PGA Tour stars who opted to turn down mega-money offers from LIV Golf are set to benefit from a peace deal between the two rival circuits.
After over 17 months of negotiation, the PGA Tour is expected to finally sign off an official agreement with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) that will end its dispute with the LIV setup. On Saturday it was reported by The Sun that the deal will see the Saudi fund pump a whopping £1.3 billion (£1bn) into the Tour.
As part of the investment, there is set to be a bonus for players who opted to remain loyal to the Tour, with PIF investing into a fund set up by the PGA Tour to reward members who opted to initially not make the switch.
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A whole host of big names decided against signing mega-money deals with the breakaway league, including both Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. And per the report, it was revealed that Woods and McIlroy both played a key role in the recent peace negotiations to reunite the sport.
Speaking at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship last month – which saw both PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and LIV chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan play together – McIlroy predicted the deal would finally be agreed by the end of the year. “Maybe it’s going too slow for the people that follow golf,” he said.
“In the business world, deals of this size take time. You are talking about billions of dollars changing hands, in different jurisdictions. I think we’ll know a lot more by year’s end. “We’re in October so hopefully three months to get something done.”
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McIlroy led the calls for PGA Tour players to be compensated for not making the LIV move when news of a framework agreement first surfaced last June. “There has to be something for those guys,” he told Sky Sports at the time. “Yeah, I think so. Ultimately I think that’s what we’re talking about,” he said when quizzed if this should be financial.
The Northern Irishman had been a huge critic of the LIV setup but has softened his stance over the past year with unification on the horizon. “I think everyone in the game would love there to be one [a resolution],” McIlroy told BBC Sport in September at the Irish Open.
“A solution is hard to get to because there are different interests and people want different things. There’s going to have to be compromise on both sides but hopefully, they’re the things they’re talking about in those meetings I’m hopeful and hopefully we’ll hear some good news in the foreseeable future where things start to come back together.”
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