However regardless of the match’s success, the way forward for males’s professional golf appears to be in limbo.
According to the New York Times, rivals LIV Golf and the PGA Tour aren’t close to an settlement to merge, and, even when a contractual settlement is reached, LIV is anticipated to stay a standalone tour.
In 2021, LIV signed a number of the PGA’s high names — Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka and others — on contracts price lots of of tens of millions of {dollars} mixed.
Not one of the LIV golfers are allowed to play in non-major PGA Tour occasions except they’re granted exemptions. The lack of that expertise hurts the PGA, depleting the tour’s reserves by $100 million, in keeping with a 2023 Wall Road Journal report, and inflicting a viewership drop of almost 20% in 2024 in the United States (h/t Sports Business Journal).
Though the PGA Tour has extra promising TV ratings in 2025, it appears unattainable for it to completely recuperate when a few of golf’s greatest names, specifically DeChambeau, the reigning U.S. Open winner, are absent.
LIV Golf — primarily funded by the Saudi Arabian Public Funding Fund — has not loved substantial success. In March, Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee said LIV was “dying a gradual, expensive dying.” LIV generated “virtually zero” income in its first season and has lagged far behind the PGA in viewership totals.
On April 8, the PGA Tour had 1.746 million viewers for the ultimate spherical of the Texas Valero Open, whereas LIV had 484,000 viewers for its Miami occasion. The PGA’s 2025 numbers have been down 20% from the identical occasion final 12 months, whereas LIV’s totals have been the best in league historical past.
Higher TV numbers for LIV and the PGA Tour imply extra revenue, which finally results in a extra fascinating product. LIV remaining a standalone tour will not be useful for both group. If an settlement that includes merging the 2 excursions will not be reached, each organizations danger additional losses.
No less than one of many excursions appears conscious of how necessary a merger is. In February, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said a “reunification of the sport” is his aim, and that he seeks a system “the place everyone advantages.”
Whether or not LIV is as thinking about merging with the PGA Tour stands out as the deciding issue.
