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LIV Golf players list: Everyone who has quit PGA Tour and DP World Tour to play in the 2023 series

Cameron smith, dustin johnson and phil mickelson are among other players to have pledged their commitment to liv golf.

When the highly contentious LIV Invitational Series resumes in 2024, it will boast reigning Masters champion and world No 3-ranked Jon Rahm as the latest of golf’s most famous players who have signed up to play .

Rahm , a four-time winner on the 2023 PGA Tour, member of Europe’s Ryder Cup -winning team and prior critic of the LIV format , joins the league bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in a deal reportedly worth up to £450m.

Rumours had begun to swirl over the Spaniard’s future, including when he was notably absent from the line-up of golfers committed to the PGA Tour’s American Express stop in January, as well as withdrawing from the Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy -backed TGL league’s inaugural season last month.

And despite admitting his decision to join LIV was a “risk” in terms of his future participation in the Ryder Cup – the 29-year-old will need to remain a member of the DP World Tour to be eligible for the biennial USA vs Europe showdown – Rahm told Fox News : “Things have changed a lot in the game of golf over the past two years and I’ve seen the growth of LIV Golf and the innovation.

“That’s why I’m here today. This decision was made for many reasons and what I thought was best for me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great deal.”

The 2024 LIV Golf schedule will feature 14 stops, including new events in Las Vegas, Houston and Nashville.

2024 LIV Golf Schedule 2-4 February:  LIV Mayakoba — El Cameleon Country Club 8-10 February : LIV Las Vegas — Las Vegas Country Club 1-3 March:  LIV Saudi Arabia — TBD 8-10 March:  LIV Hong Kong — Hong Kong Golf Club 5-7 April:  LIV “USA” — Location and course TBD 26-28 April:  LIV Adelaide — The Grange Golf Club 3-5 May:  LIV Singapore — The Serapong Golf Club 7-9 June:  LIV Houston — The Golf Club of Houston 21-23 June:  LIV Nashville — The Grove Golf Club 12-14 July:  LIV Andalucia — Real Club Valderrama 25-28 July:  LIV UK: Staffordshire — JCB Golf and Country Club 16-19 August:  LIV Greenbrier — The Old White Course at the Greenbrier TBD:  LIV Golf Individual Championships TBD:  LIV Golf Team Championships.

Who played in the 2023 LIV Golf series and how did it work?

The financial package put forward by LIV Golf seduced Dustin Johnson , Lee Westwood , and Sergio Garcia from the get-go last year, with Phil Mickelson, Ian Poulter and plenty of others signing up soon after.

Mickelson was reportedly paid $200m (£159m) just for turning up, while Johnson, the top-ranked player to have joined so far, earning $150m (£119m). Johnson announced his resignation from the PGA Tour in order to concentrate fully on the new tournament fronted by former world No 1 Greg Norman, but the PGA has since suspended all players to have made the switch.

Besides the eye-watering signing-on-fees, the prize money on offer is staggering. There is a $25m (£19.9m) purse to be split between the 48 players per tournament in the eight-event series, with the winner pocketing $4m (£3.2m) and the loser earning $120k (£95k).

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The format is also very different from traditional majors. There are 54 rather than 72 holes for a start – “LIV” is 54 in Roman numerals – there is a “shotgun” start where players tee off at the same time, and golfers are grouped into teams of four.

Johnson is captain of the “4 Aces”, Mickelson is leading the “Hy Flyers” and Poulter is affiliated to “Majesticks”.

The first 2022 tournament was held in England, with subsequent events taking place in Portland, Bedminster, Boston, Chicago, Bangkok, Jeddah and Miami.

In the build-up, players faced questions about “sportswashing” and whether Saudi Arabia is seeking to deflect attention from its human rights record by investing so heavily in the sport. Mickelson previously called the Saudis “scary motherf**kers” before backtracking.

“I don’t condone human rights violations at all,” he said. “I’m certainly aware of what has happened with Jamal Khashoggi and I think it’s terrible. I have also seen the good that the game of golf has done throughout history and I believe LIV Golf is going to do a lot of good for the game as well.”

Graeme McDowell said “we’re not politicians, we’re professional golfers,” in regards to the country’s human rights record and Talor Gooch responded “I’m a golfer, I’m not that smart”. Poulter and Westwood both said they would not answer “hypothetical questions” when asked whether they would have played in a tournament held by Vladimir Putin or in South Africa during Apartheid.

Four-time major winner Brooks Koepka, former US Open winner Bryson DeChambeau and ex-Masters champion Patrick Reed signed up to the breakaway competition after the first event, while Paul Casey was also confirmed in early July.

Open champion Cameron Smith and Joaquin Niemann were then among a fresh wave of players unveiled by LIV Golf.

The 2023 series kicked off in Mayakoba in February, followed by tournaments in Tucson, Orlando, Adelaide, Singapore, Tulsa, DC, Valderrama, London, Greenbrier, Bedminster, Chicago, Miami and Jeddah.

2023 LIV Golf players list A-Z

Here are all 48 players who competed in the 14-event series in 2023.

There were 12 teams in total, with 13 major champions in the field, 16 nations represented, and a combined 125 Ryder Cup appearances.

Four players – Dustin Johnson, Martin Kaymer, Brooks Koepka and Lee Westwood – have held the title of world No 1. Scroll down for the teams and more analysis.

