It is now close to 18 months since news broke that the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) that finances LIV Golf were working on a deal to bring both parties together to drive the direction of the men’s elite game.
Much has changed at the top of the game since that momentous day, including a $3bn investment in the PGA Tour from US consortium the Strategic Sports Group (SSG). However, one thing that has remained stubbornly out of reach is a definitive agreement between the PGA Tour and PIF on a way forward.
While the golf world awaits further developments on the progress of the discussions, one of the members of the SSG, billionaire Steve Cohen, believes a deal will come to fruition.
Per Bloomberg, the hedge fund manager, who is also co-investor in TGL’s New York Golf Club, explained during a media event in New York on Monday that even though the deal is complex, he is optimistic about getting it done. He said: “It’s a lot of moving parts and I think we’ll get there.”
Cohen also explained that, ultimately, the plan is to heal the significant fractures at the top of the men’s game following the emergence of LIV Golf after many of the world’s top players opted to sign for the big-money circuit rather than continue on the PGA Tour. He added: “The goal is to reunite all the players - it’s fragmented right now.”
In September, Bloomberg reported a potential sticking point in the deal was how players who had signed lucrative contracts with LIV Golf could be reintegrated onto the PGA Tour, where they are currently suspended.
However, the following month there were encouraging signs that previously frosty relations were thawing further when PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan were paired together at the Alfred Dunhill Championship.
Cohen, who was seen at a New York Mets with LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman in March, is not the only person close to the inner workings of the top level of men’s golf who believes a deal is within reach.
Later in October, Daniel Van Otterdijk, the group chief communications officer at DP World, which sponsors the European Tour, told Gulf News: “We’re confident that within the next six months they’ll come up with a structure that befits world golf in a much better way than what we currently have. But, of course, there are legacy issues to sort out.”
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