{"id":437510,"date":"2025-12-01T00:50:57","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T00:50:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=437510"},"modified":"2025-12-01T00:50:57","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T00:50:57","slug":"pga-tour-and-liv-golf-merger-looks-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/pga-tour-and-liv-golf-merger-looks-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"PGA Tour And LIV Golf Merger Looks Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although the relationship between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf has been hostile in the past, things have improved.\u00a0 Improved in some very small ways, enough for merger talks to have sparked.\u00a0 In the first half of 2025, those merger talks came up<\/a>, but then those talks stalled.\u00a0 With 2025 coming to a close in a month, what is the state of the merger between the two leagues?<\/span><\/p>\n

The PGA Tour And LIV Golf Merger<\/span><\/h2>\n

During spring, it did look like something would happen between the two leagues.\u00a0 Sources came out and would tell about a meeting regarding the merger, Tiger Woods sat with the president to discuss it, and the players were pretty optimistic that they would be able to play with each other again.\u00a0 Then, for many reasons, negotiations would fall through.\u00a0 During one run of negotiations, the chairman of the PIF wanted a seat on the board for the merged leagues.\u00a0 The PGA did not want that, and things fell through<\/a>.\u00a0 That was the last time talks happened, and now players, commentators, and fans are wondering if LIV is even worth it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is LIV Golf An Asset?<\/span><\/h2>\n

LIV Golf has a lot of money.\u00a0 It is primarily funded by Saudi Arabia\u2019s PIF, and over the course of the league’s short life, it has spent five billion.\u00a0 All the money being spent sure is impressive, but there\u2019s not much to show for it.\u00a0 Sure, the players involved are generously compensated for their time, but they are lacking in things like global rankings and easy major access.\u00a0 Something that the PGA has baked into its system.\u00a0 LIV Golf does have access to plenty of venues around the world and has even bought some.\u00a0 Earlier this year, the league was looking to purchase one of London\u2019s historic golf courses.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All these steps haven\u2019t translated into one important asset, viewership.\u00a0 The league has only signed a deal with Fox Sports this year and has previously relied on streaming for its tournaments.\u00a0 The league has been criticized for its lackluster viewership, which is often significantly below what the PGA Tour attracts on a slow day.\u00a0 The league’s spending has also drawn criticism from Rory McIlroy, who believes the league’s spending could cause lasting damage<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brian Rollap Hints At The Merger<\/span><\/h2>\n

When Brian Rollap took over as the CEO of the PGA, the hopes of a merger briefly sparked back to life.\u00a0 This was, of course, months after the previous talks had already stalled.\u00a0 Wesley Bryan, who was previously suspended by the PGA, even reached out to reevaluate said suspension.\u00a0 However, since Rollap took over, talks of the merger have once again faded away.\u00a0 In a recent conference at the CNBC\u2019s CEO Council Forum<\/a>, Rollap hinted that he isn\u2019t actively looking for a deal, but also isn\u2019t completely dismissing one.<\/span><\/p>\n

Will There Be A PGA LIV Merger<\/span><\/h2>\n

At the time of writing, the hopes of a merger happening between the two leagues have all but disappeared.\u00a0 Realistically speaking, LIV Golf has everything to gain from such a merger, but the PGA won\u2019t be getting much.\u00a0 The PGA has been going strong for over a century and has the names and achievements to show for it.\u00a0 As well as its own space in the public consciousness.\u00a0 LIV Golf has none of that; the league has yet to turn a profit, yet it still only spends more money.\u00a0 A lot needs to happen before the PGA reconsiders merging with LIV Golf again.\u00a0 Until then, it looks like a merger won\u2019t go through.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit:\u00a0 \u00a9 Corey Perrine\/Florida Times-Union \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although the relationship between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf has been hostile in the past, things have improved.\u00a0 Improved in some very small ways, enough for merger talks to have sparked.\u00a0 In the first half of 2025, those merger talks came up, but then those talks stalled.\u00a0 With 2025 coming to a close in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":437016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,246,200,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-437510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","category-liv-golf","category-pga"],"modified_by":"Taylor Craig","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437510"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":437511,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437510\/revisions\/437511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}