Golf’s most disruptive year ended Tuesday when the PGA Tour and European Tour agreed to a merger with Saudi Arabian golf interests, creating a business operation designed to unify professional golf around the world.
As part of the settlement, the parties drop all lawsuits involving LIV Golf against each other effective immediately.
How players like Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson, who defected to Saudi-funded LIV Golf for nine-figure bonuses, can rejoin the PGA Tour after this year has yet to be determined.
It was also unclear what form the LIV Golf League would take in 2024. Commissioner Jay Monahan said in a memo to players that a thorough evaluation will determine how to integrate team golf into the game.
The deal combines the golf-related businesses and commercial rights of the Public Investment Fund, including LIV Golf, with those of the PGA and European tours. The new entity has not been named.
“They were going their way, we were going our way, and after a lot of introspection you realize that all this tension in the game is not a good thing,” Monahan said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
“We have a responsibility to our tour and the game, and we felt the time was right to have this conversation.”
Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, will join the PGA Tour’s board of directors, which continues to manage its tournaments. Al-Rumayyan will be chairman of the new business group, with Monahan as CEO and the PGA Tour holding a majority stake in the new company.
The PIF will invest in the commercial enterprise.
Monahan said the decision came together over the past seven weeks.
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