What Happens To The LIV Golf League Now?
The one certainty from the past week is that there are far more questions than answers with one of them being what will now happen to the LIV Golf League?
According to some it's dead in the water and this season will be it's final one, just two years in. The PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund reached an agreement this week to join forces and create a new entity. What that actually looks like is anybody's guess but, according to a piece in Sports Illustrated, the LIV Golf League will continue.
The LIV commissioner Greg Norman has been less visible in recent times and there was no mention of him in the bombshell press release on Tuesday - he only found out from the chairman of the PIF Yasir Al-Rumayyan shortly before he appeared on CNBC with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.
But he reportedly told more than 100 people on a 30-minute call that LIV would carry on and that they're already looking at the calendar for 2025.
An anonymous source said: "The spigot is now wide open for commercial sponsorships, blue-chip companies, TV networks. LIV is and will continue to be a standalone enterprise. Our business model will not change. We changed history and we're not going anywhere."
When asked if there was a possibility that the LIV Golf League doesn't exist in a year's time Monahan had this to say.
"We're in a framework agreement. We haven't concluded the definitive agreement. I have not had the opportunity that I'm going to have to conduct a comprehensive empirical evaluation. I don't want to make any statements or make any predictions. But what is in place is a commitment to make a good-faith effort to look at team golf and the role it can play going forward."
As for running LIV events alongside the Tour with players going back and forth Monahan added.
"I can't see that scenario but I haven't gotten into the full evaluation, full empirical evaluation of LIV that I'm going to do to be able to comment on that. But I don't see that scenario, no. To me, any scenarios that you're thinking about that bridge between the PGA TOUR and LIV would be longer term in nature."
And if you were wondering if Rory McIlroy had in any way softened his stance on LIV, then you won't be surprised to learn that he hasn't in any way.
"I would say an element of team golf might still stay," McIlroy said. "My hope is it won't be under the LIV umbrella. It will hopefully look very different to what LIV has been. I still hate LIV. I hope it goes away. And I fully expect that it does. It’s very different from LIV. I’ve tried to protect what the PGA Tour is and what the PGA Tour stands for. There may be a team element, but I don’t think it will look anything like LIV has looked. And I think that's a good thing."
According to some it's dead in the water and this season will be it's final one, just two years in. The PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund reached an agreement this week to join forces and create a new entity. What that actually looks like is anybody's guess but, according to a piece in Sports Illustrated, the LIV Golf League will continue.
The LIV commissioner Greg Norman has been less visible in recent times and there was no mention of him in the bombshell press release on Tuesday - he only found out from the chairman of the PIF Yasir Al-Rumayyan shortly before he appeared on CNBC with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.
But he reportedly told more than 100 people on a 30-minute call that LIV would carry on and that they're already looking at the calendar for 2025.
An anonymous source said: "The spigot is now wide open for commercial sponsorships, blue-chip companies, TV networks. LIV is and will continue to be a standalone enterprise. Our business model will not change. We changed history and we're not going anywhere."
When asked if there was a possibility that the LIV Golf League doesn't exist in a year's time Monahan had this to say.
"We're in a framework agreement. We haven't concluded the definitive agreement. I have not had the opportunity that I'm going to have to conduct a comprehensive empirical evaluation. I don't want to make any statements or make any predictions. But what is in place is a commitment to make a good-faith effort to look at team golf and the role it can play going forward."
As for running LIV events alongside the Tour with players going back and forth Monahan added.
"I can't see that scenario but I haven't gotten into the full evaluation, full empirical evaluation of LIV that I'm going to do to be able to comment on that. But I don't see that scenario, no. To me, any scenarios that you're thinking about that bridge between the PGA TOUR and LIV would be longer term in nature."
And if you were wondering if Rory McIlroy had in any way softened his stance on LIV, then you won't be surprised to learn that he hasn't in any way.
"I would say an element of team golf might still stay," McIlroy said. "My hope is it won't be under the LIV umbrella. It will hopefully look very different to what LIV has been. I still hate LIV. I hope it goes away. And I fully expect that it does. It’s very different from LIV. I’ve tried to protect what the PGA Tour is and what the PGA Tour stands for. There may be a team element, but I don’t think it will look anything like LIV has looked. And I think that's a good thing."