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The news of the merger between the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and DP World Tour has brought another stir in the golf fraternity. The three leading tour officials finally decided to come together to unify and grow the game of golf by forming a new profit entity (unnamed).
Saudi-backed LIV Golf gained popularity after its launch due to its unique business model. They even got to sign big star golfers, such as Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, and Cameron Smith. However, they were still embroiled in a series of controversies and legal matters with the PGA Tour.
However, just weeks after Koepka won the PGA Championship 2023, the PGA Tour and PIF (LIV Golf's investors) announced a merger for an unnamed new golf entity that would stabilize the game and end the chaos in the golf fraternity.
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Timeline of LIV Golf's inception to its merger with the PGA Tour
The news of the formation of a new golf league started back in 2019. It was announced that a rival league would form to counter the PGA Tour, which would be known as the Premier Golf League. However, after a series of incidents, the new league was named LIV Golf, which means 54 in Roman numerals.
January 2020
The new Premiere Golf League was announced, which resulted in a lot of chaos in the golf fraternity. The PGA Tour's commissioner Jay Monahan announced that the players would not be allowed to participate in the rival league's events.
November 2020
The PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, commonly known as the European Tour, announced that they would come together to form a strategic alliance. Both tours decided to work together for scheduling, prize pool funding, and other commercial aspects of the game.
October 2021
The Premiere Golf League had several rounds of talks with its Saudi investors, Golf Saudi (a subsidiary division of PIF); they instead chose to fund a new global golf entity which was to be called the Super Golf League. Later on, in October 2021, this entity was launched as LIV Golf, and Greg Norman was appointed as the CEO.
March 2022
The CEO of LIV Golf, Greg Norman, announced that there will be initially eight invitational series that would invite a number of players across the globe to showcase their skills in an all-new 54-hole format.
June 2022
The first LIV Golf Invitational series was played at Centurion Club, London. Charl Schwartzel became the first individual champion, and his team Stringer GC was the champion of the inaugural event.
Just after the Centurian events, the PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan banned all the players who opted to play for the rival league. The players were handed a lifetime ban and were barred from playing in any of the PGA tour events and the Presidents Cup.
July 2022
LIV Golf applies to get included in the Official World Golf Ranking points system. The process is said to take approximately one to two years after the submission of the request.
The LIV Golf League announces the promotion and relegation system. The new system would eventually relegate the bottom four players (in the points table) of the 48 contracted players after the end of a season.
October 2022
LIV Golf partners with MENA Tour (based in the Middle East and North Africa). They partner with the tour as a strategic alliance to gain OWGR Points, but the attempts eventually failed.
August 2022
Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeu, and 11 other LIV Golfers filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the PGA Tour.
Thr PGA Tour announced changes in its working as well as schedule. They also announced prize pool hikes in several designated and elevated events.
September 2022
The PGA Tour sued the LIV Golf League for disturbing the contractual relationships with the golfers associated with them. This was followed by a series of lawsuits filed by each of the parties. This was followed by a lawsuit against the PIF and its governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan.
January 2023
The LIV Golf finally got a national television broadcaster in the United States. They signed a broadcasting deal with The CW. The first invitational event was streamed on Facebook and YouTube, and getting a TV broadcast deal was a major milestone.
May 2023
Brooks Koepka became the first LIV Golfer to win a major tournament. He registered a win at the PGA Championship 2023 at the Oak Hill County Club.
June 2023
A few weeks after Koepka's inspirational win at Oak Hill County Club, the PGA Tour, the PIF and the DP World Tour decided to come together for a merger that would allow them to bring all their resources together to build a new-profit golf entity.
All the previous lawsuits and litigation files were ended after the merger decision.
