While some of the noises coming from the main players involved have been positive, it seems that golf fans are going to have to wait a while longer before the PGA Tour and the PIF reach an agreement which brings an end to the game’s civil war.
It seemed that 2025 was set to see the deal that the game of golf has been waiting for for almost two years now. Donald Trump‘s election looked set to eliminate some of the hurdles, while it was striking how confident Tiger Woods sounded when asked about the situation at the Genesis Invitational.
Woods claimed a deal seemed very close with further meetings planned. And interestingly, the 15-time major champion alluded to the fact that the best players will be competing more often once again.
That was followed by reports suggesting that LIV Golf stars could feature at the Players Championship – despite LIV having an event in Singapore that same week. Hank Haney suggested that sending a handful of PGA Tour players to LIV as a one-off would be an easy solution.
What LIV Golf players are being promised as talks with the PGA Tour continue
However, there have been suggestions that White House talks between the PGA Tour and the PIF were not as productive as expected. There are a number of sticking points, including how the PGA Tour and LIV Golf co-exist if a deal is agreed.
And while both sides are going to have to compromise, it appears that there is one area LIV are not prepared to move away from.
Speaking on The Smylie Show, The Athletic journalist Gabby Herzig suggested that many on LIV have been given some assurances by Yasir Al-Rumayyan about the future of the format.
“I’ve been trying to think about it, honestly, and it’s really hard to conceptualise because there are so many different interests involved. I think the one thing that I’m struggling to figure out is the team golf idea was Yasir’s baby. He’s been promising LIV guys behind the scenes that team golf won’t go away. And I’ve been hearing rumblings of the fact that they might not want to accept a deal of reunification that doesn’t involve team golf,” she said.
“So in my mind, I have no idea how that would work. I can’t see a way that the Tiger, Rory, Cantlays of the world would agree to play team golf all year round. I can see a world in which golf becomes this F1, Champions League type model. Rory has been preaching that for a while now, the idea of a global tour in some sense where there are these big global events – maybe Adelaide becomes one of them, and then maybe it’s like the Irish Open or the Italian Open and then the four majors on top of six, seven, eight global huge events with all the best players. That’s kind of what makes the most sense in my mind. I just have no idea how team golf will survive that model.”
Something has to give with the PGA Tour and LIV Golf struggling to compromise
There does not appear to be a way that the PGA Tour can maintain the same schedule, have the likes of Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm featuring regularly, and offer a portion of the season to LIV Golf.
Someone like Rahm is surely highly unlikely to want to play on both tours in that instance. And if LIV starts each year after the Tour Championship, for example, then that would inevitably ruin some players’ preparations for the majors each season.
It seems that all sides are trying to have their cake and eat it. And clearly, there is simply not enough to go around – and something will eventually have to give.
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