Saudi Arabia is set to pump billions of dollars into the world’s biggest professional golf organisation to seal a stunning merger between its breakaway LIV Golf and the US-based PGA Tour.
The infusion, which some people involved said could amount to about $3bn, underscores how Saudi Arabia has muscled into global sports through its use of oil-funded state finances.
Yasir al-Rumayyan, head of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, and PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan unveiled the deal on Tuesday, telling the FT that an unlikely peace between their two organisations was brokered over meals in Venice and rounds of golf in London.
Under the agreement, the PGA Tour and Riyadh’s Public Investment Fund have agreed to create a jointly managed entity to house their commercial operations, and intend to cease their pending litigation. The current European tour, known as the DP World Tour, has also signed up to the deal.
Saudi-backed LIV Golf, which has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to lure top golfers such as Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson to join its breakaway league, will also slot into the new entity.
The deal marks a shock resolution to a dispute that divided men’s professional golf, leading to players who joined the Saudi-backed league being banned from participating in PGA Tour and DP World Tour events.
The US government has launched a federal antitrust probe into the PGA Tour, while the PGA Tour and LIV are suing each other in a federal court in California. As a part of that litigation, Rummayan had been ordered earlier this year by the US court to appear for a deposition to explain PIF’s involvement in creating the rebel golf tour.
“As we were competing over the last couple of years . . . I think it’s fair to say that we couldn’t have imagined we’d have gotten to this point,” said Monahan.
He added: “We could not be more excited about all the possibilities here. We look forward to people and fans and players holding us accountable to that in the years ahead.”
News of the multibillion-dollar cash contribution from Saudi Arabia comes as reports suggest the country is seeking to lure top footballers such as Karim Benzema and Lionel Messi to its domestic league.
This week, the Saudi government transferred majority holdings in four Saudi football teams to the PIF, arming the fund — which already owns Premier League side Newcastle United in England — with key assets.
The new deal ensures the kingdom’s $650bn sovereign wealth fund will be central to the future direction of golf.
Rumayyan will chair the board of the new commercial entity, with Monahan as chief executive. However, the PGA Tour will hold majority voting rights in the combined entity.
“Logically we should work together; we shouldn’t work against each other,” Rumayyan told the Financial Times.
Rumayyan, who will also sit on the PGA Tour’s policy board, said golf was integral to Saudi ambitions in sport, as Riyadh pushes through reforms intended to make the kingdom less dependent on oil.
Donald Trump, who has hosted LIV competitions at his courses, hailed the deal on his Truth Social platform as “A BIG, BEAUTIFUL, AND GLAMOROUS DEAL FOR THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF GOLF”.
The PGA and PIF will create a yet-to-be-named joint commercial entity, with a large minority investment from PIF. Details of the stake and its value are still being determined, though PIF will be the exclusive outside investor with the right of first refusal on any future incoming capital commitments.
PIF’s cash infusion will be calculated as the difference between the value of its LIV stake and the total value of the golf enterprise. The size of the cash contribution is not finalised and could be greater or less than $3bn depending on the valuation of the overall transaction.
The framework agreement was brokered over two months of meetings between the PGA and PIF across the US, Europe and the Middle East. Monahan, who once said the PGA was focused on “legacy, not leverage”, told the FT on Tuesday that he began to trust Rumayyan “10 minutes after sitting down with him in Venice”.
The LIV Tour launched its tournament schedule a year ago in London. In addition to offering rich signing bonuses to players, fields were limited to 48 players and to 54 holes played over three days, both more modest than traditional professional competitions.
Its team-based format was inspired by the Formula One car racing series and newer competitions such as the Indian Premier League, which has become a driving force in cricket since it began in 2008.
Rory McIlroy, who once claimed LIV was “dead in the water” but later rowed back on those remarks, was among the highest-profile stars to side with the PGA, while Tiger Woods also resisted approaches to join the Saudi-bankrolled tour.
The US PGA Tour and the DP World Tour immediately banned any players who joined LIV, which has also come under fire due to Saudi Arabia’s poor record on human rights and the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 by Saudi agents.
The tours also said they intended to create a path for players who had left the US and European circuits for LIV Golf to reapply for membership.
Additional reporting by Lauren Fedor
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