Today marks one year since the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund entered into a framework agreement that stunned the golf world.
It was a jarring development that blindsided most of golf’s key stakeholders. The sight of Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan sitting next to PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan during a TV hit for CNBC felt like a fever dream.
Immediately, grand conclusions and rash generalizations were being made—and justifiably so, given that a partnership between these bitter rivals seemed inconceivable.
“The Saudis own professional golf now,” thousands posted on social media.
The framework agreement, which was erroneously touted as a “merger” during the initial rollout, promised a reunification of the professional game. LIV Golf, which is bankrolled by the PIF, appeared destined to dissolve, as most concluded the game’s best would reunite in one place that already enjoyed infrastructure and corporate sponsorship stability. The original framework agreement said that an “empirical data-driven evaluation” would be conducted to determine LIV’s future and that Monahan “will determine the ongoing plan and strategy.”
Most thought that meant LIV’s days were numbered.
But one year later, the framework agreement looks meaningless.
Meanwhile, LIV continues to push forward with no tangible signs of slowing down.
Other than the halt of a court battle—neither side was interested in the discovery process and the Tour didn’t want to be drowned in legal fees—little has been accomplished.
Multiple deadlines have been kicked into a nebulous future.
The so-called ceasefire called on June 6, 2023, apparently didn’t include Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton eventually leaving for LIV.
The Tour turned to private equity firm Strategic Sports Group for a $3-billion investment into a new for-profit arm of the Tour, giving players equity and complicating logistics for a Tour-PIF deal.
Jimmy Dunne, a critical catalyst of the framework agreement, resigned from the Tour board due to frustration over the lack of negotiating progress.
Rory McIlroy—who said in June 2023 that he “still hates LIV” and would retire before joining the league—backed his way off the Tour board before trying to reverse course, ultimately landing on a transaction committee alongside Tiger Woods. He now is in favor of a deal to bring the Tour and LIV together in some way.
And while wheels have been spinning over the past year, negotiations between the Tour and the PIF have, by all accounts, been sporadic and yet to bear fruit. The original framework agreement was a handshake supposedly leading to something official.
As Judge Smails would say: “Well? We’re waiting.”
Common sense screams that professional golf can’t move forward in its current state. TV ratings are mediocre at best. The Tour’s product is watered down. LIV can’t draw any reasonable audience at all.
It makes sense that the Tour and LIV need a resolution to bring the best golfers together in one place. Whether it’s one global tour, LIV becoming a fall-only series or the two leagues otherwise coexisting as part of a cohesive golf calendar, something should happen.
But common sense has been losing, 9&8, on repeat. It has left professional golf twisting in the wind, uncertain of what the future holds.
This is LIV’s third season of play, although it feels like we’ve been trapped in this timeline for a decade. The circuit just completed the eighth event of a 14-tournament slate—and most of those events have been going up against marquee Tour stops. LIV events usually finish on Sundays around the same time as the Tour’s events finish. Ratings are poor for both, but the Tour is still a clear winner in that department. LIV has exceeded 400,000 viewers just one time and that came when the Tour couldn’t complete play at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. There is no meaningful TV contract.
Is LIV additive to professional golf? Not really. What if there was a new baseball league that used 20 percent of MLB’s workforce? We would lament how the MLB is worse off and the other league pales in comparison. There is nothing additive about a fracture that stays fractured.
For some reason (and I think we all know the reason), LIV has ardent support online. I’ve yet to meet an actual person who watches LIV on a regular basis. To be fair, a lot of my golf friends are only watching the majors at this point, anyway.
We’ve now reached a point where LIV—despite not being anywhere remotely close to a functional business—would be justified to play a heavier international schedule, trying to cash in on sponsorships and hospitality revenue from golf-starved parts of the world.
The idea has always been for LIV’s 13 franchises to hold value, although what that value is hasn’t become clear yet. It’s tough to invest in something you don’t know whether it will exist in a few years.
But LIV is acting like it will exist for many years to come. There are team general managers and small sponsorship deals. They’ve continued to make seemingly serious hires for seemingly serious positions. New, bigger office space in New York and London is on the way. The league says it employs more than 200 full-time people around the world.
These are not moves an organization makes if it feels like the end is near. LIV is operating like it will continue to be a standalone league for many years.
“LIV Golf is here to stay,” said Lawrence Burian, LIV Golf’s chief operating officer. “The addition of Jon (Rahm) reemphasizes that our league is not slowing down. We are continuing to invest and build aggressively for LIV’s long-term and exciting future.’’
Where exactly is this heading? LIV marches on but so few people care. The product is inherently bland, whether you are conflicted by the money source or not. Golf fans continue to lose.
If LIV was meant to be a Trojan horse so the Saudis could rub elbows with corporate American giants who invest in the Tour, why hasn’t that happened?
Most of LIV’s current crop of players are on three-year contracts that expire shortly. Will there be an overhaul of the league roster? If Tour players haven’t been enticed by the money to this point, why would they leave now?
So much remains unanswered. One question I keep coming back to is how many years of unsuccessful business will it take before the Saudis give up on LIV? At some point, even they have to make money to continue.
Is LIV meant to be on its own in the future or was it one of Phil Mickelson’s “chess moves” to reach some happy pro golf future?
We don’t know. Nobody knows.
For now, LIV is acting like it’s here to stay.
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