“Nothing is going to happen really fast” - Davis Love III skeptical on Saudi Golf deal ratification by year's end

Davis Love III knows the PGA Tour and LIV Golf merger is happening, but he doesn't believe it will take place in 2023. The merger was agreed to in June, and there was a tentative December 31 deadline.

The former pro doesn't think there's any chance that the deadline will be met. Love said via Bunkered:

"The only thing I do know is nothing is going to happen really fast. I don’t see any way [it happens this year]."

He continued:

"We [PGA Tour] made an offer. And if you don’t ever communicate, we can’t make another offer. It’s bizarre what’s going on. It’s a long way from anything. The sharks are circling. Now everyone wants to invest in the PGA Tour."

Love added that the PGA Tour isn't in trouble. They're not desperately in need of financial support, so they may have some leverage here:

"We don’t need money, that’s the beautiful thing. One very smart business person said, ‘You may think you’re in a mess but I buy distressed companies and try to fix them to make money.

"Your company isn’t in trouble, you make a lot of money. It’s perfectly fine the way it is. All you’re trying to do is make it better. You’re in a great position."

The PGA Tour makes plenty of money, and some of the world's best (from Jon Rahm to Tiger Woods) are still members. They're not in a bad position. Love also admitted via Golfweek that the rise of LIV Golf and the merger forced the Tour to look at how they were doing things.

Just because it worked for so long doesn't mean it couldn't be better in theory:

"It’s forced us to take a look at what has been going on for 53 years and think about what the next 50 years will look like. How do we set up our company to be ready for the future?"

The Tour can be different and it can possibly be better. They've already made changes in response to LIV's rise. Now, they're looking at potentially changing even further with the merger.

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Davis Love discusses PGA Tour merger

Davis Love is a stark proponent of the PGA Tour. He's never shied away from that, and he hasn't backed off of his idea that players defecting to LIV were harming the Tour in more ways than one.

Davis Love isn't a fan of LIV Golf

He said:

"I told some of them this in the very beginning. I’m not against you as a person, I’m against what’s happening and I think you’re making a bad business decision."

Love said that PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan tried to make it clear that LIV stars like Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, and others were signing with the chief competitor. That gives said competitor leverage that hurts the Tour's ability to make decisions and hurts their financial position. There was more to it than one tournament vs. another.

He continued:

"I'm still against the fact that this is a hostile takeover. These guys signed with a company that is trying to take us over. If a bunch of guys left Pepsi and went over to Coke and tried to take over Pepsi would you ever let them come back to Pepsi? I don’t think so. It may not be a perfect comparison but they sued us to make us change our rules so they could get what they wanted."

Suffice it to say, Davis Love isn't a huge fan of any of this.