Report: PGA Tour and LIV Golf set to unite for ‘elite global tour’

The PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf will unite to create an “elite global golf tour” as part of the peace deal with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, a new report claims.

The Daily Mail are reporting that a lucrative fourth tour featuring 18 tournaments will be squeezed into the calendar for the world’s best players from 2025.

Details of the murky ‘framework agreement’ between the three circuits are still unclear as they aim to thrash out a truce deal before the January 1, 2024 deadline.

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And much of the so-called merger talk has centred around LIV players who jumped ship from their traditional tour returning to their old domains, with a “fair and objective process” established for blacklisted players.

But this fresh report suggests that, while the tours will continue independently next year, a new invitational circuit is being planned for players in what would be a radical change to the golfing landscape.

It is claimed that the players involved would still be permitted to play on the original circuits, but their playing schedules would then extend to this unnamed global series in 2025.

The invitations for the money-spinning tournaments will only be handed to then select few “leading players”, who would somehow have to fit in these events alongside the four majors and tour commitments.

And while the Daily Mail’s report labels this new invitational league as a “global golf tour”, it is noted that 12 of the 18 events would still be based in the United States.

There is a growing confidence at the PGA Tour’s headquarters that a deal will be reached with Saudi’s sovereign wealth fund before the end of the year, six months on from when the bombshell principle agreement was first announced.

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However, this is the first suggestion of a completely new circuit that will run separately from the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf.

And it is highly uncertain what this would mean for both the players and the circuits themselves, if the proposed new series does indeed get off the ground.

Players already have jam-packed calendars on the traditional tours and the level of desire to rip up their entire schedule to accommodate 18 new tournaments throughout a season is unknown.

The DP World Tour and LIV would operate as normal, but players would seemingly be able to switch between them, with the current chasm in prize money between the circuits also wiped away.

bunkered has reached out to the PGA Tour and LIV Golf for comment.

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.