On June 6, 2023, the PGA Tour and LIV Golf publicly announced a merger offer to combine commercial operations. The agreement would merge both parties into one for-profit entity. The proposed framework was set up by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, the financier of LIV Golf. The PIF governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan would be the co-chairman to the commissioner of the PGA Tour, Jay Monahan. PIF would also invest $1.5 billion. As of April 2025, negotiations between the two have come to a standstill.
The Benefits Of a Merger
Golf’s momentum is being killed by the split. Fans are sick of half-empty leaderboards. Golf needs to put all its stars together for the sake of global appeal. The LIV-PGA Tour split caused a rift in professional golf, deluding the talent pool, and is causing weaker events.
The best players no longer compete against each other regularly. Major championships are now the only place where fans can see all of golf’s top stars play head-to-head. Even so, world rankings don’t exactly reflect their current form. The Official World Golf Rankings have been spiraling into chaos. The money isn’t going to go away. LIV isn’t going to collapse. Neither LIV nor the PGA Tour are going anywhere anytime soon. They might as well absorb the threat, reshape it, and control it.
The PGA Tour Is Pro Golf
Legacy still matters. The PGA has all the prestige and history. It can leverage that to rebuild and restructure. It can mean better prize money and more global events, without abandoning what initially made it great. Younger fans do not care who deserves to play. What they truly care about is who entertains them. A merger could mean fresh formats, personality, and heightened drama.
A merger would be great, but it has to be on the PGA Tour’s terms. It can only be done if the PGA Tour keeps ethical oversight and competitive standards. LIV needs to clean up its image. Given Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, the merger could impact the PGA Tour’s image and values. This could lead to potential backlash. The PGA Tour has all the leverage in the negotiations. The PGA is the one with a long-lasting legacy.
The PGA must hold majority control of the board in any new entity. Any co-chairman situation must be symbolic, only giving LIV limited control. Rules, competition formats, and scheduling decisions Must ALL remain under PGA governance. LIV must adapt, not the PGA. LIV’s 54-hole no-cut model should be scrapped. All players must compete in OWGR-recognized events with cuts. Players who left for LIV must have structured pathways to rejoin PGA-sanctioned events.
Will We See a Merger Soon?
Not in any way people hoped in 2023. Here is why the PGA Tour just rejected a $1.5 billion offer in April 2025. They formally rejected the massive investment from Saudi Arabian backers. The PGA Tour secured a $3 billion investment from U.S.-backed Strategic Sports Group. However, it does not seem to be about money. It is more about ego, betrayal, and legal warfare. The PGA Tour does not need Saudi-backed money, and LIV certainly isn’t struggling either. A full-blown merger in 2025 is highly unlikely.
