Ian Poulter calls for “compromise” in LIV-PGA Tour deal

For the golf fans growing weary of the division that still reigns in the men’s professional game, Jay Monahan’s words on Wednesday did not change the outlook.

That’s because, when meeting with reporters ahead of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, the PGA Tour’s commissioner’s update on a deal with LIV Golf’s Saudi backers was that, well, there isn’t one.

“As it relates to times and timeframes and where we are, I’ll just say we’re in a good place with the conversations,” Monahan ambiguously stated. “That’s the most important thing.’’

It would appear that there is no end in sight for the PGA Tour’s prospective deal to unify the sport with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) that bankrolls the breakaway LIV circuit.

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A “framework agreement” was announced between the warring factions back in June 2023, yet the rival tours will continue to operate independently from each other for the foreseeable future.

And the general consensus across both tours, therefore, is frustration that the world’s best players can only compete together four times a season at the majors.

Ian Poulter, who crossed the LIV divide for it’s inaugural event in 2022, thinks a compromise needs to be reached.

“Look, I think the bigger picture would be having a collaboration where the best players in the world have an opportunity to compete again with one another,” Poulter said, speaking at the International Series England on the Asian Tour.

“How that lays itself out, we have yet to see but hopefully the game of golf will put us back in that position at some point.

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“How that’s going to look with the amount of events that we have on LIV and how people can perhaps cross over to both maybe PGA Tour, DP World Tour and obviously the Asian Tour, it is finding a way to make it work for everybody. Find out a way to make it right so there is going to have to be a level of compromise from all sides, to be honest, to make it work.”

Poulter, of course, knows that a deal of this nature is unlikely to happen in a hurry.

“The structure of that is quite complex and I think that’s one of the issues when some people in the outside world are frustrated it’s taken so long,” the 48-year-old Englishman added.

“It’s not easy, there’s a lot of play here to make these things work. We as players are hopeful at some point, we can find a way to figure this thing out.”

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.