rewrite this title PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf: How close is a deal to reunify the men’s game and what could happen next?

Former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley has warned that reunification between the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and the DP World Tour will take time to finalise, but is needed to end a ‘ridiculous’ period in the men’s professional game.

Talks have been ongoing since the signing of a framework agreement in June 2023 between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudia Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) – who have bankrolled the LIV Golf League since its launch the previous June.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and player director Adam Scott met last month with President Donald Trump, who was previously quoted as saying he could resolve the divide between the tours in ’15 minutes’.

Tiger Woods said the men’s game can “heal quickly” with the involvement of Trump, with the former world No 1 indicating that the negotiations to end golf’s civil war are in a “very positive place”.

“I think there’s going to be walking here before they start running together,” McGinley told the Sky Sports Golf podcast. “There could well be some kind of announcement where there will be a higher level of engagement between the two groups [PGA Tour and PIF].

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“It’s probably more likely that it could come starting with that and give them a little bit more time to figure out how you’re going to get a worldwide schedule and a moulding of the two tours, in particular the role the DP World Tour will play in that.

“It sounds like things are coming together. It sounds like there is pressure being exerted for that to happen and hopefully it will because, at this moment in time, it’s ridiculous what is going on. No tour is thriving – all of them are struggling and none of them can be happy.”

How has golf been affected by the divide?

Players competing in the LIV Golf League have been suspended from featuring on the PGA Tour, including Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Tyrrell Hatton, reducing the world’s top players that have been able to compete together in recent seasons.

“The only people who are happy in the last three or four years are the players,” McGinley added. “They have made an absolute fortune on both sides – including the DP World Tour compared to what they were before LIV – so they’ve really, really benefited here, but everybody else has lost.

“The sponsors have lost, because they’re having to spend more money. The media have lost, with viewing figures going down and sponsorship money coming in. The public have lost because they’re having to pay more money for their tickets and access to go to these tournaments.

“The public watching on TV are suffering because they’re watching diluted products all the time, with the players coming together for the four majors and maybe the Ryder Cup. Nobody is winning here except the players and that’s not sustainable.

“The prize funds that are going on in golf at the moment are not sustainable on any tour. Everybody says the Saudis have got money and they’re going to throw millions and millions at it, but they’re not a charity.

“To a large extent, they [Saudis] have made a lot of noise. To a large extent, they’ve got what they wanted, which was to get respect. To a large extent, they have won in a lot of ways and the PGA Tour have lost in a lot of ways. There’s certainly a time now for everything to come together.”

Time to contract the world’s best?

The LIV Golf League has largely the same field each week, with players signing contracts and having their schedule dictated for them, but could that be a cross-golf solution to get the world’s best teeing it up together more often?

“Golf as a business has radically changed,” McGinley explained. “One of the things that I would like to see change, and it’s one of the things that I think that LIV have got absolutely right, is contracting players.

“With the idea of independent traders, where the players pick and choose when and where they want to play, there’s no other sport that thrives where that happens. People talk about we want to follow the ‘Formula One model’, but tell me when a driver ever misses a race?

“Also, imagine Mo Salah dictating to Liverpool and going ‘I don’t want to play Newcastle. It’s too cold up there. I don’t want to go up there in February and play that game. My wife likes going to London, and I’m going to go down and play the London matches because that’s great and I like that city. I don’t want to play against Leicester either. And I’m going to take this week off’.

“That’s what happens in golf. Players make decisions 100 per cent themselves and I don’t think that’s good for the sport and it’s not good for the tours. I would like to see a rejig of the business model of golf so there’s some kind of control of the tours in terms of the schedules that the top players play.”

Listen to the full Paul McGinley interview on the latest edition of the Sky Sports Golf podcast, hosted every week by Jamie Weir. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Spreaker, while vodcast editions can be found on the Sky Sports Golf YouTube channel.