PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Among the various ideas discussed as a way to reunify men’s professional golf was to allow a group of LIV Golf League players to compete in this week’s Players Championship.
It was months ago, before LIV Golf announced its 2024 schedule, and it is unclear if the proposal was ever formally put to the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which backs LIV Golf.
But two sources told Sports Illustrated that such an idea was at least floated among PGA Tour officials who have been working on various plans that would lead to an agreement between the two sides.
The idea was scrapped last fall after LIV Golf announced its schedule, which included an event this week in Singapore at the same time of the Players.
And it highlights the disconnect that seemingly still exists three years into LIV Golf, more than 18 months after the “framework agreement” was supposed to lead to resolution, and a month after considerable optimism about a deal being close has dissipated into more uncertainty.
As PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan is set to meet the media Tuesday at the Players Championship, the expectation is that there will be plenty of words but a lack of substance.
Last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Monahan pushed back on the idea that anything had changed. But clearly the optimism is the not the same as it was after a Feb. 4 meeting at the White House that included President Trump, Monahan and player director Adam Scott.
Rory McIlroy, who was formerly on the policy board and now is part of a Tour transaction committee with the PIF, admitted as much.
“I think the narrative around golf, I wouldn't say needs a deal, I think the narrative around golf would welcome a deal in terms of just having all the best players together again,” McIlroy said. “But I don't think the PGA Tour needs a deal. I think the momentum is pretty strong. TV's (ratings) been good, TGL’s been hopefully pretty additive to the overall situation.
“And I would say, again, I answered this question at Torrey Pines (last month when) the landscape might have looked a little different then than it does now ... and I think a deal would still be the ideal scenario for golf as a whole. But from a pure PGA Tour perspective, I don’t think it necessarily needs it.”
That is quite the shift for McIlroy, who has been in favor of getting an agreement, even going so far as to question former board member Jordan Spieth last year when he expressed similar sentiments about a deal.
Now it appears the sides are still far apart on very practical matters.
“Surprisingly, it’s not really about the money,” Scott said at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. “Usually that would be the hard part but it’s not.”
So the PIF’s reported $1 billion-plus investment is not the issue. It’s more about figuring out the best way forward, one that is proving to be quite a challenge.
Golf Digest’s Joel Beall laid out some of the intricate problems in a story last week, but it ultimately boils down to compromise and the unwillingness of both sides to meet more in the middle.
McIlroy said it takes “two to tango” and while that suggests the PIF is not willing to concede the LIV Golf format, it is also quite fair to wonder how much the PGA Tour is willing to engage in any way that LIV can exist in its current form.
According to a source, the Tour has laid out in stark detail how LIV’s money-losing operation is not conducive to the for-profit model that is now PGA Tour Enterprises. Clearly, with limited sponsorship and modest TV rights, LIV Golf loses millions each week it plays. It is believed that not a single event over its four-year history has brought in enough revenue to match the $25 million purse. The PIF, worth a reported $950 billion, can obviously withstand such losses.
Such losses are a problem in the overall big picture of PGA Tour Enterprises, whose purpose is to make a profit and provide a return to Strategic Sports Group—and presumably the PIF—as investors.
That makes LIV’s desires tricky. All indications point to Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the PIF, holding firm on the LIV format and number of events. Is he being stubborn? Perhaps. The various issues have been vetted without return proposals, according to the source.
Al-Rumayyan is said to like the team format and 14-event schedule. His actions and those of the league, which has shown no signs of slowing down or diminishing, is a sign that it plans to stick around. Getting to a happy medium to appease both sides, all this time later, still seems problematic.
McIlroy said last week at the Tour doesn’t need a deal, but that is a dangerous stance. What if the PIF goes all in again and starts buying up players?
Then again, how does Rumayyan—who would get a PGA Tour board seat as part of a deal—ever get to be part of golf’s inner circle without a deal? How is LIV ever accorded the credibility necessary to make sponsorship and TV deals that can bring it at least close to breaking even?
Three years ago at the Players Championship, Monahan infamously declared that “the PGA Tour is moving on” as rumors of LIV’s start-up persisted in the wake of players seemingly backpedaling from various offers.
A week later, without a single player signed, LIV Golf announced an eight-tournament schedule that began in June 2022. This week in Singapore will be its 40th event.
