Augusta, Ga. — Eight-time Major Championship winner Tom Watson doesn’t believe that the PGA Tour and LIV Golf will soon be able to reunify men’s professional golf.
Watson, who won the Masters in 1977 and 1981, said there were too many obstacles to sign a deal with a Saudi Arabian public investment fund that has funded rival LIV golf leagues since its inception in 2022.
The PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF signed a framework agreement to form an alliance in June 2023, but the team was unable to launch the deal even after a recent four-hour meeting at the White House.
Last week, sources confirmed to ESPN that the PGA Tour had rejected PIF’s latest offer to invest $1.5 billion in PGA Tour companies. This comes with a warning that the Liv Golf League will remain intact.
“They chose to play their own tour, and that’s where they are,” Watson said Thursday at a press conference at Augusta National Golf Club after visiting a ritual opening tee shot with past champions Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player. “We don’t see a real working mechanism for the two tours to return together. I think that’s one of the reasons we haven’t seen an agreement since June two years ago.”
Twelve Liv golfers, including seven past champions, compete in Masters of the Week. However, golfers on the competing side rarely play together outside of the four major championships.
“One thing I know is that in a speech at a past Champions dinner on Tuesday night, Scotty Schaeffler said, ‘I’m glad we’re together again,'” Watson said. “So players want to gather, but it’s really powerful to see if there’s a framework for the two tours to work together.”
Sources told ESPN that PIF hopes Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan will co-chair the board of PGA Tour Enterprises. Saudi Arabia also hopes that team golf will become an integral part of the sport’s future ecosystem.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monaghan has suspended golfers who competed in the LIV golf tournament without conflicting event releases.
“I don’t think that framework is happening,” Watson said. “Maybe they’re smarter than me, but they’re a key element of the PGA Tour. One thing you need is permission to play in competing tournaments, conflicting event rules. This is to ensure that all the good players, which are other tournaments, don’t run out.”
Nicklaus, the six-time Green Jacket winner, said Livgolf was “forced to do something a little premature” on the PGA Tour. After Liv Golf poached several top players including past major champions Bryson Dechambeau, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka, the PGA Tour introduced eight signing events with $20 million wallets, reducing the number of golfers with full-time cards.
The PGA Tour received a $1.5 billion investment from Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of billionaire professional sports team owners and others, then distributed early player equity grants worth $930 million from PGA Tour companies.
“The PGA Tour is fine,” Nicklaus said. “I think they changed the structure. The players now own what’s going on. I think the plans to bring in plans to bring in their height events and other tournaments to bring in the younger players, and we’re making new stars for the game.
“I want to see them all come together? Certainly, I think we all do. But I think the PGA Tour is a tour. That’s where most of your good players are and I think it’s very healthy no matter which way it works, but obviously we want to see everyone together.”