The PGA Tour and LIV Golf announced a shocking merger on Tuesday, and most players appear to have been left in the dark about it, leaving them 'disgusted'.
Painted rightfully — at least given what we've known up until Tuesday — as bitter rivals embroiled in legal controversy, the PGA Tour and LIV Golf announced that the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF), the primary investor behind LIV Golf, would become the primary sponsor and investor in the PGA Tour. There is a merger between the two tours that also involves the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour) as well.
This news came as a shock to everyone as there were no signs of peace coming. And in reality, the ultimate result of the merger could be a good thing for golf. The divide between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf created a sport that was, in itself, divided too. Moreover, fans were robbed of seeing the best players in the world all playing together outside of four major championships.
But before we end up where things are good, that is not the general reaction right now.
As it turns out, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan did not inform any of the players — an odd choice for a player-run organization — about this coming deal and merger. And essentially, players who were praised for loyalty to the Tour and for not taking money from LIV Golf were then hung out to dry so that Monahan and the Tour could take the Saudi Arabian money in the end.
Not shockingly, this has gone over like Nolan Ryan throwing a brick through a glass art gallery.
Phil Mickelson, Collin Morikawa, PGA Tour pros react to LIV Golf merger
From cracking jokes about LIV Golf joining, to passive aggressiveness, to outright anger, you could see the emotions of this seminal moment in golf and how it clearly bothered the PGA Tour players that they played no part in the decision.
Meanwhile, it appears that Phil Mickelson might've known this was coming, which would help to explain his combative and trolling Twitter activity recently. He started by tweeting that this was awesome news before then replying to a supposition that everyone was left in the dark by saying "not exactly".
And in the same vein as Mickelson, Brooks Koepka had an admittedly hilarious reaction as he wondered how Golf Channel personality Brandel Chamblee, who is embroiled in a nasty feud with Mickelson, was holding up.
Despite all of these reactions, the one that everyone has to be waiting on is that of Rory McIlroy.
McIlroy was put in the crossfire of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf feud throughout at the proverbial loyal mouthpiece against the Saudi-backed league. Curiously, he's backed off of that in recent months. But now it appears that Monahan simply threw arguably his most popular player on the PGA Tour to the wolves to take all of the bullets for the commissioner, most likely without Rory's knowledge.
While this merger may, in the long term, be the right move for golf to no longer divide the game and the best players in the world, the way things have transpired is truly unacceptable for a player-run organization's leadership, which is Monahan with the Tour.
If only the 4 p.m. ET players meeting with him at the RBC Canadian Open were able to be broadcast.
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