The world of professional golf reacted with emotions ranging from triumph to condemnation after the announcement on Tuesday that the PGA Tour and DP World Tour have agreed to merge commercial operations with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf.
The six-time major winner Phil Mickelson was perhaps the most high-profile player to defect from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf when it started operations last year. Mickelson lost sponsors over the decision and was widely criticised for the move after he acknowledged Saudi Arabia’s record of human rights violations.
On Tuesday, Mickelson celebrated the merger on Twitter. “Awesome day today,” the American wrote.
Another LIV golfer, Brooks Koepka, was also in triumphant mood. Koepka won the US PGA Championship this year but has been embroiled in rows with those who believe LIV golfers sacrificed their principles for the huge amounts of money available on the Saudi-backed tour. One of LIV’s biggest critics has been the Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee, who said last month that “any yielding to or agreement with [LIV] is a deal with a murderous dictator”.
On Tuesday, Koepka greeted news of the merger by tweeting “Welfare Check on Chamblee”.
Awesome day today 😊 https://t.co/qUwVJiydym
— Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) June 6, 2023
Donald Trump, whose golf courses have played host to numerous LIV Golf events, celebrated the “BIG, BEAUTIFUL, AND GLAMOROUS” merger on Truth Social.
“GREAT NEWS FROM LIV GOLF,” Trump wrote. “A BIG, BEAUTIFUL, AND GLAMOROUS DEAL FOR THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF GOLF. CONGRATS TO ALL!!!”
However, not everyone was impressed with the merger. Terry Strada, the national chair of 9/11 Families United, has been a long-time critic of the LIV Series and has alleged the Saudi government played a role in the terrorist attacks.
“PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan co-opted the 9/11 community last year in the PGA’s unequivocal agreement that the Saudi LIV project was nothing more than sportswashing of Saudi Arabia’s reputation,” said Strada, whose husband Tom was killed in the 9/11 attacks. “But now the PGA and Monahan appear to have become just more paid Saudi shills, taking billions of dollars to cleanse the Saudi reputation so that Americans and the world will forget how the Kingdom spent their billions of dollars before 9/11 to fund terrorism, spread their vitriolic hatred, and finance al Qaeda and the murder of our loved ones. Make no mistake – we will never forget.”
Meanwhile, it appeared that many players on the PGA Tour had been blindsided by the developments on Tuesday. ESPN broke the news to one unnamed player whose reaction was: “No fucking way.”
Collin Morikawa, one of the PGA Tour’s best young players, also greeted the news with shock. “I love finding out morning news on Twitter,” wrote the 2021 Open champion.
Others on the PGA Tour reacted with wry humour. “Nothing like finding out through Twitter that we’re merging with a tour that we said we’d never do that with,” wrote Canada’s Mackenzie Hughes.
South Korea’s Byeong Hun-An alluded to players such as Rory McIlroy who have defended the PGA Tour against LIV, only to see the two parties merge.
I’m guessing the liv teams were struggling to get sponsors and pga tour couldn’t turn down the money. Win-win for both tours
— Byeong Hun An (@ByeongHunAn) June 6, 2023
but it’s a big lose for who defended the tour for last two years
“I’m guessing the liv teams were struggling to get sponsors and pga tour couldn’t turn down the money. Win-win for both tours but it’s a big lose for who defended the tour for last two years,” he wrote on Twitter.
