PGA Tour finds Saudi Arabia’s conditions for reunification ‘unacceptable’

It seems the world of men’s professional golf is no closer to reunification than it was the day that PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) governor Yasir al-Rumayyan sat down with CNBC to announce a merger with the Saudi-funded LIV Golf league.

In the latest update between golf’s warring tours, The Guardian reports that correspondence between the two leagues last week resulted in demands from the Saudi PIF that the PGA Tour found untenable. According to Ewan Murray of The Guardian, the PIF was prepared to invest $1.5 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises if two conditions were met: LIV Golf would continue to operate in some capacity, and al-Rumayyan would be named co-chairman of PGA Tour Enterprises.

Murray writes that neither of these demands was “deemed acceptable” to the PGA Tour, which sees the continuance of LIV as a counter to its goal of reunifying the sport.

The PGA Tour likely feels it has the upper hand in negotiations with the PIF as LIV Golf continues to flounder. The rogue tour has yet to catch on from a viewership standpoint. The PGA Tour’s television audience recently outdrew a LIV Golf tournament on the same weekend by a factor of 100.

At the same time, many of LIV Golf’s expensive player contracts are coming to term, and some LIV players are showing interest in a return to the PGA Tour. One such player speculated to be interested in a return, Brooks Koepka, said earlier this week that he thought LIV Golf would be “further along” by now in its fourth season.

It’s unclear if LIV will continue to have the appetite to cut nine-figure checks to its biggest players with no signs that its investments will pay off.

Speaking before LIV’s Miami tournament this week, the league’s new CEO, Scott O’Neil, said, “Do we have to do a deal? No. It would be nice to do a deal, so long as we’re all focused on the same things.” O’Neil is not directly involved in reunification efforts; the PIF handles those.

So long as the PGA Tour continues to be the primary professional golf product that viewers are tuning in for, it seems like the ball will remain in Saudi Arabia’s court on the reunification front. How much is the PIF willing to concede? How long are they willing to float the money-suck that is LIV Golf?

Those are the main questions standing between pro golf’s reunification at the moment. Until then, fans will continue to have to settle for two watered-down products.