• Abraham Ancer
• Richard Bland
• Dean Burmester
• Laurie Canter
• Eugenio Chacarra
• Bryson DeChambeau
• Sergio Garcia
• Talor Gooch
• Branden Grace
• Sam Horsfield
• Charles Howell III
• Dustin Johnson
• Martin Kaymer
• Brooks Koepka
• Chase Koepka
• Jason Kokrak
• Anirban Lahiri
• Marc Leishman
• Graeme McDowell
• Phil Mickelson
• Jediah Morgan
• Sebastian Munoz
• Joaquin Niemann
• Andy Ogletree
• Louis Oosthuizen
• Carlos Ortiz
• Mito Pereira
• Thomas Pieters
• Ian Poulter
• Patrick Reed
• Charl Schwartzel
• Cameron Smith
• Brendan Steele
• Henrik Stenson
• Cameron Tringale
• Peter Uihlein
• Harold Varner III
• Scott Vincent
• Bubba Watson
• Lee Westwood
• Bernd Wiesberger
• Matthew Wolff

LIV Golf 2023 team names and roster

• 4Aces – Dustin Johnson (captain), Patrick Reed, Pat Perez, Peter Uihlein
• Cleeks – Martin Kaymer (captain), Graeme McDowell, Richard Bland, Bernd Wiesberger
• Crushers – Bryson DeChambeau (captain), Paul Casey, Charles Howell III, Anirban Lahiri
• Fireballs – Sergio Garcia (captain), Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Eugenio Chacarra
• HyFlyers – Phil Mickelson (captain), Cameron Tringale, James Piot, Brendan Steele
• Iron Heads – Kevin Na (captain), Sihwan Kim, Scott Vincent, Danny Lee
• Majesticks – Ian Poulter (co-captain), Henrik Stenson (co-captain), Lee Westwood (co-captain), Sam Horsfield
• RangeGoats – Bubba Watson (captain), Harold Varner III, Talor Gooch, Thomas Pieters
• Ripper – Cameron Smith (captain), Marc Leishman, Matt Jones, Jed Morgan
• Smash – Brooks Koepka (captain), Matthew Wolff, Jason Kokrak, Chase Koepka
• Stinger – Louis Oosthuizen (captain), Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace, Dean Burmester
• Torque – Joaquin Niemann (captain), Mito Pereira, Sebastian Munoz, David Puig

Analysis: LIV Invitational is morally bankrupt and won’t revitalise golf

By Matt Butler

The name is quite clever: LIV. In Roman numerals it is 54 and the players in this new incarnation of golf kicking off in the exotic locale of Hemel Hempstead will play that many holes. Neat, huh?

Of course, you might say that a new sporting franchise bolstered by limitless petrodollars would be expected to be creative with its branding.

But the new kid in town is a sign that golf is in desperate need of some love. Whether that love comes from a despotic regime with a dreadful record on human rights is something for Phil Mickelson , Dustin Johnson , Lee Westwood and, err, James Piot to ponder as they chase a ball around a course for a share of 20 mill a tournament.

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And if you put aside the ickiness of the Saudi regime behind Jamal Khashoggi ’s killers providing the lipstick and mascara to the game, the concept of a quickfire bunch of tournaments with a set season and eight-figure sums of cash riding on each one sounds intriguing – even if the reason why players joined appears to be all about the money. Not that cold hard cash as a motivator is news, especially in the world of golf.

The rules are thus: everyone tees off at once. It is called a shotgun start, which sounds a little violent, given the paymasters, but I guess bonesaw start would have been too much. Twelve teams of four play in a match-play format, with individual members also competing in a strokeplay competition. There is no cut to miss. So far, so mildly diverting.

However, toe-curlingly twee “Camden Market-style” stalls, a Craig David and Jessie J gig and Sporty Spice on the decks post-match does not sound like much of an answer to the organiser’s promise to “supercharge” golf.

Read Matt’s full analysis here

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The Alliance of LIV Golf and the PGA Tour: Here’s What to Know

The details of the partnership are far from complete, according to a document outlining the framework of the deal.

By Kevin Draper

The PGA Tour, the world’s pre-eminent professional golf league, and LIV Golf, a Saudi-funded upstart whose emergence over the past year and a half has cleaved the sport in two, have agreed to join forces.

The pact is complicated and incomplete: A document submitted to Congress and obtained by The New York Times includes only a handful of binding commitments . But numerous golfers hate it, and for the moment they are directing their wrath at the architects of the deal. Let’s start from the beginning.

What are the PGA Tour and LIV Golf?

The PGA Tour holds tournaments nearly every weekend, mostly in the United States but also in other countries in North America, Europe and Asia, with prize pools worth millions of dollars. The tour has been the home to practically every male golfer you can name: Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer and so on.

It has relationships with, but is separate from, the organizations that stage men’s golf’s four majors: the Masters Tournament, the P.G.A. Championship, the U.S. Open and the British Open. (The L.P.G.A., which runs the women’s tour, is separate.)

LIV Golf began in late 2021 with the former PGA Tour player Greg Norman as its commissioner and billions of dollars in backing from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, which is known as the Public Investment Fund. LIV lured several PGA Tour players, including the major champions Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka, with massive purses and guaranteed payouts that far surpassed what they could earn on the established circuit.

LIV promised a sharp break from golf’s fusty traditionalism, starting with its name, which, when pronounced, rhymes with “give” but is actually the Roman numeral for 54, the number of holes played in each tournament. LIV had music blaring at its events, looser dress codes and team competitions — and tournaments that lasted three days instead of four. Further, and of particular appeal to potential players, while the PGA Tour tournaments cut golfers with the worst scores after two rounds, LIV did not cut anyone.

What was the relationship between the leagues before the deal?

Acrimonious, to put it lightly. Players who joined LIV were forced to resign from the PGA Tour — and its European equivalent, the DP World Tour — under the threat of suspension and fines. LIV sued the PGA Tour, and the PGA Tour countersued, litigation that is technically continuing (though the deal is supposed to resolve it).

PGA Tour supporters and other critics of LIV said the venture was simply an attempt by the Saudi government to distract attention from its human rights record, while LIV supporters said the PGA Tour was a monopoly that used inappropriate strong-arm tactics to protect its position in big-time sports.

And yet now they are combining?

