The world of golf has been left stunned as the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and rival Saudi-backed LIV circuit announced a shock agreement to merge.
The organisations said in a joint news release on Tuesday they will work together to allow a process for LIV Golf players to reapply for membership on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, formerly known as the European Tour, following the 2023 season.
The bombshell announcement was slammed by many PGA Tour players who were left in the dark about the merger. The mending of relations comes after a very public war of words, mounting tensions and a bitter legal battle.
"After two years of disruption and distraction, this is a historic day for the game we all know and love," said PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, previously a vocal critic of LIV.
"How did we go from a confrontation to now being partners? We just realised we were better off together than we were fighting or apart."
No details were given as to how the agreement will impact the current competitive golf landscape, including eligibility for this year's Ryder Cup.
The LIV Golf series is bankrolled by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund and critics have accused it of being a vehicle for the country to attempt to improve its reputation in the face of criticism of its human rights record.
The announcement of the merger includes an agreement to end all pending litigation between the participating parties. Additionally, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) will make a capital investment into the new entity to facilitate its growth and success.
PIF, which owns more than 90 per cent of LIV, plans to invest billions of dollars in order to have a sizeable minority stake in the combined company, a person familiar with the matter said.
"Today is a very exciting day for this special game and the people it touches around the world," PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan said.
Monahan said the agreement was in the best interest of the members of the PGA Tour, although he described a closed-door meeting with the players on Tuesday as "intense" and "heated".
"It puts us in a position of control and allows us to partner with the PIF in a constructive and productive way," he said.
LIV Golf, which features 54-hole events with no cuts instead of the traditional 72-hole format, launched in 2022 and lured big-name players away from the rival circuits with staggering sums of prize money.
The PIF will initially be the exclusive investor in the new entity and the board of directors will include Al-Rumayyan as chairman and the PGA Tour's Monahan as CEO.
After years of acrimony the deal seems to have come together quickly with little fuss and no leaks - despite it being one of the biggest commercial stories in the history of sport.
Players who made the move to LIV Golf include Phil Mickelson, former world No.1 Dustin Johnson, reigning PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka and 2022 British Open winner Cameron Smith. "Awesome day today", Mickelson tweeted on Tuesday.
Some PGA Tour players took to social media to express their surprise at having not been informed of the agreement before its announcement.
"I love finding out morning news on Twitter," wrote two-times major champion Collin Morikawa.
Former US president Donald Trump, who owns three courses that are part of LIV Golf's 14-event schedule in 2023, celebrated the deal in a social media post.
Advocacy groups 9/11 Families United and Democracy for the Arab World Now were among the organisations that denounced the deal.
"...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, and finance al Qaeda and the murder of our loved ones," 9/11 Families United said in a statement.
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