However regardless of the match’s success, the way forward for males’s professional golf appears to be in limbo.
Based on the New York Occasions, rivals LIV Golf and the PGA Tour aren’t close to an settlement to merge, and, even when a contractual settlement is reached, LIV is anticipated to stay a standalone tour.
In 2021, LIV signed a few of the PGA’s prime names — Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka and others — on contracts price tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} mixed.
Not one of the LIV golfers are allowed to play in non-major PGA Tour occasions until they’re granted exemptions. The lack of that expertise hurts the PGA, depleting the tour’s reserves by $100 million, in keeping with a 2023 Wall Road Journal report, and inflicting a viewership drop of almost 20% in 2024 in the US (h/t Sports activities Enterprise Journal).
Though the PGA Tour has extra promising TV scores in 2025, it appears inconceivable for it to completely recuperate when a few of golf’s largest names, specifically DeChambeau, the reigning U.S. Open winner, are absent.
LIV Golf — primarily funded by the Saudi Arabian Public Funding Fund — has not loved substantial success. In March, Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee stated LIV was “dying a gradual, expensive loss of life.” LIV generated “just about zero” income in its first season and has lagged far behind the PGA in viewership totals.
On April 8, the PGA Tour had 1.746 million viewers for the ultimate spherical of the Texas Valero Open, whereas LIV had 484,000 viewers for its Miami occasion. The PGA’s 2025 numbers have been down 20% from the identical occasion final yr, whereas LIV’s totals have been the best in league historical past.
Higher TV numbers for LIV and the PGA Tour imply extra revenue, which finally results in a extra attention-grabbing product. LIV remaining a standalone tour isn’t helpful for both group. If an settlement that entails merging the 2 excursions isn’t reached, each organizations threat additional losses.
A minimum of one of many excursions appears conscious of how essential a merger is. In February, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan stated a “reunification of the sport” is his purpose, and that he seeks a system “the place everyone advantages.”
Whether or not LIV is as all in favour of merging with the PGA Tour often is the deciding issue.
