Despite LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman telling staff members that the league was making plans for 2024 and beyond, there is a belief that the Saudi-backed breakaway league will not survive beyond this year, according to reports.
The golf world was left stunned earlier this week when the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, who have been at war for the past two years, announced a merger, joined forces despite PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan insisting such a deal would never come to fruition.
LIV will continue to be a standalone enterprise according to Norman, however, according to ESPN, there's belief in the golf world that the breakaway league may not survive past 2023. PIF invested more than $2billion into the league being fronted by two-time Open Championship winner Norman but federal court records show that it generated virtually no revenue last year.
Norman has told LIV Golf's staff members that the league was making plans for 2024 and beyond, but if there is a team concept in future seasons it won't be in the breakaway circuit's current form and it will not include Norman as its CEO and commissioner.
PGA Tour policy board member Jimmy Dunne says PGA Tour commissioner Monahan would also have oversight of the LIV Golf League under the new agreement. That will allow Monahan to determine whether the breakaway circuit will continue beyond this season.
And Monahan has already revealed that discussions on whether the team-focused circuit had a place in golf's new global ecosystem will take place in November following the conclusion of LIV Golf's 2023 season. "I don't want to make any statements or make any predictions," Monahan said. "But what is in place is a commitment to make a good-faith effort to look at team golf and the role it can play going forward."
Should LIV Golf fold, a committee that includes current PGA Tour members and administrators would determine potential punishment for players such as Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, who left but want to apply for reinstatement.
Dunne told ESPN: "I think we would form a panel, including tour players, that would evaluate what the terms would be. Remember, they're coming back to compete on the tour, so they have to be confident that they would be good enough to continue to play, and they have to be willing to incur the penalty for having gone."
Monahan ruthlessly suspended more than 30 PGA Tour members for competing in LIV tournaments without conflicting-event releases but ESPN says potential punishments will be decided on a case-by-case basis, and not as a collective. LIV Golfers that sued the PGA Tour in federal court might get stiffer penalties, as well as those who helped lure players to the Saudi-backed rebels.
