PGA Tour Meets With Saudi Fund in New York to Discuss LIV Golf Deal

More than a year after the PGA Tour announced plans to combine forces with the Liv Golf League Golf League of the Soeign Saeign Sae wealth Fund. finally – Advance to get to a deal.

Given a series of openings and stops in conversations aimed at a proposition agreement, an agreement remains far from safe. But the executives of the tour and the background of Saudi wealth, which supports Liv Golf, along with their lawyers, focused on marking the details of a Farse, said three people familiar with the matter, talking about the negotiation of the negotiation.

At least one executive of the American investors who has already committed to invest in the tour is also involved in the conversations, said the people. The meeting is expected to continue on Wednesday, and could also be shed in additional days, they said.

The burst of the activity demonstrated an enthusiasm on both sides to make an agreement. The confrontation between the PGA Tour and his rival backed by Sauditas has divided the sport, frustrating both fans and players.

No player attended the meeting, people said, he thought several have been in other meetings on the agreement. A report that Tiger Woods was in New York caused speculation about his presence, but one of the people said Woods was in the city for a golf event that supports his base.

The plans for the meeting joined last week, hoping that a meeting in person will generate some impulse, people said.

When with June, PGA Tour and Saudi Wealth Fund signed a letter of non -binding intention that effectively established the broad blows of a possible agreement. In an attempt to avoid possible antitrust concerns, the parties have shared a draft of that document with the Department of Justice, two of the people said. A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice declined to comment.

The two parties have extended an agreement that would require the Saudi wealth fund to invest $ 1.5 billion in a commercial arm created by the PGA Tour and an American investment group. That is the same initial amount committed to the tour of US investors, which include Fenway Sports Group, the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool Football Club company; And billionaires like Steven Cohen, the owner of the New York Mets.

But other important questions about the agreement have had conversations, and the two parties exploded through an initial deadline to complete it at the end of last year. Problems include how to combine tournament schedules, the role of the Saudi wealth fund in a PGA Tour Board and how to prepare an agreement that would avoid regulatory scrutiny. The matter of the letter is particularly thorny because the fact that the PGA Tour and Liv Golf are rivals, which raises significant conns that a fusion could be anti -competitive.

The political scrutiny of the agreement has not decreased either. Conversations have caused the outrage of many politicians and critics who say that it is an attempt by the Saudi government to distract people from their human rights history.

The fact that the Testday meeting was a hero in New York the day before the anniversary of the attack of September 11, 2001 to the World Trade Center also caused criticism.

“It is unpleasant, unacceptable and incredible painful” that the PGA Tour “does this, especially now,” a group of survivors and their followers, on Tuesday.

The moment was a result of the coincidence in the quick way in which the meeting was scheduled, people familiar with the matter said.

Despite the lack of an agreement, there have been signs of progress. Two of the biggest stars on PGA Tour, Rory Mcilroy and Scottie Scheffler, will face two or the best LIV players, Bryson Deprobeau and Brooks Koepka, in a match in December.

“In a way, hopefully it is a sign for things to come,” Mcilroy told ITV News about the event. Mcilroy was appointed for a transaction committee responsible for negotiating the agreement in May. “For golf to be as strong as possible, we need all the best players who compete with each other more often, and not only four times a year in the older ones.”

Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, said in Atlanta last month that the Saudi Fund were in “regular dialogue” and that they were “the right people on the table with the right mind.”

At that time, he said he had “hopes” about the direction of conversations.