Deal set to end pending litigation and resolve Ryder Cup row
An astonishing peace deal in golf’s battle for control of the sport has resulted in a merger of the PGA Tour with Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf.
The deal, which also includes the DP World Tour, will bring an end to the bitter legal fight and allow players such as Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Henrik Stenson who had joined the breakaway tour, to compete again on the main men’s tours and in events such as the Ryder Cup.
A new joint entity will be established and is likely to include a global team golf concept, as developed by LIV Golf. The final terms of the agreement will be signed off “in the coming months”.
In a joint statement, the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which also owns Newcastle United Football Club, announced “a landmark agreement to unify the game of golf, on a global basis”. PIF will make a “capital investment” into the new joint entity — likely to be hundreds of millions of pounds.
The statement added: “The parties have signed an agreement that combines PIF’s golf-related commercial businesses and rights [including LIV Golf] with the commercial businesses and rights of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour into a new, collectively owned, for-profit entity to ensure that all stakeholders benefit from a model that delivers maximum excitement and competition among the game’s best players.
“In addition, PIF will make a capital investment into the new entity to facilitate its growth and success. Notably, today’s announcement will be followed by a mutually agreed end to all pending litigation between the participating parties.
“Further, the three organisations will work cooperatively and in good faith to establish a fair and objective process for any players who desire to reapply for membership with the PGA Tour or the DP World Tour following the completion of the 2023 season and for determining fair criteria and terms of readmission, consistent with each Tour’s policies.”
Rory McIlroy has been an outspoken critic of LIV Golf
Phil Mickelson, one of LIV Golf’s most high-profile players and most ardent supporters, posted on Twitter in response to the news: “Awesome day today.”
But it appears to have come as a surprise to some leading PGA Tour players. Collin Morikawa, the 2021 Open champion, tweeted: “I love finding out morning news on Twitter.” Mackenzie Hughes, the world No 67 from Canada, added: “Nothing like finding out through Twitter that we’re merging with a tour that we said we’d never do that with.”
Newcastle’s chairman and the PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who will be the chairman of the new entity, said: “Today is a very exciting day for this special game and the people it touches around the world.”
The PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, the chief executive of the new body, added: “After two years of disruption and distraction, this is a historic day for the game we all know and love.
“This transformational partnership recognises the immeasurable strength of the PGA Tour’s history, legacy and pro-competitive model and combines with it the DP World Tour and LIV — including the team golf concept — to create an organisation that will benefit golf’s players, commercial and charitable partners and fans. This will engender a new era in global golf, for the better.”
Donald Trump, the former US President, wrote on social media: “Great news from LIV Golf. A big, beautiful, and glamorous deal for the wonderful world of golf.”
In July 2022, Trump had predicted a truce, saying: “All of those golfers that remain ‘loyal’ to the very disloyal PGA, in all of its different forms, will pay a big price when the inevitable merger with LIV comes… If you don’t take the money now, you will get nothing after the merger takes place, and only say how smart the original signees were.”
Under the terms of the agreement, the PGA Tour will appoint the majority of the board of directors for the new entity and have the majority voting rights but PIF will initially be the exclusive investor and will have the exclusive rights to further invest in it.
Keith Pelley, the chief executive of the DP World Tour, said “This is a momentous day. We are delighted to be able to not only reignite our relationship with PIF, but also to have the opportunity to build on our current strategic alliance partnership with the PGA Tour.”
An anti-trust lawsuit against the PGA Tour was originally filed last August by 11 golfers before being taken over by LIV Golf. It was due to be heard in 2024. In April, the DP World Tour won its legal battle against 12 LIV players who committed “serious breaches” of the Tour’s code of behaviour by playing in LIV Golf events without permission.
The subsequent increased fines and suspensions prompted Westwood, Garcia, Poulter and Stenson to resign their memberships and become ineligible for the Ryder Cup. Those players could now return to the fold.
Source: The Times
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