Following the shocking merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, the Tour could be getting a major new sponsor. Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s major oil company and a big part of the PIF, could become a prominent Tour sponsor.
PIF leader Yasir Al-Rumayyan is also slated to join the Tour's policy board but remains unlikely to be involved in day-to-day operations at this time.
His desire is to be a big figure, though not because he's heavily involved. Aramco is a big partner for him, so getting them on with the Tour is very likely to happen.
Jimmy Dunne, via ESPN, broke down what everything could look like moving forward:
"The new [company] would grow, and the [current PGA Tour] players would get a piece of equity that would enhance and increase in value as time went on. There would have to be some kind of formulaic decision on how to do that. It would be a process to determine what would be a fair mechanism that would be really beneficial to our players."
Al-Rumayyan reportedly wants to be a prominent figure in this new partnership. Since he is a big source of the money that is backing LIV Golf presently, it makes sense that he'd be involved in the potential new sponsorship and potential payments rendered to those who stayed loyal to the PGA Tour when golfers were defecting.
Golfers discuss LIV Golf payouts amidst PGA Tour merger
Some PGA Tour stars declined to sign bonuses of more than $100 million to join LIV Golf. Tiger Woods reportedly turned down a stunning total of almost $800 million. Now, it appears that there was no reason to do so.
Matt Fitzpatrick admitted that this was a tough turn of events for those players:
"Obviously, for the guys that did turn down significant amounts of money, then that's probably a tough one to swallow, and I feel for them."
Bryson DeChambeau, who did take the money from LIV, said he felt bad for Tour golfers who stayed loyal and were betrayed in a sense:
"The players that did go over, we did take a risk, and there was a reason for taking that risk relative to the capital that had to be paid out for that to occur. I do feel bad for the PGA Tour players because they were told one thing and something else happened. On our side, we were told one thing and it's come to fruition."
Rory McIlroy also believes there should be some sort of payment, though he admitted that this is an extremely complex issue:
"I mean, the simple answer is yes. The complex answer is how does that happen, right. And that's all, that's all a gray area and up in the air at the minute. But, yeah, there is, it's hard to, it's hard for me to not sit up here and feel somewhat like a sacrificial lamb and feeling like I've put myself out there and this is what happens."
It does appear that the new merger has some tentative plans to at least talk about compensating those who stayed loyal.