It seems so. The PGA Tour and LIV announced on June 6 the creation of a new entity that would combine their assets, as well as those of the DP World Tour, and radically change golf’s governance.

The PGA Tour would remain a nonprofit organization and would retain full control over how its tournaments are played. But all of the PGA Tour’s commercial business and rights — such as the extremely lucrative rights to televise its tournaments — would be owned by a new, yet unnamed, for-profit entity that is currently called “NewCo.” NewCo will also own LIV as well as the commercial and business rights of the DP World Tour.

The board of directors for the new for-profit entity would be led by Yasir al-Rumayyan, who is the governor of the Public Investment Fund and also oversees LIV. Three other members of the board’s executive committee would be current members of the PGA Tour’s board, and the tour would appoint the majority of the board and hold a majority voting interest, effectively controlling it.

What have they agreed on?

Not much, it turns out. The PGA Tour’s tentative deal with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund includes only a handful of binding commitments, such as a nondisparagement agreement and a pledge to dismiss acrimonious litigation. (The sides have already moved to end their legal fights .) What it does not include is a clear path of what lies ahead for the tours: Many of the most consequential details about the future of men’s professional golf have not been resolved, and were left to be negotiated by the end of the year.

Most crucially, the tour and the wealth fund must still come to terms on the values of the assets that each will contribute to their planned partnership. Bankers and lawyers have spent recent weeks beginning the valuation process, but a five-page framework agreement obtained by The New York Times includes no substantive details of projected figures or even the size of an anticipated cash investment from the wealth fund.

And one issue the two parties had agreed on has been removed. The framework agreement included a nonsolicitation clause, which said the PGA Tour and LIV Golf would not “enter into any contract, agreement or understanding with” any “players who are members of the other’s tour or organization.” But the two sides, facing pressure from the Justice Department, decided to abandon that clause .

When does this take effect?

First, the idea also has to be approved by the PGA Tour’s policy board, what it calls its board of directors, which includes some people who were left out of the secret negotiations for this deal in the spring.

The policy board is made up of five independent directors, including Ed Herlihy and Jimmy Dunne, who helped negotiate the deal. The board also includes five players: Patrick Cantlay, Charley Hoffman, Peter Malnati, Rory McIlroy and Webb Simpson.

Jay Monahan, the commissioner of the PGA Tour, said on June 6 that there was only a “framework agreement” and not a “definitive agreement,” with many details still to be decided. The definitive agreement needs a vote before it can go forward.

And for the rest of 2023, all the tours will remain separate, and all their tournaments will continue as scheduled.

And after that?

Who knows? This is how Monahan answered questions about what golf might look like in the future on the day the alliance was revealed.

Will LIV continue to exist as a separate golf league? “I don’t want to make any statements or make any predictions.”

Will LIV golfers go back to the PGA Tour and DP World Tour? “We will work cooperatively to establish a fair and objective process for any players who desire to reapply for membership with the PGA Tour or the DP World Tour,” Monahan wrote in a letter to players.

Will PGA Tour players, many of whom spurned LIV and its huge paydays, receive compensation? Will LIV players somehow be forced to give up the money they were guaranteed? “I think those are all the serious conversations that we’re going to have,” Monahan told reporters.

How do players feel about all of this?

Broadly, LIV players seem to think they have gained a major victory, and they are probably right. They got their cake (huge paydays) and can eat it (a pathway to returning to the PGA Tour), too.

Mickelson, the first major player to leave for LIV, tweeted that it was an “awesome day today.” Koepka took a jab at Brandel Chamblee, a former professional golfer and current television commentator, who has been vocally anti-LIV.

Many PGA Tour players were less jubilant. They were blindsided by the news, learning of the agreement when the public did, and they did not seem to understand why the tour waged a legal war against LIV and a war of morality against Saudi money, only to invite the wolf into the henhouse.

On the day the news broke, Monahan met with a group of players in Toronto at the Canadian Open, which was set to start in two days, and afterward told reporters it was “intense, certainly heated.”

Johnson Wagner, a PGA Tour player, said on the Golf Channel that some players at the meeting called for Monahan’s resignation.

“There were many moments where certain players were calling for new leadership of the PGA Tour, and even got a couple standing ovations,” he said. “I think the most powerful moment was when a player quoted Commissioner Monahan from the 3M Open in Minnesota last year when he said, ‘As long as I’m commissioner of the PGA Tour, no player that took LIV money will ever play the PGA Tour again.’”

Wagner estimated that 90 percent of the players in the meeting were against the merger.

McIlroy, perhaps the most influential PGA Tour player not named Tiger Woods, said he was reluctantly in favor of the agreement. McIlroy said he had “come to terms” with Saudi money in golf. “Honestly, I’ve just resigned myself to the fact that this is, you know, this is what’s going to happen,” he said.

I see a photo of former President Trump up there. Is he involved in this?

Yes, though not directly. The Trump Organization owns golf courses around the world, and Donald J. Trump has for years sought to host major tournaments on its properties. Those efforts suffered a setback after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, as the golf establishment distanced itself from the former president. Most significantly, the P.G.A. of America pulled the 2022 P.G.A. Championship from the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.

But Trump had cultivated unusually close ties to Saudi Arabia while president, and Saudi-backed LIV had no problem embracing him. Last year, two LIV events were held at Trump courses, and this year it will be three.

Trump’s son Eric said that the agreement between LIV and the PGA Tour was a “wonderful thing for the game of golf” and that he expected tournaments to continue to be held at Trump-owned courses. He declined to comment on whether the Trump family played any role in bringing the two parties together.

If the PGA Tour was so against LIV and Saudi money, what changed?

“Listen, circumstances change, and they’ve been changing a lot over the last couple years,” Monahan said.

Get it? No?

“What changed? I looked at where we were at that point in time, and it was the right point in time to have a conversation,” Monahan said.

