It’s official – the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and DP World Tour are merging and will now operate under a larger commercial business. It’s something JayMonahan, the CEO of the PGA Tour, vowed he would never do, but he proves nothing is concrete and things are subject to change – and they’re definitely changing!
“They were going down their path, we were going down ours, and after a lot of introspection, you realize all this tension in the game is not a good thing,” Monahan told the Associated Press. He went on to call the merger a ‘historic day for the game we all know and love’ after years of ‘disruption and distraction.’
Monahan is set to serve as CEO of the new entity and the PGA Tour is set to have a majority stake in the new organization. Yasir al-Rumayyan – the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which backs LIV Golf – will serve as chairman of the new entity and join the PGA Tour’s policy board.
How Are PGA Tour and LIV Golfers Reacting to the News?
via Shutterstock (Debby Wong)
It’s not just the tours that have been divided over the past few years – the golfers have been involved in a fight of their own. On one hand, you have golfers sticking with and defending the PGA Tour. On the other hand, you have golfers accepting ridiculous contracts to leave the PGA Tour and join the LIV Golf Tour.
This division has resulted in widespread animosity between golfers who used to share the same course together. They weren’t afraid to share their opinions and criticism of the other side and it often took away from what was most important – the game of golf. Somewhere along the way, the sport took the backseat.
Opinions and thoughts are fairly mixed across the board, but a majority of LIV golfers are happy about the merger, and a majority of PGA Tour golfers feel betrayed – especially those that turned down LIV offers in an effort to defend the PGA Tour and especially since there was no warning of the merger happening.
Let’s take a look at some of the best reactions from some of the best golfers on the planet:
JoelDahmen turned pro in 2010 and joined the PGA Tour in 2017 after several years on the Web.com Tour – he attended the University of Washington. He has three professional wins under his belt, including one win on the PGA Tour – he won the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship in 2021.
In a tweet, Dahmen reacted to the merger with some jokes – which is no surprise, coming from him. “I’ve grown up being a fan of the 4 Aces. Maybe one day I get to play for them on the PGA Tour!” he wrote – referencing one of the team names on the LIV Golf Tour. Who knows, it might happen in the near future!
CameronSmith turned pro in 2013 and began his career on the PGA Tour of Australasia. He made his PGA Tour debut in 2014 and won his first PGA Tour event in 2017. He’s one of the bigger names to sign with LIV Golf in 2022 – just one month after winning his first major championship at the U.S. Open.
“I guess the first reaction was I thought it was kind of a joke that had come out. And then H.E. gave me a call and kind of explained what was going on,” he said – H.E. refers to ‘His Excellency Al-Rumayyan.’ “I really know as much as you guys know. I haven’t been told much at all. I’m just taking it as it goes along.”
MattFitzpatrick turned pro in 2014 and began his career on the European Tour before joining the PGA Tour in 2020. At 28 years old, he already has nine professional wins under his belt – including two wins on the PGA Tour (2022 U.S. Open by one stroke and the 2023 RBC Heritage, which he won in a playoff).
“I don’t think anyone knows what’s going on. Are we signing with the PIF? Are we not signing with the PIF? I have no idea. Even though I guess it is confusing, it’s pretty clear that nobody knows what’s going on apart from about four people in the world,” Fitzpatrick said of the merger at the 2023 U.S. Open.
An Byeong-hun turned pro in 2011 and began his career on the Challenge Tour and joined the PGA Tour in 2016. He doesn’t have a PGA Tour win under his belt, but has a win on the European Tour (BMW PGA Championship), Challenge Tour, Korean Tour, and Korn Ferry Tour. He also won the 2009 U.S. Amateur.
“I’m guessing the liv teams were struggling to get sponsors and pga tour couldn’t turn down the money. Win-win for both tours, but it’s a big lose for who defended the tour for last two years,” Byeong-hun wrote in a tweet. He also reacted to Hideki Matsuyama flying coach, adding that wouldn’t be the case if he had signed with LIV (Matsuyama turned down their offer last year).
AdamHadwin turned pro in 2009 and began his career on the Vancouver Golf Tour, Canadian Tour, and Web.com Tour before joining the PGA Tour in 2014. He earned his first PGA Tour win at the 2017 Valspar Championship, beating PatrickCantlay by one stroke. His best major finish was T-7 at the 2022 U.S. Open.
