Golf fans across the globe may be paying extra close attention to the DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship this week.
That’s because the two heads of golf’s warring tours, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, are teeing it up together on Thursday as part of the pro-am portion of the event.
Since the pair sat down together on CNBC over a year ago to announce a “framework agreement” that would partner the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, and LIV Golf, little tangible progress has been made (at least publicly). The pro-am pairing is the latest sign that the sides are trending towards a resolution, having also met in New York City to discuss a deal last month.
As it stands, LIV Golf is going into the 2025 season with a great deal of uncertainty surrounding its broadcast partner. The league’s deal with The CW expired following the 2024 season, and while the league is reportedly pursuing a renewal with the network, no such deal has been struck.
LIV ratings have proven embarrassingly low, even by The CW standards. The league drew just 89,000 viewers for the final round of Jon Rahm’s individual title last month, and 128,000 for the final round of the team championship. Other sports properties on The CW are doing comparatively better. NASCAR’s second-tier Xfinity Series averaged 906,000 viewers on the network last week. ACC and Pac-12 football are regularly drawing in the 400-500k range. Given this comparison, a renewal would seem anything but certain for LIV.
The PGA Tour, while still dwarfing LIV’s ratings, hasn’t exactly been on a hot streak either. 11 of the first 12 PGA Tour events last season saw year-over-year viewership decline, as did each of the three FedEx Cup Playoff events in August. The first fall series event, the Procore Championship, drew a shockingly low 69,000 viewers for its final round on Golf Channel, down 77% from the previous season.
That is to say, Monahan and Al-Rumayyan meeting in such a public way isn’t a coincidence. Both surely feel the pressure to strike a deal, but only time will tell if exchanging pleasantries on the golf course will translate into professional golf’s reunification.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.