Between the lines, Monahan made it sound like the agreement came down to money and competition, as it often does. To compete with LIV, the PGA Tour has enhanced purses, supported the DP World Tour financially and pursued extremely expensive litigation. “We’ve had to invest back in our business through our reserves,” Monahan said.

He also said the ability to “take the competitor off of the board” while retaining control was significant.

Can anybody else stop the deal from going through?

The Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission or the European Commission could certainly try.

For about a year, the Justice Department has been investigating the tight-knit relationship between the PGA Tour and other powerful entities in golf. Among its questions is whether the organizations have exerted improper influence over the Official World Golf Rankings, which determine players’ eligibility for certain events and can be an important factor in their success and income.

As part of their deal, LIV and the PGA Tour agreed to drop their dueling lawsuits, but doing so would not necessarily change the Justice Department’s inquiry. If there were any illegal conduct by the PGA Tour, a merger would not prevent the PGA Tour from being punished for it.

“The announcement of a merger doesn’t forgive past sins,” said Bill Baer, who led the Justice Department’s antitrust division during the Obama administration.

The federal government, through the Justice Department and the F.T.C., also reviews more than 1,000 mergers for approval each year, and the European Commission reviews them for the European Union. Without a definitive agreement, it is not clear whether this might be the type of combination regulators could block or whether they would try to do so.

Saudi Arabia seems to have grand sports ambitions. Will it always remain a junior partner to the PGA Tour in golf?

As always, Saudi Arabia has the perfect vehicle to gain more control: money.

The Public Investment Fund will invest “billions,” according to its governor, al-Rumayyan, into the new for-profit entity. It will also hold “the exclusive right to further invest in the new entity, including a right of first refusal on any capital that may be invested in the new entity, including into the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and DP World Tour,” according to the release announcing the agreement.

If the Public Investment Fund invests more money, it will surely demand more board seats and greater voting rights, further tilting control of men’s professional golf toward the kingdom.

Kevin Draper is an investigative reporter on the Sports desk, where he has written about workplace harassment and discrimination, sexual misconduct, doping, league investigations and high-profile court cases. More about Kevin Draper

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PGA Tour and LIV Golf unite: What we do and don't know

Mark Schlabach reports on the reaction of some PGA Tour players to the agreement with LIV Golf, as well as what is next for golfers who left the PGA. (1:20)

• Senior college football writer
• Author of seven books on college football
• Graduate of the University of Georgia

There have been plenty of bombshells during the PGA Tour and LIV Golf League's ongoing battle on the course and in the courts to topple each other for supremacy in what was once known as the gentleman's game.

But nothing from the past 18 months or so -- not Phil Mickelson 's controversial comments about the Saudi Arabian monarchy's history of alleged human rights violations; not major championship winners like Dustin Johnson , Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka accepting hundreds of millions of dollars to defect to LIV Golf; or Peter Uihlein jumping from Smash GC to the 4Aces -- could have prepared the golf world for what went down Tuesday morning.

Shortly after 10 a.m. ET, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan sat with Yasir Al-Rumayyan -- the governor of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is financing LIV Golf -- on CNBC to announce that their circuits, along with the DP World Tour, had reached an agreement to unify and form a larger commercial enterprise.

PIF, with more than $600 billion in assets, will be the leading investor in the yet-to-be-named new entity, and it also will become a premier corporate sponsor of the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and other international tours.

For those who need a point of comparison, it was like Dusty Rhodes' girlfriend showing up on stage with Ric Flair at a World Championship Wrestling event in the 1980s and pledging her loyalty to the Nature Boy.

Or Alabama football coach Nick Saban taking the Auburn job.

No one saw it coming -- not even the PGA Tour's biggest stars, who were kept in the dark.

After months of defending the PGA Tour and criticizing the source of LIV Golf's funding at every turn, Monahan made an abrupt eight-inch-heel turn, leaving golf fans and his own tour members to question everything they'd heard from him for more than a year.

"I recognize that people are going to call me a hypocrite," Monahan said during a videoconference with reporters on Tuesday. "Anytime I said anything, I said it with the information that I had at that moment, and I said it based on someone that's trying to compete for the PGA Tour and our players. I accept those criticisms, but circumstances do change. I think that in looking at the big picture and looking at it this way, that's what got us to this point."

While there are still many details to be worked out, here's what we know and don't know about the new partnership:

How did the deal come together?

Sources told ESPN on Tuesday it came together very quickly. PGA Tour policy board chairman Ed Herlihy and board member Jimmy Dunne, who is well connected in the golf world, helped lay the groundwork for the agreement and had an initial meeting with Al-Rumayyan.

In the videoconference with reporters, Monahan said the PGA Tour had been in talks with PIF for about seven weeks. There were four in-person meetings as well as videoconferences and telephone calls. Monahan said an agreement was reached Monday night.

On CNBC on Tuesday, Al-Rumayyan said he met Monahan in London recently. They had lunch, played golf the next day and then had lunch again. Monahan said the policy board has to approve the deal formally; Al-Rumayyan said it should be finalized in a "matter of weeks."

What changed Monahan's mind about PIF?

That's the million-dollar question. In October, after Mickelson had suggested that the PGA Tour and LIV Golf needed to come together, Monahan told ESPN at the Presidents Cup in Charlotte, North Carolina, that it would never happen.

"Well, I think words and actions are important," Monahan said at the time. "I think it's impractical when you look at the fact that certain players have sued the PGA Tour, their employer has sued the PGA Tour. It's not in the cards. It hasn't been in the cards, and it's not in the cards. I think we've been pretty consistent on that front."

When Monahan was asked if the circuits could coexist, he said: "I'd provide the same answer. The answer to that is they've gone down their path, and I think we have been pretty consistent that we're going down."

So what changed? Sources told ESPN that the PGA Tour and LIV Golf have each spent tens of millions of dollars defending themselves in a federal antitrust lawsuit that LIV Golf and 11 of its players filed against the PGA Tour in August. The PGA Tour filed a countersuit, claiming LIV Golf interfered with its contracts with players.

On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in California denied the PGA Tour's motion to dismiss LIV Golf's appeal over sovereign immunity. The case would have likely dragged on for several months, if not a couple of more years. Neither side wanted to share its secrets via required discovery, and neither wanted to keep spending money on lawyers.

Richard Sheehan, a professor emeritus of finance at Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business who specializes in the economics of sports, said in a statement provided to ESPN that "economic interests do generally win out in the long term."

"Multiple lawsuits with potentially huge costs, very long potential timelines, and tremendous uncertainty regarding the legal outcomes have a way of focusing participants' attention on issues at hand and the financial and reputational stakes in the balance," Sheehan said.

"LIV and the Saudis may well have entered the golf arena in an effort to repair the Saudi Arabian monarchy's reputation on human rights. The lawsuits do not help on that end. And the PGA likely has no interest in trying to match Saudi/LIV funding of a protracted and expensive legal battle. Both had an incentive to settle, and the questions now revolve around the terms of that settlement."

Instead of spending tens of millions of dollars more on lawyers, Monahan might have figured it was more financially prudent to get in business with the Saudis rather than sue them.

"In terms of how did we get to this point and how did we go from a confrontation to now being partners?" Monahan said Tuesday. "We just realized that we were better off together than we were fighting or apart, and by thinking about the game at large and eliminating a lot of the friction that's been out there and doing this in a way where we can move forward."

When did players learn the news?

Believe it or not, it seems that nearly all of them learned at the same time as everyone else -- when CNBC published a short statement on its website, followed by a news release on the PGA Tour's website shortly after 10 a.m. ET.

Players weren't happy about being kept in the dark. Tiger Woods , Rory McIlroy , Jon Rahm and members of the Player Advisory Council didn't even know what was taking place behind the scenes.

"It's disappointing being a PGA Tour member," England's Callum Tarren told the Golf Channel. "The guys who've stayed loyal to the PGA Tour, it's kind of a kick in the teeth for them. Obviously, Rory was a huge advocate of the PGA Tour, and now it looks like all of this hard work and sticking up for the PGA Tour was just left by the wayside."

Longtime PGA Tour member Scott Stallings blasted Monahan during an interview with Sirius/XM Radio on Tuesday.

"How many other sides of his mouth can he speak out of?" Stallings said. "And that's tough to say about the commissioner of the tour, but I mean literally it wouldn't take you very long to internet search to find completely contradictory comments to what he said on the CNBC interview today. I have no problem with the guys who went to LIV, zero problems with the guys that decided to go.

"But with [Monahan] saying on the interview that they're currently finding a path for the guys to be able to play on the PGA Tour by the end of 2023. He said they'll never play on the PGA Tour again. I'm just trying to understand at what point are we going to start establishing a baseline of truth? ... As far as that being our guy that's our advocate in the world in the game of golf, that's very disconcerting as a player."

When did LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman find out, and what happens to him?

Interestingly, Norman's name didn't appear in the 976-word statement that was released by the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Public Investment Fund on Tuesday. Norman didn't react to the breaking news on social media on Tuesday. In fact, the LIV Golf League didn't even weigh in with a statement to the media or on its social media, either.

Al-Rumayyan told CNBC that Norman didn't find out about PIF's partnership with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour until shortly before everyone else did.

"I made a call just before this and, of course, he is a partner with us, and all the stakeholders that we have with us, they had the call right before this interview," Al-Rumayyan told CNBC.

Norman has been the face of LIV Golf during its first two seasons. He hasn't said much during the past several weeks, however, and his days with LIV Golf seem to be numbered. There has to be a reason Norman didn't comment about something he had been pushing for months.

What will future schedule and tournament formats look like?

While the deal has been described as a unification of the competing tours, they're going to continue to be separate entities for the rest of this season. The final seven LIV Golf League events will go on as planned, starting with a tournament in Spain at the end of this month. The season ends with a team championship in Saudi Arabia in early November.

The PGA Tour's plan to stage elevated events with no cuts and reduced fields in 2024 and beyond isn't expected to change.

The bigger question is what happens to the LIV Golf League after this season. The Saudis have invested more than $2 billion into the venture, and the league's lawyers said in court documents obtained by ESPN in February that it generated virtually no revenue in its first season in 2022. The league's season debut in Mayakoba, Mexico, and second event in Tucson, Arizona, drew low ratings . LIV Golf has since declined to provide TV ratings.

With the Saudis planning to invest billions of additional dollars into the new entity and the PGA Tour as one of its premier corporate sponsors, it might no longer have an interest in continuing to fund the LIV Golf League with little financial return.

The team format could be folded into the PGA Tour schedule or the LIV Golf League might continue in some iteration that takes place in the fall after the PGA Tour season concludes. But there seem to be serious questions about the future of the LIV Golf League.

"We're in a framework agreement," Monahan said. "We haven't concluded the definitive agreement. I have not had the opportunity that I'm going to have to conduct a comprehensive empirical evaluation [of LIV Golf]. I don't want to make any statements or make any predictions. But what is in place is a commitment to make a good-faith effort to look at team golf and the role it can play going forward."

Will the PGA Tour give the LIV guys their cards back?

It remains to be seen how difficult it will be for players like Mickelson, Johnson, Koepka, Patrick Reed and others to return to the PGA Tour if they choose to do so.

In a memo to PGA Tour members on Tuesday, Monahan described the reinstatement of players who had defected to the LIV Golf League as a "complicated endeavor and one that will be guided by established PGA Tour rules and regulations."

Does that mean those players will still face suspensions and/or fines for playing in LIV Golf tournaments without a conflicting-event release?

