by Tiger Woods fanned the flames of reunification on Sunday during a visit to the CBS booth at the Genesis Invitational. The 15-time major champion said discussions are in a “positive place” with regard to the proposed deal with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, LIV Golf’s financial backer, and that “things are going to heal quickly.”
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and Rory McIlroy also spoke on the topic last week at Torrey Pines and made it clear that this deal is more than just a financial investment. The goal is to reunify the men’s professional game. Great! But … what does that even look like? We posed two questions to the Fried Egg Golf staff:
How would you like to see reunification play out in your head? What’s the ideal reintegration scheme?
Brendan Porath: I am somewhat surprised by how bullish the tone is from the PGA Tour side on a “reunification” theory and the timeline for it. There’s also an implication from some of the statements that LIV Golf will either cease to exist or not continue in a way that resembles anything like the current arrangement. We’ve heard variations on this since June 6, 2023, with no movement.
How reunification plays out in practice seems quite messy. Has Donald Trump asked the Saudi PIF to just shut down shop? That seems like one way this moves quicker than expected — one tour is more of a democracy with a bunch of complicated governance arms, while the other is, well, a bit more authoritarian in structure and can just say, “We’re done here.” As PGA Tour advocates have stated for a couple of years, there are only a handful of players they want back on the biggest stages. Whether you agree with that or not, they’re not talking about reintegrating 40 players — it’s a mix of several. I suspect the older players who took the payday will ride off, and the lower tier will have to work their way back via qualifying paths. As Rory stated at Pebble, the Tour just needs to get over making them sit in timeout before these different reunifying pathways are opened up.
Another way it goes is that LIV continues to coexist with the PGA Tour in non-conflicting weeks. They each take portions of the schedule throughout the year with the best players playing on both tours. It seems harder to envision, for sure. This does not seem to play into the “reunification” talking point that is being pushed right now.
Practically speaking, I don’t think many outside a very small group have a clue how reunification actually plays out. Impractically speaking? Giddy up. I want a one-week reunification carnival of golf. The PIF, according to one recent analysis, will have put $5 billion into the LIV experiment by the end of the year. What’s a bit more for a big kumbaya party? Let’s get a great 36-hole facility. Winged Foot? Buy it out for a week. POTUS may sign on for that as it’s one of the few old-money NYC spots where he’s a member. Or go international to Royal Melbourne. Let’s blow it out with a giant commingled tournament with side games and contests and one more massive purse up for grabs for some soulless event. Find a great venue, spend a bunch of money, and make the stars show. Celebrate. Maybe there’s a dunk tank where various executives and antagonists must sit while pros from former adversarial tours hit balls at a target. I want a fireworks show as Scottie, Rory, Bryson, and Brooks hold up a unified belt like this is the WWE. There will be hard feelings, no doubt. But there should be a celebration of some sort bankrolled by all this new money that’s rushed into the game as part of this era of fracture. We need a reunification event and in this era of senseless excess, it might as well be a big party.
PJ Clark: In any form of reunification, large groups of people are going to be angry. Unfortunately for my love of chaos, I’d keep it simple — players who would be exempt on the PGA Tour currently via major wins (Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm, Cameron Smith) or lifetime exemptions (Dustin Johnson and, yes, Phil Mickelson) make sense to be invited back. Tyrrell Hatton, Joaquin Niemann, and David Puig should clean up on whatever sponsor exemptions are available, if not just made outright members. It’s beneficial for the PGA Tour to have these guys in the fold and they’d raise the ceiling – and more importantly the floor – of non-Signature Events. Would this (rightfully) piss off a group of players fighting to keep their Tour membership, further shrinking the likelihood of making the FedEx Cup top 100? Absolutely, but it’s what’s best for the new for-profit business.
The path for older players without exemptions or top form is where things get interesting. What happens to Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia, and more? These players, especially Reed, Mr. DP World Tour himself, could earn their PGA Tour cards back through qualifying on the European-based circuit. Richard “Dicky B” Bland will play his way onto the Champions Tour with ease, and maybe he uses his PGA Championship or U.S. Open exemption this year to earn his way into non-senior events. As for Anthony Kim and the Majesticks? Best of luck!
LIV did just sign a deal to keep a tournament in Adelaide through 2031, so maybe the Crushers and the RangeGoats play a handful of team gigs throughout the year. The current crop of PGA Tour members should have nothing to do with that. I have no real clue how a “dual-membership” would work, but I do know that watching a LIV player scramble to break the top 100 in FedEx Cup points in limited starts would be fun to follow throughout the course of the season. If we’re all interested in TV ratings anyway, I’d watch that.
Will Knights: My true wish is that there is some sort of Walk of Atonement like Billy Horschel once suggested. Looking past that, my ideal reintegration scheme is the boring one — Rahm, DeChambeau, Koepka, Smith, and Nieman are back in the Signature Events for the foreseeable future. Any other LIV players that want back are given whatever PGA Tour status they had when they left. That would leave a handful of young talents, like Puig, on the outside looking in, but I think it would be relatively simple to lump them in with other PGA Tour rookies. Anyone who didn’t have status absolutely should not receive it. I’m looking at you, Anthony Kim. LIV shuts down and poof, we’re reunited.
Then there is the schedule element. The Tour needs to be dialed down from 50 events, or at least prioritize certain stops so the top players have a set schedule. And we need international events. Add Dubai, Australia, and something in Asia. Integrate more of the big DP World Tour events into the PGA Tour season, but lose events like the 3M Open and RSM Classic. Make sure this schedule is required for the top players. Television ratings in the U.S. are going to suffer for some international events, but the golf junkies are going to watch the best players at Kingston Heath or wherever they play in Oz and things will be fine for a few weeks.
Now, I don’t think there is any world in which that actually happens. If past reporting is to be believed, LIV and Saudi PIF chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan wants an element of team golf. If that’s the case, I just don’t see a way to integrate that without it being the silly season in the fall. It’s a fun sideshow and a way to sell capes in the merchandise stores, but in no way is a team competition the future of professional golf. The sooner that is realized, the sooner we can get back to a more familiar professional landscape.
Adam Woodard: Some form of what the guys have already stated will likely be how the reunification process plays out, if it even does. After years of broken deadlines and “progress,” I’ll believe it when I finally see it.
Players who are currently exempt on the PGA Tour via major wins (DeChambeau, Koepka, Rahm, Smith) or lifetime exemptions (Johnson and Mickelson) come right back, no questions asked. Same with those currently in the top 100 of the OWGR because they went to the Asian Tour or DP World Tour to try and play their way into majors and keep their status (Tyrrell Hatton, Joaquin Niemann, David Puig).
Everyone else? We’ll see you at Q-School! And I know the likes of Talor Gooch and Patrick Reed would be irate if this were the case. But that’s what your LIV money is for, fellas. Players made calculated decisions to listen to Greg Norman and put their faith in a man who’s had a decades-long vendetta against the Tour. In return, they got insane amounts of money for not as much work. Unlike their colleagues above, they chose not to play in events with OWGR points, or didn’t play well enough to earn points when they did. Over on the Tour’s side of the men’s pro golf aisle, it’s still (bad sponsor exemptions aside) mostly a meritocracy. Sure, hindsight is 20/20, but one thing has been true all along: decisions have consequences.
If both sides can compromise and come to an agreement, who are you and who should fans be most excited to see back on the PGA Tour?
Brendan: The youths, who consume everything on YouTube, will all say our reigning U.S. Open champion. Me? Pat Reed. And everything and everyone that comes with him.
PJ: This youth is picking an old! Whatever Phil Mickelson has left — on whichever level(s) of the PGA Tour he chooses to play — I want in.
Will: Bryson DeChambeau, David Puig, and maybe Joaquin Niemann are the real answers here but I would also add in Cameron Smith. We finally got to see what his peak looked like in 2022 and then he was plucked away and hasn’t been anywhere near the same level since. I don’t know if we’ll ever see him play the way he did in 2022, but I would love to see something similar.
Adam: The average fan will be more invested in the names already listed. I was excited to see Tom McKibbin on the PGA Tour this year before his surprise move to LIV Golf. I also wonder if Adrian Meronk would even come back to the PGA Tour given his previous comments or if he’d just stay in Dubai and play the DP World Tour.
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