PGA Tour commissioner: Merger with LIV Golf by end of 2023 ...

• Monahan due to meet PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan next week
• Commissioner reiterates plan to make players “owners” rather than contractors

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has said the 31st December deadline remains “a firm target” for completing a proposed merger with LIV Golf and the DP World Tour, following reports no deal would be agreed by that date.

Speaking at The New York Times DealBook Summit on 29th November, Monahan (pictured above) revealed that he planned to meet with Public Investment Fund (PIF) governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan next week. The 53-year-old also gave an update on potential private equity partners.

“We’re having conversations with multiple parties,” said Monahan, per reports. “The deadline for our conversations with PIF, as you know, is a firm target.

“I’ll be with Yasir next week, and we continue to advance our conversations. And I think it’s pretty well known that there’s a large number of other interested parties that we’re also pushing to think about.”

Golfweek reported last month that Fenway Sports Group (FSG), Liberty Strategic Capital, Acorn Growth Companies, Eldridge Industries, and a group referred to as ‘Friends of Golf’ were in contention to invest. Monahan said that a potential agreement with PIF may include at least one additional co-investor.

“When this gets finalised, the PGA Tour is going to be in a position that I talked about earlier, where again, the athletes are owners in their sport, and you’ve got not only the PIF, but you’ve likely got another co-investor, with significant experience in business, in sport and brand that’s going to help take the PGA Tour to another level and help us take share from other sports and even be more competitive,” he said.

“What’s most important to our players is that they go from the model of being independent contractors to being owners.”

Monahan’s comments follow a Bloomberg report in October stating that the merger between the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and PIF-backed LIV Golf, which was announced in June, wouldn’t be completed by the end of the year. The shock deal has hit various stumbling blocks, including a probe from the US Justice Department over antitrust concerns, financial details of PIF’s investment, as well as the logistics of working through each tour’s broadcast contracts and brand sponsorships.

DP World Tour chief executive Keith Pelley said in November that he was “optimistic” progress would be made as the parties look to lock in a definitive agreement.

The secretive nature of the arrangement has angered many players, with Tiger Woods admitting it had left him “very frustrated”.

“Going back to that, I would say that my reaction was surprised as I’m sure a lot of the players were taken back by it, by what happened so quickly without any input or any information about it, it was just thrown out there,” Woods said earlier this week.

“We were very frustrated with what happened. We were all taken back by it.

“It happened so quickly without any of our involvement. No one knew. That can’t happen again.”