The golf world experienced massive breaking news on Tuesday as the PGA and LIV golf tours — who for years had nothing less than acrimony for each other — announced a worldwide partnership.
The PGA and LIV's merger, which will encompass the DP World Tour (the European Tour) ends what PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan called a "disruption and distraction" in the world of golf for the last several years.
Said Monahan in a statement: "This transformational partnership recognizes 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 organization that will benefit golf’s players, commercial and charitable partners and fans."
Monahan will be the CEO of the newly merged entity, while Saudi Public Investment Fund governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan will serve as chairman. With that, the PGA and LIV have officially ended their ongoing feud (one that notably included an antitrust suit against the former that threatened the tour's tax-exempt status in the U.S.).
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While the PGA and LIV may be playing nice from now on, it remains to be seen how the players will adjust to golf's new world order — especially considering it appears players weren't notified of the move before the news broke.
PGA loyalists and LIV defectors alike threw verbal barbs at each other, which included claims of selling out and hypocrisy, among other niceties. That didn't change even after the PGA significantly revamped its pay structure to more closely resemble what the LIV offered to its golfers.
One unidentified PGA Tour player, speaking to ESPN, was not happy with the news:
"It's insanity," the player told ESPN. "The LIV Tour was dead in the water. It wasn't working. Now, you're throwing them a life jacket? Is the moral of the story to just always take the money?"
LIV defector Graeme McDowell told Sports Illustrated the move was "super positive for the world of golf."
“Nobody within LIV event wanted the level of division, the divisiveness that has been created. None of us wanted that. We love the game. Obviously we knew the decisions we made would come with consequences," McDowell said. "Those were decisions we had to weigh and make sure the business decision was right from what we were going to turn our back on and gain from an opportunity.
"We didn’t want to create the fracture in the sport. But I suppose we knew it would happen to a certain level, never did we imagine the level of negativity that came. But to see the world of golf coming back together is obviously very, very pleasing."
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Here's how golf's biggest players — including Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa and more — responded to Tuesday's news: