If a deal between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund is to be finalized after close to two years of deliberation, one of the major questions that must be solved is the fate of LIV Golf.
The PIF and its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, established its footing in the professional golf world by bankrolling LIV Golf and peeling away several major stars from the PGA Tour, including Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson and most recently Jon Rahm. The Saudi contingent came to a “framework” agreement to merge assets with the PGA Tour back in June 2023, but it was light on details as to how LIV Golf could coexist with the tour.
Former major winner Webb Simpson, a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board, told Sports Illustrated this week that it took some time for the tour and its partners, including new investors Strategic Sports Group, to get “an understanding more of who (Al-Rumayyan) is, what he wants, what he’s trying to accomplish with LIV.”
But Simpson admitted there are major obstacles in the way of reunifying the men’s professional game, namely how LIV is incorporated into the schedule going forward.
“To me, it’s hard to get your mind around the team concept,” Simpson said in an interview published Monday. “I’ve gotten that feedback from golf fans. You can get your mind around the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup once a year. But the franchise model or Formula 1 model on the PGA Tour … it’s hard to see a future in that.”
Simpson, the 2012 U.S. Open winner, has sat on the tour’s policy board for more than two years. The 39-year-old suggested in the interview that paring back the LIV schedule to a few events a year may not appease Al-Rumayyan and the Saudis.
“I’m not on the transaction committee (which deals directly with the PIF), so I don’t know how Yasir is with other forms of TV golf, where we incorporate PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the LIV tour,” Simpson said. “It’s complicated.
“We’ve presented, at least at the board level, other team options that aren’t just franchises like they have for the whole year. More like different points on the calendar where there is an appetite for fans to see some type of team stuff. Then it goes back to the idea that the beauty of a team sport is you get behind that team for the season. You ride their highs and lows. Is four times a year really going to work? Will that satisfy what Yasir wants?”
Simpson also hinted that merely communicating with the Saudis has been a challenge.
“It seems like there is a little bit of a breakdown in communication,” Simpson said. “On our side, when questions are asked of us, we get answers right away. We’ve been diligent. I don’t know if the same is true on their side. That part has been kind of frustrating.”
But Simpson did say that those in negotiations know that the highest priority for the fans at this point is to piece back together a schedule that gets the likes of DeChambeau, Koepka and Rahm playing the most important PGA Tour events again.
“We also know the fans have said a million times they want to see Bryson and Rahm play in the best tournaments,” Simpson said. “They don’t want to see us at Valspar this week and them at Singapore last week. That’s not good for the game of golf.
“We’re throwing out different ideas of how we incorporate them back in. There’s only a few guys who have any eligibility out here but they’re the best players. And I think the appetite for the average PGA Tour member to see a legitimate path is quicker than maybe we once there. … I think people are over the shock value of (LIV Golf).”
–Field Level Media
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