At the Players Championship in March, Monahan was asked about the possibility of suspended players returning to the PGA Tour. He said at the time, "I've been hearing that a lot lately, and I'm not certain where that's coming from. The players that are playing on that tour are contractually obligated to play on that tour. So any hypotheticals at this point really aren't relevant. But our position, to answer your question directly, has not changed."

On Tuesday, Monahan said there is a plan in place, but he wasn't willing to disclose it until the agreement with PIF and the DP World Tour is finalized.

"At this point, we're under a framework agreement," Monahan said. "To complete this, we've got to get to definitive. We have that identified in our framework agreement. But at this point, it's reapplying for membership at some point after the end of 2023, and that's something that I'll address in the future, certainly, once we get through the definitive."

Do the LIV golfers have to pay back any money?

Many of the league's top stars received multiyear contracts that guaranteed them more than $100 million over the course of the deal, including Mickelson (reportedly $200 million), Johnson ($150 million), DeChambeau ($125 million) and Koepka ($100 million).

The guaranteed money was being paid over the course of those deals, so PIF wouldn't be owed any sort of refund from the players. But if the LIV Golf League ends up folding, would PIF honor the remaining years on the players' contracts? LIV Golf League officials previously told ESPN that each of the deals is different, so it's unknown if LIV Golf has an escape clause should the league fold. Could the players sue the league for the rest of their money?

Do the PGA Tour players get any money?

One would have to assume that a large share of the Saudis' investment in the PGA Tour would go toward even richer purses for players. Several of the tour's top stars, including McIlroy, Rahm, Patrick Cantlay , Cameron Young and Hideki Matsuyama , declined significant offers from LIV Golf and remained loyal to the PGA Tour.

If the PGA Tour allows suspended LIV Golf players to come back, how is it going to compensate players like McIlroy and Matsuyama for what they passed up by turning down LIV Golf?

"You know, it probably didn't seem this way to them, but as I looked to our players, those players that have been loyal to the PGA Tour, I'm confident that the move that they made, they've made the right decision," Monahan said. "They've helped rearchitect the future of the PGA Tour. They've moved us to a more pro-competitive model."

Monahan was asked if the PGA Tour would consider compensating the players who were offered lucrative contracts from LIV Golf but turned them down.

"I think those are all the serious conversations that we're going to have," he said. "We're going to have them with our board. Ultimately everything needs to be considered. Ultimately what you're talking about is equalization over time, and I think that's a fair and reasonable concept."

Who is next to join LIV Golf? Here are 10 PGA Tour stars who might make the leap

GolfMagic has taken a look at 10 PGA Tour stars that could join LIV Golf after the rival league brought the curtain down on their second campaign.

"I know that's going to happen". Not my words, but those of Phil Mickelson  as he talked up the prospect of more PGA Tour stars signing for LIV Golf in the offseason. 

We will have to wait see whether Lefty is right, given nine months ago we were promised some high-profile names were in negotiations to join the rival league. 

Before LIV kicked off their second campaign in Mexico, their last-minute signings were - with respect - somewhat underwhelming. 

Chile's Mito Pereira finally put pen to paper with LIV. He joined South Africa's Dean Burmester and Colombia's Sebastian Munoz. 

When the landmark 'framework agreement' between the PGA Tour and LIV's financiers was announced, there was a stipulation the Saudi-backed league wouldn't raid their North American rival for any more talent. At least, for the time being. 

Some scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice put an end to that. 

Which means LIV are free to approach more golfers to try and drum up some interest going into 2024. 

GolfMagic has decided to take a look at some potential recruits.

        View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by . (@golfmagic)

Here are 10 PGA Tour players that could have their heads turned...

1. Jason Day

Day appeared receptive to joining LIV in the future. A year ago, the Aussie said he would reject any immediate offer. Although he added: "Who knows in a year's time, you might think differently."

2. Hideki Matsuyama

Matsuyama is said to have turned down $400m to join LIV in 2022. The Japanese golfer is also not involved in Tiger Woods  and Rory McIlroy 's TGL. Sources close to the former Masters champion suggested he was torn between money and legacy. Matsuyama has not publicly criticised any players for joining LIV and even was sympathetic to their players struggling to get into the major championships. "They have some really good players over there," he said. "And if some of those players drop outside the top 100 players in the world, that's not good for the world rankings either."

3. Brian Harman

Boasting another major champion would undoubtedly be a big deal for LIV. Could Harman be tempted? He's played more than 340 events on the PGA Tour since making his debut in 2012, winning three times. Would he regret turning down the opportunity to make a quick buck?

4. Scottie Scheffler

Scheffler isn't involved in TGL either, although that decision appears more down to logistics. Still, Scheffler wasn't happy with the lack of clarity about any future potential partnership between the PGA Tour and the PIF of Saudi Arabia. The American stated PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan had 'a long way to go' to regain the players' trust after the about-face tour management policy. 

5. Adam Scott

Scott has never criticised any LIV players in public. "All power to them" he previously said after they joined. At times he has even praised LIV's chief executive, Greg Norman . "I don't begrudge him at all," he said. He is now a member of the PGA Tour's player advisory council, which means it's unlikely he has any immediate plans to leave. But you never know. 

6. Viktor Hovland

In February, Hovland said 'nothing is ruled out' with regards to his future. "As of today, I want to play here, this is where the best players are," he said. "I think it's better for my golf if I play on the PGA Tour." It would be a major coup is LIV could land the Norwegian. 

7. Sam Burns

Reportedly turned down $100m. More importantly, he is represented by GSE Worldwide. GSE's other clients? LIV players: Bryson DeChambeau, Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen, Branden Grace, Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz and Eugenio Chacarra. 

8. Tony Finau

Finau has confirmed he was approached by LIV, which isn't surprising in the least. Initially, he said he 'didn't have a stance' on the rival league. Would the big-hitting American fancy a future with LIV?

