PGA Tour and LIV Golf make alarming announcements as major champions are ‘disturbed’
The sport has exploded in recent years since the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf League became a real competitor to the PGA Tour. This has prompted the latter to make major changes to certain tournaments to stay competitive, including no-cut tournaments, the same format seen under the LIV banner, and bigger payout increases. This has paved the way for a fundamentally different golf environment, with some of the sport’s biggest names no longer competing in major tournaments and players taking a more tactical approach to the events they play. Despite the two organizations initially agreeing to merge in June 2023, discussions over a solution between the two conflicting parties continue.
Speaking ahead of this year’s PGA Championship, Brooks – who won the PGA title in 1996 – said he was “surprised it took this long for some kind of splintering to happen.” The 63-year-old played a significant role in forming the Tour Players Association – which was for all purposes a form of union – in the 1990s and believes a similar group today could have prevented a lot of drama.
“I do think it’s absolutely chaos. “I think it’s going to be pretty difficult to put the pieces together and put Humpty Dumpty back on the wall,” he said. “They don’t want to go back. They have no intention of coming back.”
LIV Golf continues to lure big-name players with the promise of huge fees, with Jon Rahm being one of the latest to sign a contract in December 2023 for a reported £315m-£470m. The PGA Tour can’t match these figures, and with no shortage of money from Saudi investors pouring into the sport, the exodus seems inevitable.