The winners and losers of the shock PGA Tour and LIV Golf merger

The stunning news of a merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf was announced on Tuesday, with the development drawing an end to the bitter civil war that left a cloud hanging over the sport.

Leaders of the two organisations delivered the bombshell announcement, which they claim will drag golf into a ‘new era’.

The merger blindsided players and executives, with many discovering the news of a the unlikely truce through social media or via a letter from PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan.

Loyal PGA stars have expressed surprise and a sense of betrayal after shunning lucrative moves to join LIV, while defectors to the rebel tour have largely embraced the announcement.

Mail Sport has rounded up the winners and the losers from the surprise end to the dispute, after 12 months of unprecedented disruption in the men’s professional game.

WINNERS 

Yasir Al-Rumayyan and the Saudi Public Investment Fund

Al-Rumayyan has been installed as the chairman of the new entity which will be established following the merger.

The governor of the Public Investment Fund had been the driving force behind LIV Golf and his new role confirms his status as arguably the most powerful player in the sport.

Al-Rumayyan, who is also the chairman of Newcastle United, had recently been ordered to produce documents in a US lawsuit involving the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. 

The move was challenged by PIF on the grounds he is ‘a sitting minister of the Saudi government’. 

Al-Rumayyan will no longer have to fulfill the order after the merger led to an end to the litigation process. 

The assertion had led to calls for the Premier League to probe Newcastle’s takeover, with its approval having centred on ‘legally-binding assurances’ that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would not have any control over the club.

LIV golfers

‘Awesome day today,’ Phil Mickelson tweeted upon the news of merger, with the post signed off with a smiling emoji.

The 52-year-old will certainly feel smug right now, with the six-time major winner having backed the right horse in this dispute.

Mickelson raked in an eye-watering sum of $200m (£170m) to defect to LIV Golf, making the loss of several sponsors a mere drop in the ocean.

The American had previously claimed he had wanted to see changes to the PGA Tour before his decision to leave, which he later insisted had been introduced following the challenge posed by LIV.

Mickelson will now be among the LIV golfers brought back into the fold, while having cashed in significantly during the civil war.

Brooks Koepka was also not shy in hiding his delight at the merger, asking for a ‘welfare check’ on Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee, who had been one of his biggest critics.

The PGA Tour has said there will be a ‘fair and objective process for any players who desire to re-apply for membership’, which all presumably will. 

Ryder Cup

The Ryder Cup had risked being collateral damage in golf’s civil war, with European stalwarts Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson, Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia among those to have joined LIV Golf.

The resignation of their DP World Tour memberships meant the quartet became ineligible to compete in the famous event.

The merger and process for players to reapply for membership should lead to all of Europe’s top stars being available again for the Ryder Cup.

Whether this will come in time for September’s competition in Rome is another question.

Golf

The game as a whole could arguably be viewed as winners from the merger.

For a start, the merger has brought to an end to the civil war which had been tearing the sport apart.

An end to bickering between the rival tours will come as a relief to many, particularly fans of the sport.

Further investment from the PIF is likely to provide benefits to golf and its stars, with a reported £1billion cash injection claimed to be on the way.  

Regardless of the controversy surrounding Saudi Arabia’s backing of the sport, its financing will carry advantages.

LOSERS 

Rory McIlroy

The immediate question many had after hearing of the shock merger was ‘What will Rory McIlroy be thinking?’

The Northern Irishman has been the poster boy for the PGA Tour, with the four-time major winner leading their fight against LIV Golf.

McIlroy had been by far the most vocal critic of the breakaway, claiming last July that ‘there’s no room in the golf world’ for the circuit and added: ‘If LIV went away tomorrow, I’d be super happy.’

He later said ‘If you believe in something, I think you have to speak up, and I believe very strongly about this. ‘I hate what it’s doing to the game of golf. I hate it. I really do.’

McIlroy has earned admiration from many for his stance, with the star having turned down an offer reportedly worth in the region of £400million to join LIV to remain loyal to the PGA Tour. 

There has been both sympathy and mockery aimed in his direction after declining the offer and seeing his peers cash in, only for the tour he was defending to merge with one he opposed.

He had also not been shy of criticising the LIV defectors, with his friendship with Sergio Garcia notably breaking down, while there was the tee-gate incident with Patrick Reed and a war of words with Phil Mickelson.

McIlroy’s stance has softened in recent months, while he openly admitted the dispute had taken a toll on him.