9. Justin Rose

Rose previously said he wasn't willing to put a Ryder Cup appearance in jeopardy. Likewise, qualification for the majors. At 43 years old, it's not unreasonable to suggest playing in Italy was the Englishman's last hurrah in the biennial dust-up. Will LIV make a renewed offer for Rosey?

10. Cameron Young

Last August, Young made a statement stating he had 'decided to stay' on the PGA Tour. Haven't we heard that one before?

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The LIV Golf question that the PGA Tour must answer

Richard Heathcote

Golf’s civil war is near its endgame and those deciding its fate are down to two roads. One is paved by principle, where ego is checked at the door for a journey that will be difficult yet whose direction is ultimately true. The other … well, the travelers may have their reasons for this path, some of which are staked in virtue. But the real guide here is pride, and forging down this way will only lead to another crossroads, if not a cliff. The problem for those making this decision is many have these roads confused for one another.

Those hoping for long-awaited unification in the professional game were likely disappointed with last week’s announcement that the PGA Tour would be partnering with private equity. The door remains open for future rapport with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, also known as the financial backer that spurred golf’s schism, although those talks have gone cold, multiple sources have told Golf Digest. While the deal with the Strategic Sports Group was made with future PIF involvement in mind, some of the tour’s player leaders are telegraphing they’re just fine if PIF—and more specifically, PIF’s LIV Golf and LIV players—remain on the outs. And that is a problem, because a schism remains a schism unless the sport is made whole.

“I don’t think that it’s needed,” said tour board member Jordan Spieth last week. “I think the positive [of a deal with PIF] would be a unification [of PGA Tour and LIV players], but I just think it's something that is almost not even worth talking about right this second. The idea is that we have a strategic partner that allows the PGA Tour to go forward the way that it's operating right now without anything else.”

Adam Scott was more blunt in his assessment: “We don’t need it purely from a financial standpoint.”

Financially they are not wrong. Adding $1.5 billion to its coffers, with another $1.5 billion in the wings, provides the tour a stability that wasn’t there just weeks ago. Although the $930 million in player equity shares will not prevent other players from eventually defecting—because greed and entitlement cannot be alleviated by any dollar amount—it should buy the tour some time.

Conversely, that is viewed solely through the prism of business, which is problematic because the tour is not battling another company but a foreign kingdom, one willing to bankroll its LIV project for reasons other than economic viability and willing to confer an endless runway until those goals are reached. Forget the hundreds of millions bestowed to Jon Rahm; PIF can hand out $75 million contracts to players who haven’t won in years and not think twice. Three billion for the tour is a lot but it's still less than a blank check.

Spieth and Scott, Tiger Woods, Patrick Cantlay and others involved in the tour’s direction know this, or should know this. As is often the case with riches in professional sports, it’s not about the money. It’s what the money means. To paraphrase Phil Mickelson, it’s all about leverage, and for the first time in nearly two years the tour’s constituents feel like they have the upper hand. That they, not LIV Golf, dictate their future. Or at least, they can remain on the tour side and be wealthier for it.

However, if this schism and its consequences could be distilled to one concept, it’s that a majority of stars have worried more about their bank accounts rather than where the cost of those transactions were taking the sport. Aside from a handful of individuals, this whole mess has lacked adults in the room. That presence is needed more than ever, because what comes next for the tour and its players is the hard part.

Darren Carroll/PGA of America

An avenue for LIV players to return to the PGA Tour remains low on the negotiation priority list, multiple sources familiar with the talks tell Golf Digest. Part of that low priority is due to the contentious nature of the issue. PIF is arguing for both LIV integration into the PGA Tour schedule, and for LIV players to compete in tour events. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, who described his secret deal with PIF as a chance “to take the competitor off the board,” wants several LIV players under the tour umbrella, albeit with LIV shut down. Most of the top PGA Tour players do not want LIV players back without some sort of penalty or retribution. The player faction has made those intentions public in the past two weeks following Rory McIlroy’s comments that he wants the game unified again. Among those who have spoken out against a seamless homecoming for LIV members are Spieth, Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler and Scottie Scheffler. Two player sources tell Golf Digest that Woods is also against LIV players receiving a free pass.

"I think there's a lot of us that made sacrifices and were very ... whether it's true to our word or what we believe in or just didn't make that decision, and I totally understand that things are changing and things are getting better, but it just would ... I would have a hard time with it,” Thomas said this week, “and I think a lot of guys would have a hard time with it, and I'm sure we don't need to convince you why we would have a hard time with it. I think there's a scenario somewhere, whatever it is, down the road of some kind of version of some guys being back. But when and what that is, I have no idea."

Added Scheffler: "I think there's a different level of player that left. You had some guys that left our tour and then sued our tour. That wasn't really in great taste. Then you had some other guys that just left and they wanted to do something different. Everybody made their own decision, and I have no bad blood towards the guys that left. But a path towards coming back, I think it wouldn't be a very popular decision, I think, if they just came back like nothing ever happened. I think there should be a pathway back for them, but they definitely shouldn't be able to come back without any sort of contribution to the tour, if that makes sense."

It’s easy to empathize with this view. How do you reconcile a theoretical return to tour membership, that those who left for tens of millions in guaranteed money—money the tour warned had consequences—if consequences are not enforced? This is especially true of the LIV players that sued the PGA Tour, a lawsuit that put the tour in a vulnerable financial position. How do you reconcile the return to fans, many of whom harbor hard feelings to LIV players for causing this war? How do you reconcile partnering with those who sided with a regime accused of human rights atrocities?

However, how are those dilemmas weighed against the reality of letting the last two years continue?