“We also got an email with comments from Jay (Monahan) regarding it. I don’t know. I’ll be honest. I think that what’s transpired over the last year and a half and the rhetoric not only on this side, but on that side as well. I think it’s difficult to look at that and say how did we get here?” Hadwin said of the recent merger.
JustinThomas turned pro in 2013 and began his career on the Web.com Tour before joining the PGA Tour in 2015. At 30 years old, he already has 17 professional wins under his belt, including 15 wins on the PGA Tour and two major championships – he won the PGA Championship in 2017 and again in 2022.
“Was having quite the nice practice session this morning too,” Thomas joked in a tweet that featured a GIF of a phone blowing up with messages. With the way Thomas has been playing lately (it hasn’t been very good), it’s nice to see him taking a lighthearted approach to responding to such a shocking merger.
DylanWu turned pro in 2018 and began his career on the Canadian Tour and Korn Ferry Tour before joining the PGA Tour in 2022. At just 26 years old, he has yet to earn a win on the PGA Tour, but earned his first win as a professional at the 2019 Lincoln Land Championship while on the Korn Ferry Tour.
“Tell me why Jay Monahan basically got a promotion to CEO of all golf in the world by going back on everything he said the past 2 years? The hypocrisy. Wish golf worked like that. I guess money always wins,” he wrote of the merger in a tweet. He also joined Fox News for an interview – watch it here.
MaxHoma turned pro in 2013 and began his career on the Web.com Tour before joining the PGA Tour in 2014. At 32 years old, he has eight professional wins under his belt, including six wins on the PGA Tour and two wins on the Korn Ferry Tour. His best finish in a major was T-13 at the 2022 PGA Championship.
“Now that we’re all friends, is it too late for us to workshop some of these team names?” Homa joked of the merger in a tweet – sharing a screenshot of him typing ‘wtf is a Cleek’ into a Google search. He was referring to one of the 12 teams that play in LIV Golf, Cleeks GC – a team headling by MartinKaymer.
9. Michael S. Kim
Michael Kim will tee it up on the weekend for the first time in his last 44 full-field starts.
Michael S. Kim turned pro in 2013 and began his career on the Web.com Tour before joining the PGA Tour in 2016. At 29 years old, he has one professional win under his belt, which came on the PGA Tour – the 2018 John Deere Classic by 8 strokes. His best major finish was T-17 at the 2013 U.S. Open.
Kim shared a long message on Twitter that detailed his thoughts on the merger. Here’s a look:
“My thoughts after some deliberation:
– Hopefully we can shift the focus back to the RBC Canadian Open once the tournament starts
– This is NOT a “merger”
– Pgatour partially (idk how) becomes a for profit and PIF a large investor but pgatour still mostly controls how and where the money goes
– Lawyers are CRAZY expensive
– The current tour model with designated events was not sustainable with the current format
– Most of the players feels betrayed by the leadership
– Jay is not stupid. There will be a trump card ($$$) that’ll help convince a lot of the players that this is going to be wildly beneficial.
– Devil is in the details and there are sooo many details to hammer out.
– I have said this many times, pgatour is not totally player run… it’s run by a small group of people that includes certain influential players
PadraigHarrington turned pro in 1995 and has spent most of his career with the European Tour, PGA Tour, and now the PGA Tour Champions. He has 36 professional wins under his belt, including 15 on the European Tour and six on the PGA Tour – he won three major championships between 2007 and 2008.
“Surprised that this merger has happened so quickly but not surprised it’s happened. Definitely in the financial interest of both sides. Definitely in the financial interest of the players even though some of those who gain will feel like they’re losing. Good for the cohesion of global golf,” he wrote of the merger on Twitter.
He also acknowledged that this is an example of sports washing and the merger, unfortunately, proves that sports washing works.
MackenzieHughes turned pro in 2012 and began his career on the eGolf Professional Tour and Canadian Tour before joining the PGA Tour in 2017. He has four professional wins under his belt, including two wins on the PGA Tour. His best major finish was T-6 at the 2021 The Open Championship.
“Nothing like finding out through Twitter that we’re merging with a tour that we said we’d never do that with,” Hughes wrote of the merger in a tweet. He also admitted to being ‘frustrated, confused and blindsided’ by the shocking merger as he prepared to compete in the RBC Canadian Open.