It seems there is still a good bit of work to be done.
Looking ahead to the Masters
Rory McIlroy is looking to add one more event after this week’s Players Championship prior to the Masters in his decade-long quest to win the green jacket and complete the career Grand Slam.
It’s been a rocky journey since he captured the British Open in 2014, putting him only the Masters away from winning all four major titles. And it seemed only a matter of time.
But since then, while McIlroy has posted six-top 10 finishes in 11 tries at Augusta National, he’s never seriously been a back-nine contender on Sunday. His tie for fifth in 2018 saw him play in the final group with eventual champion Patrick Reed. In 2022, he needed a low final round to finish a distant second to Scottie Scheffler.
Last year, McIlroy finished tied for 22nd.
He’s tried different approaches over the years. Last year, he played the week prior to the Masters at the Valero Texas Open, a possibility this year but not a lock. Other years he’s skipped the week prior.
No formula has proved to be the best.
“I'm still making a bit of a decision,” McIlroy said at the Arnold Palmer Invitational as to his schedule. “I'll see how these next two weeks go, then I'll sort of reassess. I don't like the idea of having three weeks off going into the Masters, so I may add one event, but I'm still between what event that may be.
“But it really just depends on how these two weeks go and how I'm feeling about my game. But I would imagine I would add an event leading into there, it just depends on whether it's Houston (Open) or San Antonio (Valero).”
Last year, McIlroy went to Augusta National late, choosing not to go in advance. But other years he’s spent considerable time in advance of the tournament.
“It helps. I think it does help,” he said. “Because you can spend as much time as you want around there, like on those days that you go up outside of the tournament. You're not under any pressure from a time constraint, like having to get to media or having any other obligations.
“It's funny, when you want to spend six hours on a practice round it doesn't feel like it's that bad, but the week of you don't really want to be out there for six hours and it feels a little different. So I think being able to take your time away from the tournament and doing it is a nice thing.”
After a tie for 15th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, McIlroy said he expects to visit Augusta National at least once and perhaps twice prior to tournament week. Among the reasons is the damage the property suffered during Hurricane Helene last September.
“I think it's just going to be a little bit different this year, just with there's some areas of the course that are maybe a little thinner tree-wise, just with the hurricane that rolled through,” he said. (No.) 16’s a new green. So, yeah, I'll probably go up there once or twice beforehand.”
Phil’s short game resurgence
Phil Mickelson posted his best finish on the LIV Golf League with his third-place showing at LIV Golf Hong Kong (he tied for second at the 2023 Masters) and he was talking afterward about making a run at another major championship.
While that might be hyperbole at this time—it might be a big leap to get to major-caliber play at age 54—Mickelson has seemingly addressed the area that was giving him fits the last two years.
His short game.
As crazy as that sounds, Mickelson saw a dramatic slip in the area of the game that has long been his hallmark.
While Mickelson might have been wayward off the tee for a majority of his career, he was known for his excellent iron play and his short game wizardly. The latter left him.
“The last couple of years haven’t been what I wanted,” Mickelson said in a January interview before LIV Golf’s first events. “I feel like I’ve addressed a couple of things and I don’t know why my motivation is high, but I’m enjoying trying to pull it off. I’m curious to see how I do. I’m going to have a whole different mindset this year than I did. I want to see if the things that I think I’m doing better at or feeling like I’m doing better at home ... if I’m able to do better (in tournaments).
“Either I change it or do something else. I don’t know what that would be but I know there are only so many spots out here and the guys are really good and only get better and better. And it’s not fun for me to not win.”
Mickelson lamented his short-game issues last year. “I was one of the worst and the stats back that up,” he said. “To be great, you have to do the simple things well. You have to do the simple things exceptional to be great in anything. You’ve got to hit the basic shots close and save those strokes. And I wasn’t doing that.”
Mickelson missed LIV’s first event in Riyadh but tied for 23rd the second tournament in Adelaide and with his third-place finish moved to 12th in LIV’s individual points standings.
“The fact is, I’m hitting a lot of good shots. I’m playing some good golf,” he said afterward. “This is a building week as I continue to build into LIV and my goal of accomplishing a win in LIV as well as winning another major or getting ready for Augusta.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as The Players Championship Was Once Possible for LIV Golfers, but Disconnect Remains.
