Barely two weeks after Brooks Koepka became the first active LIV Golf player to win a Major, the PGA Tour and LIV’s Saudi backers announced a framework merger agreement.
Ten months later, as the 88th Masters prepares to tee off Thursday at Augusta National with 13 LIV players in the field of 89, there’s still no finalised agreement to end the PGA-LIV split.
With talks between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) having stretched well beyond a December deadline, there’s a sense that not even another Major triumph by a LIV player could have an impact on negotiations.
“I don’t think it would really affect it. I think there are already too many good players on every Tour,” said Chilean Joaquin Niemann, a two-time LIV winner who received a special invitation to play The Masters after winning last year’s Australian Open.
“I don’t think a LIV player has to win The Masters to change things. I think things are changing already, and they’re going to come up with a solution.”
LIV Golf players have won three of the past five Majors, including Koepka at the 2023 PGA Championship – although defending Masters champion Jon Rahm and 2022 Open Championship winner Cam Smith of Australia were in the PGA when they took the titles.
Current LIV players took the top three spots in last year’s Masters, Rahm followed by Koepka and six-time Major winner Phil Mickelson.
“From a negotiation standpoint, I don’t think it’ll change much,” 2020 US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau said of a Masters win by a LIV player.
“The negotiations are going on with or without a win. I think if a LIV player were to win, we would all be extremely excited and happy for whoever that individual is.
“I’m not so sure for the other side, but that’s for them to make up their own emotional state.”
If winning won’t push merger talk closer to a deal, what can LIV players do?
“Continue to talk to players on both sides, just show that there’s a mutually beneficial ground, a peace that I hope a lot of people can start to see,” DeChambeau said.
“I’m just a bystander trying to play some golf and help advocate for the fans to win again. They need to win.
“The only thing I wish is that we can all see eye to eye on some things and that we can come back to some level playing field where we can all have some fun together.”
Players who jumped from the PGA to LIV are banned from PGA events and finding a way for them to return is among the sticking points to a merger deal.
For the moment, Majors are the stage where top LIV and PGA talent compete against each other.
“We’ll see how things shake out,” said DeChambeau. “Would I like to play a few [PGA events]? Sure, ones that I truly enjoyed.”
Players have agreed the atmosphere has been congenial at Augusta National.
“I don’t think there’s any issues at all with anybody,” US veteran Fred Couples said.
Spain’s Sergio Garcia, the 2017 Masters winner and LIV player, disputed any hint of tensions.
“There’s nothing,” Garcia said. “You guys love to kind of dig and just kind of try to make it sound like we get in the locker room and we’re fighting each other and stuff like that. It’s not like that.
“At the end of the day, it’s golf. We’re all trying to play the best way we can, and that’s it.”
He’d also like to see a deal soon, too.
“Obviously the more togetherness you get, the better it is for everyone,” Garcia said. “There’s no doubt about that.”
© Agence France-Presse
Photo: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