CollinMorikawa turned pro in 2019 and joined the PGA Tour right away. Despite being just 26 years old, he has already established himself as one of the best in the world. He has five wins on the PGA Tour since 2019 and already has two majors – 2020 PGA Championship and 2021 The Open Championship.
“I love finding out morning news on Twitter,” he tweeted after news of the merger went viral. When asked about the merger in a press conference, he said he didn’t know anything and, instead, used the platform to talk about his FORE Youth Project – a professional move from one of the world’s best golfers.
BrooksKoepka turned pro in 2012 and began his career on the Challenge Tour and European Tour before joining the PGA Tour in 2014. He has seven wins on the European Tour and nine wins on the PGA Tour – he’s one of 20 golfers to win at least five career major championships (and he’s not done yet).
“Welfare Check on Chamblee,” Koepka tweeted in response to the merger. He was referring to Bradley Chamblee, a former golfer and commentator who has been beefing with Koepka for years. Chamblee has been a huge critic of LIV, which furthered his ongoing beef with Koepka – hence the ‘welfare check’ tweet.
PhilMickelson turned pro in 1992 and joined the PGA Tour right away. At 53 years old, Mickelson has 57 professional wins under his belt, including 45 wins on the PGA Tour – which is tied-8th all-time. He has won six majors in his career, including the Masters on three occasions – 2004, 2006, and 2010.
“Awesome day today,” he tweeted in response to the merger – adding a smiley face at the end of the tweet. Mickelson was the biggest name to join LIV Golf when he signed a deal that was reportedly worth $200 million. He went from being one of the best PGA Tour players of all-time to one of the most hated.
RoryMcIlroy turned pro in 2007 and began his career on the European Tour before joining the PGA Tour in 2010. He has 15 wins on the European Tour and 23 wins on the PGA Tour, including four major wins – the only major he hasn’t won is the Masters Tournament. He won the PGA Championship twice.
“I hate LIV. I hope it goes away. I would fully expect that it does. And I think that’s where the distinction here is. This is the PGA TOUR, the DP World Tour, and the PIF. Very different from LIV,” McIlroy said of the merger. He has been the biggest supporter of the PGA Tour (alongside Tiger Woods) for years.
He went on to call himself a ‘sacrificial lamb,’ but tried to look at the positives. “But at least it means that the litigation goes away, which has been a massive burden for everyone that’s involved with the tour and that’s playing the tour, and we can start to work toward some sort of way of unifying the game at the elite level.”
JonRahm turned pro in 2016 and joined the PGA Tour that same year. At just 28 years old, he already has 10 wins on the European Tour and 11 wins on the PGA Tour – including two major championships at the 2021 U.S. Open and 2023 Masters Tournament. He’s the current No. 2 ranked golfer in the world.
Rahm spoke to reporters about the recent merger and chose not to make any comments right now dur to all the uncertainty. “There are so many unanswered questions that at this point I wouldn’t want to waste time thinking about it because there is a lot of what-ifs and unknowns,” he said ahead of the Travelers Championship.
ScottieScheffler turned pro in 2018 and began his career on the Korn Ferry Tour before joining the PGA Tour in 2020. At just 26 years old, he already has six wins on the PGA Tour and one major championship at the 2022 Masters Tournament. He’s the current No. 1 ranked golfer in the world – he has spent 40 weeks as No. 1 in his career).
“I was at the gym and so I didn’t really know what was going on. Still don’t really have a clue,” he said of his reaction to the merger. “One of my big things is controlling what I can control,” he continued – adding that the merger is something that’s out of his control, but he’s interested to see what happens in the future.
What’s Next for the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and DP World Tour?
As of right now, the three tours have a lot to figure out as they work through the logistics of the merger. They will continue to operate as three separate entities, but will be joined together at the top and will establish a cohesive schedule with one another. Being a new decision, there’s still a lot of unknown.
And for those that left the PGA Tour to join LIV, they’ll have a path towards reinstatement – if they so choose. Jay Monahan called reinstatement a ‘complicated endeavor and one that will be guided by established PGA Tour rules and regulations.’ Of course, this only further angered PGA Tour golfers.
No one really knows what the future holds for the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, and LIV Golf, but it appears the PGA Tour is open to finding ways of incorporating a team atmosphere/environment within the tour – similar to what they’re doing with LIV. It’s unclear how that’ll work or what it’ll look like, but we’ll find out soon!
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