LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman ready for live commentary before the final round of the LIV Golf Mayakoba tournament at El Chamaleon Golf Course. Mandatory Credit: Erich Schlegel
Although not involved in the negotiations, LIV’s chief executive and commissioner Norman, who lives in Palm Beach Gardens, had a positive message for the staff. Norman, who was left out of the negotiations and not mentioned in any of the news releases associated with the agreement, told more than 100 people on a 30-minute call that LIV will see no operational changes and that work is already being done on a 2025 schedule.
“The spigot is now wide open for commercial sponsorships, blue-chip companies, TV networks,” he said. “LIV is and will continue to be a standalone enterprise. Our business model will not change. We changed history and we’re not going anywhere.”
Players losing trust in Monahan
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan talks with the media during a press conference at East Lake Golf Club ahead of the 2023 Tour Championship
The main topic of conversation at the U.S. Open at the Los Angeles Country Club was the announcement the previous week. Some players were open about expressing their anger and lack of trust in the tour and Monahan.
“I think it gets to a point where you want to have faith in management, and I want to have faith that this is the best thing for all of us, but it’s clear that that’s not the consensus,” Jon Rahm said. “I think the general feeling is that a lot of people feel a bit of betrayal from management.”
Those words were prophetic coming from a man who, six months later, became the biggest name to defect from the PGA Tour.
Agreement dissected on Capitol Hill
(L-R) Chief Operating Officer of the PGA Tour Ron Price and PGA Tour Policy Board member Jimmy Dunne testify during a Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee on Investigations hearing examining the business deal between the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia’s LIV Golf on Capitol Hill July 11, 2023, in Washington, DC. In early June, the PGA Tour and LIV Golf announced plans for a framework agreement to create a new global golf entity, which will be heavily funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
Matthew Wolff lines up his putt on the 18th green during the final round of the LIV Golf Las Vegas tournament at Las Vegas Country Club. Mandatory Credit: Lucas Peltier.
How has that gone?
At first, we were told that the “merger” — later reframed as an “agreement” — would be finalized by Dec. 31 and the PIF would be writing a very large check (somewhere between $1 billion and $2 billion) to boost PGA Tour Enterprises. But New Year’s Eve came and went without a deal, and now, one year later, we appear no closer than we were six months ago.
And after a brief cease-fire, some members, from both sides, resumed taking shots at each other, and LIV Golf, which has headquarters in West Palm Beach, went back to poaching PGA Tour stars.
“It’s messy, and it has been and it seems to get messier every week,” Seth Waugh, CEO of the PGA of America, said at the PGA Championship. “I don’t think the game is big enough for two tours like that, and I think we are diluting the game in a way that is not healthy.
“I hope there’s urgency because I do think it’s doing damage to the tour, to the game. … I just don’t think it’s a healthy situation right now.”
Here is a timeline of the ebbs and flows of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf when
it comes to a possible merger:
