From Shock Resignations to Agonizing Delays: Timeline of PGA Tour-PIF Merger Drama So Far

One yr has come and handed but golf isn’t any near unification. The PGA Tour and LIV Golf proceed to stroll separate methods. However the want for a unified sport isn’t misplaced on anybody. Neither Rory McIlroy, nor Bryson DeChambeau, and definitely not golf followers. However, quite a bit has occurred for the reason that PGA Tour, DP World Tour, and PIF agreed to align their enterprise curiosity for the higher way forward for gamers and followers. Here’s a rundown of the important thing occasions from the final yr. 

June 6: a seed was sown by Jay Monahan and Yasir Al-Rumayyan

PGA Tour Commissioner, Jay Monahan, and PIF Governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, appeared on morning tv to announce that each events have known as for a ceasefire. Monahan revealed that PIF and GA Tour will merge their enterprise curiosity for a unified way forward for the sport. They put ahead a proposal for a brand new for-profit entity that may embrace the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and the DP World Tour. 

The rollout caught everybody off guard. Till June 5, the PGA Tour and LIV Golf had been engaged in a civil battle. The authorized battle has prompted a deep rupture contained in the world {of professional} golf. Rory McIlroy, then one of the vocal critics of the PIF-funded aspect, admitted feeling like a ‘sacrificial lamb’. 

Whereas it ended all of the courtroom battles, PGA Tour gamers lashed out at Monahan for preserving it below the wraps for thus lengthy. In a board assembly just a few days later, Monahan was known as a hypocrite by a participant. There have been requires resignation which grew louder over the following few months. However the seven weeks of negotiation had been completed in absolute secrecy. Even Greg Norman wasn’t conscious till June 6.

June 13: Jay Monahan takes a sabbatical 

Jay Monahan introduced via the PGA Tour memo that he was coping with a medical drawback that necessitated a break from day-to-day work because the Tour commissioner. Ron Worth and Tyler Dennis took cost in his absence. Monahan later revealed he was slowed down by all of the talks and public criticisms, and suffered a nervous breakdown. Monahan returned a month later.

July 9: the primary resignation hits the PGA Tour

Former AT&T chairman, and long-time board member, Randall Stephenson resigned from the PGA Tour Coverage Board shortly after the June 6 settlement. In a letter to the PGA Tour, the veteran cited severe considerations concerning the PGA Tour’s offers with the Public Funding Fund of Saudi Arabia. 

Stephenson, apparently, needed to shoot off his resignation letter on June 13, per week after the announcement. Nevertheless, he waited a month due to Monahan’s sudden sabbatical. The eventual resignation got here only a few days earlier than the Senate listening to. 

July 11, the eventful senate listening to that exposed many hidden particulars

The Senate Homeland Safety Committee’s investigations subcommittee grilled Ron Worth, PGA Tour’s working chief at that time, and Jimmy Dunne, the architect of the deal and a board member, on the potential issues arising out of the deal. 

Whereas bigger considerations had been PIF’s outsized affect on the way forward for the PGA Tour, the Senate listening to was extra vital as some key particulars had been divulged. For starters, PIF officers proposed a crew for Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. The PGA Tour denied that. 

Contrarily, the PGA Tour officers sought Greg Norman’s ouster because the LIV Golf CEO. That request, nonetheless, wasn’t met from their aspect. Notably, PIF officers didn’t seem earlier than the Senate. Norman later termed all that as ‘white noise’ claiming he has full help of Yasir Al-Rumayyan. 

Each Worth and Dunne emphasised {that a} cope with PIF would profit the PGA Tour essentially the most as they’d have a say on how PIF invests in golf, which they hoped can be extra constructive sooner or later. 

August 1: Tiger Woods joins the PGA Tour Coverage Board

In a momentous choice, Tiger Woods, for the primary time in his two-decade-long profession accepted an invite to hitch the PGA Tour Coverage Board. After various gamers voiced concern that gamers’ calls for are getting ignored, the Tour additionally appointed Colin Neville because the adviser to the gamers on the board. 

For the primary within the board’s existence, the participant administrators outnumbered the present members of the board. The transfer additionally included an modification to the governing paperwork that made it obligatory to tell the gamers about any main selections to be taken by the PGA Tour. 

December 7: Jon Rahm makes an enormous LIV Golf leap of religion

Jon Rahm, who throughout the 2023 Open Championship, stood by Jay Monahan, joined LIV Golf in December. The Spaniard was absent from the greens for the reason that Ryder Cup and the speculations had been excessive. On December 7, Rahm appeared on tv donning a LIV Letterman jacket. 

Rahm cited the chance to spend extra time with household as the rationale for becoming a member of LIV. On the PGA Tour, the two-time main champion mentioned, “I’m forever grateful to the PGA Tour and the platform they allowed me to be on. I have nothing bad to say about them. They allowed me the opportunity to play in some great events and allowed me to make a mark.”

Rahm’s exit was vital as a result of this was LIV’s first signing for the reason that merger settlement. It was extensively believed till then that Greg Norman would cease attempting to find new gamers till an settlement was reached. 

Fairly on the contrary, PGA Tour-bound Adrian Meronk, Tyrell Hatton, who teed up within the PGA Tour in 2024, and Lucas Herbert joined the bandwagon a month later. Jon Rahm was swiftly banned from the PGA Tour. 

December 12: PGA Tour receives a letter calling for extra readability on the merger

21 PGA Tour gamers shot off a letter criticizing the shortage of transparency within the negotiations with PIF. The disgruntled gamers, together with former Masters champion, Danny Willett, former board member James Hahn, and late Grayson Murray, demanded “a meeting with independent directors on the policy board to understand the process that has been followed and will be followed going forward.”

The letter through New York-based regulation agency, Susman Godfrey, got here within the wake of PGA Tour’s negotiations with a number of potential traders, and some weeks after Rory McIlroy’s departure from the board. The gamers needed ‘full transparency’ in regards to the conversations with the longer term capital companions. 

December 31: the deadline passes not with a bang however with a whimper

When Jay Monahan and Yasir Al-Rumayyan sat elbow-to-elbow on June 6, in addition they introduced that they had been anticipated to succeed in an settlement by December 31. Six months was at all times going to be a tricky ask and the slow-paced progress indicated they couldn’t meet the deadline. 

 

Late into New Yr’s Eve, the PGA Tour launched an replace. In a memo despatched to gamers, Jay Monahan mentioned the negotiations are shifting ahead. The memo additionally revealed that the Tour and Strategic Sports activities Group are within the ultimate levels of negotiations. 

January 31: Strategic Sports activities Group arrives on the scene

Precisely a month after the preliminary deadline, the PGA Tour acquired a promising $3B. However there was no sight of PIF. Fairly, Strategic Sports activities Group, a conglomerate of U.S. Sports activities crew homeowners invested $1.5B initially with the opposite half coming later. A major chunk of the $1.5B has been vested in present gamers. 

With the SSG’s involvement, in addition they fashioned the PGA Tour Enterprises, the for-profit entity that was talked about within the preliminary framework settlement. However as a substitute of Al-Rumayyan, Jay Monahan was named because the CEO of the brand new group. 

The funding from SSG buoyed the hopes of gamers and board members. It additionally discovered a constructive response from each Greg Norman and Yasir Al-Rumayyan. SSG additionally turned an necessary a part of the negotiation sooner or later. 

March 18: Yasir Al-Rumayyan meets the PGA Tour Participant Administrators

The PGA Tour’s participant administrators met with PIF governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, for the primary time in March. The rendezvous was scheduled on Tiger Woods’s resort at Albany, Bahamas. There was a number of anticipation, however for the PGA Tour execs, it was extra about placing a face to a reputation. 

The participant administrators revealed that the talks have been constructive. Each events shared their considerations and the imaginative and prescient for the longer term. Jay Monahan, within the official memo, knowledgeable gamers of the state of affairs however didn’t reveal something past that each events are engaged. Notably, John Henry represented the Fenway Sports activities Group within the assembly. 

June 7: the second in-person assembly between the gamers and PIF officers

A yr after the merger announcement, the PGA Tour and PIF confirmed actual curiosity. PGA Tour now has a particular Transaction Committee, with Tiger Woods, Adam Scott, and Rory McIlroy as members, that overlooks the day-to-day exercise of the merger. The members met PIF officers in New York on June 7. 

The in-person assembly was extra about the way forward for Golf, Rory McIlroy mentioned. The Tour in its not too long ago launched memo, as soon as once more reiterated that the merger would take extra time. Notably, the PGA Tour and PIF officers additionally exchanged time period sheets only some days earlier than the assembly.

That’s the newest replace from the PGA Tour as of now. The board has gone via some modifications. Jordan Spieth has rejoined the board in Rory McIlroy’s place. Jimmy Dunne, the architect of the framework settlement has resigned from the board. The Tour and PIF nonetheless seem keen to place all of the distinction away.