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The PGA Tour on Thursday credited Donald Trump with bringing the leading US men’s golf organiser “closer” to a deal with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which finances the rival LIV Golf series.
In a statement, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and player-directors Tiger Woods and Adam Scott said the US president’s involvement could reunify the game of golf through an agreement with the Saudi Public Investment Fund.
“We asked the president to get involved for the good of the game, the good of the country, and for all the countries involved,” Monahan, Woods and Scott said.
“We are grateful that his leadership has brought us closer to a final deal, paving the way for reunification of men’s professional golf.”
Monahan and Scott met Trump on Tuesday this week, according to the statement.
Trump’s victory in the US presidential election was widely seen as a potential catalyst towards the PGA Tour and the PIF striking an agreement.
The president-elect, a keen golfer and golf course owner, had previously said that he could get a deal done between the PIF and the PGA Tour in “the better part of 15 minutes”.
Trump, whose courses include Bedminster in New Jersey and Turnberry in Scotland, shares a passion for golf with PIF governor Yasir al-Rumayyan.
Al-Rumayyan played in a professional-amateur event with Monahan at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland in October.
The PIF’s backing of LIV, a breakaway tour that lured top golfers with big pay packages, led to an acrimonious dispute with the PGA Tour.
After its creation in 2021, LIV disrupted the men’s game with a team-based format, and was met by fierce opposition from Monahan and the PGA Tour.
The row shifted to the courts, but the two sides stunned the golf world by declaring a truce in 2023.
The PGA Tour and the PIF ended their legal disputes and set out a “framework agreement” towards a potential investment by the sovereign wealth fund in a new commercial entity set up by the US men’s golf organiser.
But the plan suffered a strong backlash from players who had remained loyal to the PGA Tour, reflecting how they were caught off guard by Monahan’s decision to reach a deal with the PIF.
Since the so-called framework agreement, Strategic Sports Group, a group of investors led by John Henry’s Fenway Sports Group, which owns English football club Liverpool FC, struck a deal to invest up to $3bn into PGA Tour Enterprises at a $12bn valuation for the entity.
If the wider agreement is finalised, the PIF could invest on similar terms to Strategic Sports Group, according to a person close to the matter.
However, the financial details have not been the stumbling block, said people briefed on the plan, but rather the complexity of reuniting the game.
Challenges have included debates over LIV’s place in the sporting calendar, whether and how its golfers could be eligible to play once again on the PGA Tour, and scrutiny from antitrust authorities.
