An update was given on the ongoing merger between PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and DP World on Wednesday at The New York Times DealBook Summit. According to PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour will be meeting with various investors in the lead-up to the merger’s December 31st deadline. Monahan also revealed that he’d meet with the Public Investment Fund (PIF) governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan next week.
“When this gets finalized, the PGA Tour is going to be in a position that I talked about earlier, where again, the athletes are owners in their sport, and you’ve got not only the PIF, but you’ve likely got another co-investor, with significant experience in business, in sport and brand that’s going to help take the PGA Tour to another level and help us take share from other sports and even be more competitive,” he said.
Since the unexpected merger announcement in June, developments have been rather scarce due to the secrecy of the arrangements. But despite various setbacks, including antitrust concerns from the U.S. Justice Department and LIV Tour’s Saudi backing, many officials are optimistic that the merger could go through.
“I think we’re more motivated now to do a deal, and that’s of course the PIF, the PGA Tour, and ourselves, to try to take the framework to the next step, to sign a definitive agreement which unifies the game, which I believe is in the best interests of global golf,” said DP World Tour chief executive Keith Pelley last month. “I’m optimistic that we can move these conversations on in the next month.”
That said, many PGA golf players are still not content with that secrecy. Tiger Woods, who recently joined the PGA policy board, felt blindsided by the deal and by the lack of any call on golfers’ opinions on the merger. It didn’t help that Woods has previously been strongly against LIV Golf’s involvement with Saudi Arabia.
“My reaction was surprised, just like I’m sure a lot of the players were taken aback,” said Woods. “So quickly without any input or any information about it, it was just thrown out there. I was very surprised that the process was what it was,”
“We were very frustrated with what happened and we took steps going forward to ensure that we were not going to be left out of the process like we were,” Woods continued.
