Representatives of the PGA Tour met with members of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) in New York earlier this week, as negotiations between the two continue
Former European Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington believes the PGA Tour should invite LIV Golf members into their events – whilst calling on the breakaway league to reciprocate the gesture.
Harrington was quizzed on the future of the professional game at this week’s Irish Open, with an ESPN report on Tuesday revealing the PGA Tour will meet with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF), with talks over a peace deal with LIV continuing.
Following the announcement of a shock framework agreement between the PGA Tour and PIF last June, there were hopes that the two rival circuits would settle their differences as part of a so-called ‘merger’.
Over a year on, Harrington is not convinced merging the two per se will happen, and therefore has an alternative idea to get players from both sides back competing against each other. “Ideally for me I would suggest that every PGA Tour and the European Tour event should have four invites for LIV players,” he said at the Irish Open.
“And every LIV event should have four invites for an International team. That way we have enough crossover that we can get Jon Rahm to play the European Tour and we get Abraham Ancer to play the Mexican Open. If four PGA Tour guys come over, it’s not like they are going to be welcomed with open arms; so that creates buzz at their events.
“If we had four LIV players this week, they would be focused on them, and people would be watching it. Some people would be wanting them to do well and some people would be wanting them to do badly. But that would create a bit of a buzz and vice versa, if four PGA Tour players or four international players turned up at a LIV event, they wouldn’t want that team winning.
“They wouldn’t want the outsiders, so that creates a bit of a buzz for them. That’s the only solution I see in golfing. They can do all the business solutions, that’s a completely different thing but you’re not convincing — like the guys on the PGA Tour have never had it better.
Padraig Harrington had his say on the merger
“You’re not convincing them that they are going to play an extra ten events, 14 events around the world; that they have struggled with that idea of traveling to Asia or something like that that are, they are just not comfortable with the extra jet-lag and all that. So I don’t see golf merging.”
It still remains to be seen what the outcome will be from a potential deal between the PGA Tour and their Saudi counterparts. Per reports earlier this week, it was claimed that PIF bosses were willing to inject a whopping £766 million ($1bn) into the Tour’s new for-profit entity, PGA Tour Enterprises.
Discussing the talks at last month’s Tour Championship, Jay Monahan admitted: “I see that in all these conversations on both sides, that creates optimism about the future and our ability to come together… At the same time, these conversations are complex, they’re going to take time.
“They have taken time and they will continue to take time. When I sit here today, I think the most important thing is our obligation to fans, players and partners is to focus on what we control, which we’re doing as I outlined and continue to carry this momentum forward.”