‘I needed a break for me. Obviously, after the disappointment of Augusta, and it’s been a pretty taxing 12 months mentally, so it was nice to just try to disconnect and get away from it. But it’s nice to come back and feel refreshed,’ McIlroy said last month after withdrawing from RBC Heritage.

He must be wondering what it was all for in the end.

Greg Norman

The CEO and commissioner of LIV Golf had unsurprisingly been a staunch defender of the breakaway series since being hired in the summer of 2021.

Norman’s close ties with several of the game’s stars had been credited with helping LIV Golf to lure big names to the series on attractive deals.

The two-time major winner has been the figurehead of the series and was vocal in taking on its critics, namely Tiger Woods and McIlroy.

He has faced the brunt of questions about Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, as well as criticism for his responses after claiming ‘we all make mistakes’ when asked about the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

LIV Golf had denied last November that Norman could be replaced, insisting he would remain their ‘CEO and Commissioner’. As recently as April, the Australian was heading up the promotion of LIV Golf on their first stop in Adelaide.

While he may have got his wish for the tours to co-exist, Norman appears to have been cut adrift after his name was absent from the statement announcing the merger.

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), said on CNBC that he had reached out to Norman just before going on air.

‘I made a call just before this and of course he is a partner with us, and all the stakeholders that we have with us they had the call right before this interview,’ Al-Rumayyan said.

Having been the figurehead to launch the rival series, Norman may no longer be viewed as useful to LIV Golf with the merger agreed and his public clashes with PGA stars potentially a hindrance moving forwards.

PGA Tour

A merger or a takeover?

Jay Monahan has insisted that the PGA remain in control of the tour, with their board set to oversee golf’s operations.

Yet, with the PIF now the sole investor into the new entity which will be established, they are ultimately going to be the ones calling the shots.

As for the PGA players, Michael Kim posed the question about how it could be a ‘player-run organisation’ when they had been left in the dark over a deal.

Jay Monahan

The PGA Commissioner could be considered both a winner and a loser, but we are leaning towards the latter. While he has been appointed as the chief executive of the new entity, Monahan’s future will ultimately come down to how loyal the PIF are to him.

Monahan hailed the move as a ‘momentous day’ for the sport, claiming that ‘our game, our players and fans will no doubt benefit for years to come.’ Yet he has been forced into an embarrassing climb down.

He has already faced calls to resign following his U-turn, with PGA loyalists having reacted with fury to the merger.

After all, it was only a year ago at the Canadian Open that Monahan attacked LIV Golf by asking his players, rhetorically: ‘Have you ever had to apologise for being a member of the PGA Tour?’

Monahan’s previous comments have come back to bite him. 

‘I recognise everything I’ve said in the past in my past positions. I recognise that people are going to call me a hypocrite,’ he said. ‘Anytime I said anything I said it with the information I had in the moment.’

Victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack have also slammed Monahan as appearing to have become a ‘Saudi shill’. One group, 9/11 Families United, released a statement condemning the merger, saying its members are ‘shocked and deeply offended.’

‘PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan co-opted the 9/11 community last year in the PGA’s unequivocal agreement that the Saudi LIV project was nothing more than sportswashing of Saudi Arabia’s reputation,’ said chairman Terry Strada, whose husband died in the World Trade Center’s North Tower.

‘But now the PGA and Monahan appear to have become just more paid Saudi shills, taking billions of dollars to cleanse the Saudi reputation so that Americans and the world will forget how the Kingdom spent their billions of dollars before 9/11 to fund terrorism, spread their vitriolic hatred of Americans, and finance al Qaeda and the murder of our loved ones.’

Henrik Stenson

While the vast majority of LIV golfers will be considered as clear winners from golf’s civil war, the Swede’s decision to sign to join the breakaway came at a cost.

Stenson was stripped of Europe’s Ryder Cup captaincy last year following his decision to defect, despite claiming he had made ‘specific arrangements’ in an attempt to fulfil his captaincy obligations.

The former Open winner had said he was ‘hugely disappointed not to be allowed to continue’ in the role, with Luke Donald installed as his replacement.

With the merger announced, will Stenson be wondering whether he should have gambled on a resolution which would have enabled him to keep the honour of being Europe’s captain?

A reported £34million contract to join LIV Golf and a further £3.4m for winning his debut event on the series in Bedminster last year may have eased the blow.