The ongoing truce talks between the PGA Tour and PIF, now deep into their second year, are the worst saga in sports. Progress has been measured in inches, not miles. The reporting has been shrouded in hearsay, rumours and bias. Imagine the bitterness and pettiness of an MLB lockout and multiply it two-fold, and that pretty much paints the picture.

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.

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.

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