result of his on-course performance. It’s been that way for decades and it’s part of the game’s appeal; every man is equal on the first tee Thursday morning.

Contrast the model with team sports, where a player signs a contract to play for a certain amount of money. In the NBA and MLB, these contracts are mostly guaranteed regardless of performance or injury status. If James Harden has a terrible season, he still makes the $40 million he was promised. It’s slightly different in football, where teams are rather stingy with their guarantees to protect against injury risk. But players fight for every dollar of guaranteed money they can get, and the best ones get enough to take care of multiple generations.

And yet in golf, 82-time PGA Tour winner Tiger Woods and one-time winner Joel Dahmen receive the same paycheck for finishing 10th. Which, according to Joel Dahmen, is patently ridiculous.

“On course, the top guys don’t get enough,” Dahmen said on Wednesday ahead of this week’s World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba. “Look, I’m not selling a single ticket. Maybe to a couple buddies, but I probably gave them free tickets anyway. I’m not bringing anyone here. I’m not adding a ton of value outside of maybe some Twitter stuff. The top guys who actually move the needle, who get people to watch, absolutely do not make enough.” Indeed, the player who received the most money directly from the PGA Tour—$7.6 million plus $15 million more for winning the FedEx Cup—during the 2020-21 season was Patrick Cantlay, a top-10 ranked player but not a global superstar.

It’s a point that Norman himself hammered home in an interview with Golf Digest on Monday.

“Every time I went to play somewhere around the world [outside the PGA Tour], I got an appearance fee because I’m an independent contractor,” Norman said. “You get paid appearance fees for what reason? You can put buns on seats, you can increase TV ratings, and if you can do that you bring in hospitality and sponsorship dollars. It’s a win-win for everybody.”

The play-for-pay, as opposed to pay-to-play, model is entrenched in the tour’s legal relationship with its players, who are, all together now, independent contractors. Whereas James Harden is an employee of the Brooklyn Nets, Brooks Koepka is an employee of no one. “Being my own boss is nice,” he says. “I like that.” The good part of that is players can, with certain restrictions, make their own schedule. The bad part of that is players run their own businesses.

“We have to pay for all of our travel. We pay for our physical therapy,” Dahmen says. “We pay for our food. We pay for lodging. [Team-sport athletes], they fly on their team jet. They use their team’s trainers. They have trainers provided by the team. It’s all in-house. They have basically no expenses. We have so many.”

Mike Ehrmann
Joel Dahmen, who has one win in his PGA Tour career, acknowledges that other players on tour draw far more fans than he does—and should be paid accordingly.

Which is palatable, so long as a player’s game and body remain in decent enough shape to play well and earn a good chunk of the purses available each week. If he misses a bunch of cuts, no paychecks from the tour. If he gets injured, his status is protected but the checks do not flow in. And so the prospect of guaranteed money—and lots, lots of it—gets Norman and Gardiner sit-down meetings with the big-boys agents, which have been going on throughout the year.

The PGA Tour responded to these flirtations by creating the $40 million Player Impact Program, a way to compensate the 10 biggest stars for something not directly related to their on-course performance. The tour is also giving each player who competes in at least 15 events this season a $50,000 bonus. Dahmen believes there is much, much more where that came from.

“The PGA Tour has really deep pockets. They magically come up with $40 million for PIP and then there paying us all 50 grand to play 15 events, which is another X million dollars. That’s like, $50 million that they just magically found laying around overnight. The money is there. There’s a way to do it.”

Justin Thomas, a strong candidate to receive some of that PIP cash, was asked Wednesday if he agrees that stars are not properly compensated on the PGA Tour.

“Maybe in the past, but I think with stuff like the Player Impact Program and purses and everything going up, I think it’s becoming that way,” Thomas said. “It doesn’t matter what you do or what sport you play or whatever it is, there’s always going to be a handful or a group of guys that push the revenue or push the interest. There’s plenty of guys and plenty of stories out here, but for me to come out here and say that I hold the same weight as Tiger Woods or I hold the same weight as Phil Mickelson, that’s just not realistic. Guys should be compensated for that … I think that was something that maybe wasn’t addressed as much in the past, but is a lot now.”

The PGL’s ambitious vision includes a proposal to convert the PGA Tour from a 501(c)6 non-profit organization to a for-profit PGA Tour Inc.—and, notably, to make the players 50 percent owners of the league. Multiple players say this would be an increase from the current arrangement in which they claim they see somewhere in the 25-percent range of the tour’s income. (A PGA Tour spokesperson says that the tour pays out 54 percent of its “consolidated” revenues to players.) But the PGL would likely require players to compete in all 18 events, which could jeopardize their status as independent contractors.

These are the types of issues guys are now discussing with each other on driving ranges and in practice rounds. It’s why their agents are taking crash-courses in labor law. With alternatives on the horizon, at least potentially, the players have a very powerful weapon at their disposal: leverage. Often the only way to motivate a king to act is to threaten his reign.

“I think that’s kind of been the main thing that’s come out of this,” Thomas said, “is, look, we can better our product and we can get better because of stuff like this. We can learn from it. I just think that a lot of it was honestly the players not knowing and also maybe the Tour not understanding that it could be done differently and that the players even felt that way.”

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