According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, PGA Tour Commissioner, Jay Monahan, reportedly told Tour employees in a company-wide meeting that the PGA Tour could not sustain its battle with the PIF financially.
Reportedly, Monahan stated: “We cannot compete with a foreign government with unlimited money. This was the time. We waited to be in the strongest possible position to get this deal in place,” with the Tour allegedly tapping into its reserves to fund the legal battle, as well as increase the purses of the upcoming elevated events.
According to reports, the PGA Tour had already spent a near $50 million in the legal battle with LIV Golf, as well as $100 million to boost purses and bonus pools such as the Player Impact Program, in order to compete with the signing bonuses and prize money that LIV was putting up. What's more, a source who attended the meeting confirmed to GolfChannel.com that the DP World Tour had spent around $15 million in legal fees.
According to said source, Monahan reportedly stated that the PIF: “Had, and still have, unlimited resources to take our players and worked to stand up in a matter of months what had taken our organizations decades to build.”
Since the report by the Wall Street Journal, the PGA Tour have responded with a statement reading: “To characterize that this agreement was made due to litigation costs and other use of reserves is an oversimplification. With the end of the fractured landscape in the world of men’s professional golf, the PGA Tour has never been a more valuable property. … This transaction will make professional golf more competitive with other professional sports and sports leagues.”
Since the announcement of the merger, there have been calls for Monahan to resign from his position with some players allegedly missing out on near nine-figure sums to join LIV Golf. What's more, following the news, Monahan himself has accepted criticism of being a hypocrite after taking part in an “intense, certainly heated” meeting with angry players.
Along with Monahan, Jimmy Dunne, who brokered the PGA Tour deal with the PIF, says that Monahan will decide LIV Golf’s future and also insisted the Saudi investors partnering with the PGA Tour had no links to 9/11 - as he revealed more details of the deal that rocked the sport.
For those that remained loyal to the PGA Tour, Dunne has said that PGA Tour players who turned down offers from LIV Golf could be given an equity stake in the new company, with Dunne explaining to ESPN: “The new (company) would grow, and the (current PGA Tour) players would get a piece of equity that would enhance and increase in value as time went on. “
