The last two years of golf have been marked by off-the-course drama as much as any tournament exploits, and with a key target date looming for a potential merger between previous enemies LIV Golf and the PGA Tour, that will likely remain the case for some time.
LIV Golf was founded in 2021, backed by Saudi Arabia’s $700 billion Public Investment Fund, with plans to become the best golf tour in the world. “Any sport that has consumers globally and domestically is a sport we’re interested in as an investment opportunity,” Saudi Investment minister Khalid Al-Falih said at the time. No one could have predicted how things would play out since then.
Here’s how golf’s civil war has transpired to date, and how we’ve come within days of a potential peace deal.
October 2021: Former world No. 1 Greg Norman is announced as the head of the recently formed LIV Golf Investments, which promises to put on a 10-tournament series starting in 2022. At least $200 million is pledged for prize money.
March 2022: Norman announces the schedule for LIV Golf’s first eight tournaments. By this point, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has committed to banning any players that join the upstart league. Norman responded that the Tour did not have that power.
May 2022: The first field of LIV Golf competitors is announced, headlined by former world No. 1 Dustin Johnson. Other participants include Sergio García, Talor Gooch, Kevin Na, Louis Oosthuizen, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood. Phil Mickelson would also be added to the debut contenders soon after.
June 2022: On the same day that LIV golfers began the first event outside London, the PGA suspended 17 members, declaring them ineligible for U.S.-based events.
“These players have made their choice for their own financial-based reasons,” Monahan wrote in a memo to players. “They can’t demand the same PGA Tour membership benefits, considerations, opportunities and platform as you. That expectation disrespects you, our fans and our partners.”
Charl Schwartzel would go on to win the first event, taking home $4.75 million. Another former world No. 1, Brooks Koepka, joined the series later in the month.
July 2022: Reports emerge that the PGA Tour is being investigated by the Department of Justice over potentially anticompetitive behavior. Investigators specifically focused on tactics used to discourage players from joining LIV as well as the U.S. organization’s ties with other organizations, including Augusta National Golf Club.
August 2022: Mickelson and 10 other LIV golfers file an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour. Some of them also sought a temporary restraining order allowing them to play in Tour events. In response, Monahan issued another memo, promising to fight the effort.
Meanwhile, LIV signed up more athletes, including Marc Leishman, Joaquin Niemann, Cameron Smith and Harold Varner III. On the other side of things, Tiger Woods led a three-hour, players-only meeting in Delaware in the hopes of increasing unity among PGA Tour loyalists.
September 2022: While Mickelson welcomed the possibility of a PGA Tour and LIV Golf truce—“the best solution is for us to come together,” he said during a LIV event in Chicago—Monahan shot down the concept.
“I think it’s impractical when you look at the fact that certain players have sued the PGA Tour, their employer has sued the PGA Tour,” he told ESPN. “It’s not in the cards. It hasn’t been in the cards and it’s not in the cards. I think we’ve been pretty consistent on that front.”
October 2022: Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces team wins the inaugural LIV Golf Team Championship at Trump National Doral Golf Club, earning $16 million to split four ways. Viewership averages were measured in the tens of thousands.
November 2022: Jimmy Dunne is added to the PGA Tour Policy Board as an independent director. His task, according to reporter Michael Bamberger, is to “ensure that more elite players do not leave.” He would come to play a large role in the year to come.
January 2023: LIV Golf announces a multiyear deal with The CW Network as its exclusive U.S. broadcast home. Saturday and Sunday action would air on the network, with Friday play streaming on the company’s app.
February 2023: A court ruling from U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen giving the PGA Tour the ability to subpoena the head of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) as part of ongoing litigation increases the chance of a settlement between the two parties, in the eyes of Sportico legal analyst Michael McCann.
May 2023: Monahan and Yasir al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, meet discreetly in Venice. The discussions are seen as a key step as the PGA Tour and LIV moved closer together.
June 2023: The PGA Tour announces plans to merge its golf competitions with help from Saudi Arabia’s PIF.
“The parties have signed an agreement that combines PIF’s golf-related commercial businesses and rights (including LIV Golf) with the commercial businesses and rights of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour into a new, collectively owned, for-profit entity to ensure that all stakeholders benefit from a model that delivers maximum excitement and competition among the game’s best players,” the Tour said in a statement.
Soon after, Monahan would take a five-week leave of absence for what was initially described as a “medical situation.”
November 2023: Speaking at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit, Monahan reiterates that the Tour has a “firm target” to complete its pre-announced deal with LIV by Dec. 31. He also discussed the possibility of adding additional private equity capital as part of the transformation, with players possibly receiving equity in the newly formed PGA Tour Enterprises, too.
“The PGA Tour is going to be in a position where the athletes are owners in their sport,” Monahan said. “What’s most important to our players is that they go from the model of being independent contractors to being owners.”
December 2023: The PGA Tour announces that it has selected an outside investment venture, Strategic Sports Group, to join negotiations about supporting a restructured golf system. Strategic Sports Group investors include Mark Attanasio, Arthur Blank, Gerry Cardinale, Cohen Private Ventures, Fenway Sports Group, Mike Gordon, Wyc Grousbeck, John Henry, HighPost Capital, Marc Lasry, Tom Ricketts, and Tom Werner. The news followed world No. 3 golfer Jon Rahm’s signing with LIV as both sides jockey for negotiating table leverage.
