Less than 12 months ago, the thought of a challenge to the PGA Tour's reign at the top of professional golf was nothing more than a played down and written off rumour.
The emergence of LIV Golf though has made this a stark reality for the bosses at PGA Tour HQ, with Greg Norman and co looking to challenge the US-based circuit in being the sport's leading professional tour. After over a year of speculation, LIV Golf was finally born last June.
Fast forward eight months, and the Saudi-funded series is just one day away from kicking off its second campaign with mega-money funding and some of the world's best players in their armoury.
There is no doubt LIV's rapid rise has taken many by surprise, none more so than the PGA Tour. From the off, the breakaway circuit has looked to lure in some of the Tour's biggest names, and with some success, signing up the likes of Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Brsyon DeChamabeu, Phil Mickelson and Cam Smith.
In an effort to stop more of their star-studded playing quota following suit, the PGA Tour have implemented a number of changes of their own. Of course the big pull to LIV Golf is the remarkable amounts of money on offer to those who compete.
As well as being offered eye-watering signing-on fees, players are given the chance to compete for lucrative tournament prize pots, with a guaranteed return due to their no-cut events, all while playing less golf, with every tournament across 54 holes instead of the usual 72.
With more money and less golf clearly the leading the way in this battle, the PGA Tour have been quick to improve their pay structure in order to keep players onside. Following the threat last summer, Tour boss Jay Monahan announced a whole host of changes to the circuit from 2023.
In the past, the PGA Tour has been accused of often being top heavy, with the sport's leading players feeling the benefits more than those lower down the food chain. In effort to change this though, Monahan claimed their new plans will benefit, "every single member" on the tour.
In an effort to do this, the American-based circuit announced the 'Earnings Assurance Program'. This confirmed that all Korn Ferry Tour (the tour's feeder circuit) graduates and above who compete in at least 15 events in a season will earn no less than $500,000 (£415,000) each year.
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Their next step was tournament purses, an aspect LIV has seemingly revolutionised thanks to its Saudi state funding. In a bid to try and match LIV's lucrative prize pots, the Tour confirmed 17 tournaments on the 2023 calendar will receive 'elevated status' and thus increase monies.
In addition to the four majors, The Players, the three FedExCup Playoff events, the three invitationals (Genesis, Bay Hill, Memorial), the WGC Match Play and the Tournament of Champions, the Phoenix Open, RBC Heritage, Wells Fargo Championship and Travellers Championship were all 'elevated', with a purse of $20million (£16.6m) on offer.
The Tour's Player Impact Programme (PIP), which rewards players 'who resonate most' with their fans, was also given a boost with the top 20 players now rewarded a share of the $100million prize pot, which previously stood at $40million and was split by just 10 players. Aside from their riches though, the PGA Tour then played their trump card - the power of Tiger Woods.
Woods is an idol to many - if not all - competing on the Tour, and Monahan and co have used this to their advantage. Alongside the help his sidekick Rory McIlroy, the pair were deployed to have an influence in the locker room, after holding an all-player meeting last August amid the ongoing threat in a bid to keep their fellow players aligned.
Their involvement in the PGA Tour armour then became even stronger weeks later, after it was announced Woods and McIlroy had become business partners in the venture TMRW Sports, where they would host an innovative golf league named TGL, that will see a number of the world's top players compete digitally from the beginning of the 2024 season.
For now it seems the PGA Tour still just about have the upper hand on their LIV Golf rivals. With a new season beckoning though, Monahan and his team will no doubt be set on thwarting out anymore threat from Saudi-backed series, who will not being going anywhere, anytime soon.
