PGA Tour and LIV Golf Look for Merger Deal Under Trump

The PGA Tour and the Sovereign Fund for the wealth of Saudi Arabia are running to remodel their plans to combine their rival golf circuits, emboldened by the eiagnness of President Donald J. Trump to play peacemakers for a fractured sport, according to the family of four people.

Since the beginning of the secret conversations in April 2023, PGA Tour executives and their Saudi counterparts have weighed how they could somehow combine the main US golf circuit with the Liv Golf operation of the Saudi. But negotiators have struggled to design one that satisfies regulators along with players, investors and executives.

The return of Mr. Trump to Washington has offered a new opening: after an oval office meeting, these ethical experts have said that they tested the limits of the property, the two parties consider options that could have stagnated Jtion Jrit Jrit Bides Bides Bides Jrit Bides that could sacrifice a more friendly look.

The details of any prospective agreement, including the destination of LIV, remain in flow. In general, the regulators would see any transaction that led to the dissolution of one of the leagues as anti -comppetitive; Under Mr. Trump, thought, antitrust regulators could have a more relaxed vision.

The two parties are looking beyond a simple cash transaction, although it is not clear how the agreement would be structured. The PGA Tour Commissioner, Jay Monahan, has said that they are seeing a “reunification”, but there are many complicated factors, which include how to value both companies.

There is also a question of how to handle any agreement along a separate investment of $ 1.5 billion on the PGA tour for a band of American sports magnates.

The family of people with the conversations of agreement spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations are confidential. The White House did not respond to a request for comments.

Before Trump returned to power on January 20, Mr. Biden’s Department of Justice had been reviewing term leaves that asked the Saudi to invest $ 1.5 billion in a new commercial arm created by the PGA Tour. Regulators sat for months studying documents, but the conversations were at an effective dead point.

The opportunity now to explore potentially more cozy terms is a notable change and underlines how the legal and political realities of the treatment can quickly change with Mr. Trump, especially when he acts as a mediator.

The LIV League backed by Saudi Arabia roared in the world of golf in 2022 with huge contracts for established stars and a shorter and more lively tournament format that challenged the PGA Tour. But he effectively divided the stars of the golf world into two circuits, fracturing the audience and weaving the commercial perspectives for both leagues. The Saudi wealth fund is valued at approximately $ 925 billion, but its golf operation has bleeding money for years, even when Liv sought to reduce a public profile stuck.

At an Oval office meeting two weeks ago, Mr. Trump with Mr. Monahan and spoke by phone with Yasir Al-Rahalyyan, governor of the Saudi wealth fund.

The love of Mr. Trump’s life for the sport and property of his family in more than a golf golf worldwide suggests that his participation could increase conflicts of interest.

The PGA Tour does not have a heroes tournament for its flagship circuit on a Trump property since 2016, and Trump has been especially close to LIV and its power runners. His company’s courses have organized LIV tournaments, and another is planned for Trump National Doral, near Miami, in April. Mr. Trump has often appeared in LIV events.

Mr. Al-Rahayyan and Mr. Trump are expected to attend a meeting of investors and executives organized by the Saudi wealth fund in Miami Beach this week. It is not clear if they will try to complete a golf agreement at the conference, which is much more than sports. But Tiger Woods, the best player in his generation, sounded a widely optimistic note during the weekend.

“We are going to put this game in the right direction,” said a member of the PGA Tour board of the PGA tour. “It is a bone in the wrong direction for several years, and fans want everyone to play together, all the best players playing together, and we will make that happen.”

Woods also said that another meeting with Trump was “arriving.”

The clock in the review of the Department of Justice of the original agreement expired this month, according to two of the family of persons with the conversations. In general, that would have meant that the parties could process with the agreement.

Instead, they have turned to the possibility of better options.

Only the possibility that golf agitation can end with an antitrust groan, instead of a regulatory thunder, shows how much the environment has changed in the last two years.

In 2023, LIV officials encouraged federal investigation into professional golf, arguing that the efforts of the PGA Tour to stop defections to other leagues threatened the integrity of the labor market. The researchers examined the cell phones and interviewed LIV players, including Bryson Dechambeau and Phil Mickelson, while studying the tight structures of male professional golf.

Then came the surprise agreement between the Saudi and the tour to follow a joint business. Mr. Monahan surprised the observers the day that was announced when he publicly declared that an agreement could “take out the competitor from the Board”, a comment that antitrust experts saw as a flagrant red flag. The Department of Justice pressed the two parties to leave the No Poach clause that included in their preliminary agreement.

The PGA Tour television ratings have decreased sharply, and Mr. Monahan told reporters last week in California that people wanted to see the best players in the world competing again. (For the most part, tour players and Liv meet only in the four main tournaments: the Masters, the PGA championship, the United States Open and the British Open).

When asked if the conversations could lead to the end of LIV, Mr. Monahan did not respond directly.

“What it means is the reunification of the game, which is what we have in the leg and we are focused,” he said.

Mr. Monahan added that “I could certainly see a day in which we are adding Trump places to our schedule.”