This is not PIF’s decision; for all the things money can buy, it can’t purchase a conscience. This is not Monahan’s decision; he put the tour in this can’t-win scenario . Ideally the fans would be the North Star; alas, while fans will ultimately decide if golf is headed in the right way, they are not the ones behind the wheel. The choice belongs to the players who stayed on the PGA Tour. They are the ones who stayed, whose careers were and are on the line, who did what they believed was right, yet are now forced to judge those that wronged them.

Tour players may think their stance against LIV players returning is one of principle. In truth, it’s pride. Because it takes swallowing one’s pride to welcome back the prodigal son. To let others think they’ve won. To think your sacrifices were for naught. To risk the appearance of going back on what you originally stood against. But to not welcome back LIV players, to keep this war going … there’s a reason pride comes before the fall.

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The PGA Tour-LIV Golf merger, explained: Who won, who lost, what it means for fans

The pga tour-liv golf merger raises more questions than answers. here's an explanation of what it all means now, and what it could mean in the future..

In one of the most consequential moments in golf history, the PGA Tour and LIV Golf announced on Tuesday morning that they would combine operations to create an as-yet-unnamed new worldwide golf entity . The agreement ends litigation between the two tours, provides a potential pathway for LIV Golf players to rejoin the PGA Tour, and sets up a framework where Saudi Arabia 's Public Investment Fund (PIF) now has a significant stake in the future of men's professional golf.

Much will come to light in the coming hours, days and weeks, but here's what we know and can reasonably speculate so far.

What was the original source of the friction between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf?

LIV, funded by Saudi Arabia's virtually bottomless PIF, grew out of a long-running series of discussions between Tour and Saudi officials that ultimately went nowhere. The LIV Golf tour launched last year with the promise of vast paychecks, a limited schedule, vast paychecks, 54-hole no-cut events, vast paychecks ... and also vast paychecks. Players like Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson leaped at reported nine-figure offerings to play for LIV, and even unknown players were suddenly cashing mammoth checks just for joining the breakaway tour.

The PGA Tour branded those who jumped to LIV as, in effect, traitors to the Tour's legacy. Players like Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy offered impassioned defenses of the Tour. Players who joined LIV were criticized for taking money from Saudi Arabia, which has a horrendous record of documented human rights violations. Many were dismissed as irrelevant faded stars, and all saw their world rankings plummet as they played in events not sanctioned by the Official World Golf Rankings.

But LIV players currently hold two of the four major titles, rendering the "LIV is irrelevant" argument obsolete. Not only that, the PGA Tour has adopted (or is planning to adopt) many of LIV's most notable features, from elevated paychecks to no-cut events to team competition, a sign that LIV was posing a threat from a golf perspective, if not a moral one.

Both sides engaged in litigation against the other, and both sides' defenders — from players to commentators to fans — launched broadsides against the other that ranged from angry to downright vicious. How those antagonists will reconcile in the wake of this announcement is an open question.

How did this agreement come about so suddenly?

That's a question a whole lot of people, starting with the players on the PGA Tour, would like to know. Apparently no one outside of a small coterie of top-of-the-organization members of the tours knew this was coming. Players expressed shock and surprise — two-time major winner Collin Morikawa, for instance, found out on Twitter . Even Greg Norman, the brash, outspoken CEO of LIV Golf, apparently only found out via phone call just moments before the announcement was made.

What led to this agreement?

It's still unclear why the two tours (three, including the DP World Tour, the former European Tour) chose this moment to make the deal, but several factors are obviously in play. LIV Golf is struggling to attract both viewers and a network to show its tournaments. The PGA Tour is facing a Department of Justice investigation over potential anticompetitive behavior related to LIV. The PIF was subject to discovery, and a potential in-depth review of its operations, in the lawsuits and counter-lawsuits involving the Tour. And the Tour was facing growing discontent from its star members, who wanted a larger share of purses and guaranteed money.

In short, both sides had wolves at the door, and both are now — at least in theory — stronger together rather than apart.

What does the structure of this agreement mean for golf?

In broad terms, the merger agreement — at least, according to the press release announced Tuesday morning — calls for the PGA Tour to handle golf-related oversight, the "governance" of the new merged entity. Each of the three tours would be responsible for the so-called "inside-the-ropes" operations of its own tour — site selection, tournament operations, rules enforcement, and so on.

The more significant element of the merger concerns its financial structure. Per the press release, PIF "will make a capital investment into the new entity to facilitate its growth and success." Further down in the release is this more significant element: "PIF will initially be the exclusive investor in the new entity, alongside the PGA TOUR, LIV Golf and the DP World Tour. Going forward, PIF will have the exclusive right to further invest in the new entity, including a right of first refusal on any capital that may be invested in the new entity, including into the PGA TOUR, LIV Golf and DP World Tour (emphasis added)." In other words, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund will provide the seed money for the new operation, will be the only investor, and will have the right to invest — and refuse outside investment — in the PGA Tour itself.

It may be too early to say that LIV Golf bought the PGA Tour, but according to the Tour's own words, Saudi Arabia will own a significant percentage of whatever golf is to become.

What does this mean for the players on the PGA Tour?

If there's a "loser" in this whole scenario, it's the Tour players who were cajoled, guilt-tripped and outright threatened not to leave the Tour for the vast riches of the PIF-backed LIV ... only to watch the Tour dip right into those same riches. And while the money available to players through tournaments will grow, the generational sums offered to LIV's first players surely won't.

Tiger Woods, for instance, turned down a reported $800 million to join LIV. But Woods will be fine without that money. A player like Rickie Fowler, for instance, was offered as much as $75 million to join LIV, but opted to stay with the PGA Tour. It's highly unlikely he'll be offered that sum to join LIV now.

What does this mean for the players on the LIV Golf tour?

Vindication and salvation. Players who jumped to LIV late in their careers, like Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter, have cashed in sums that they never would have earned on the PGA Tour or the DP World Tour. All the criticism they took for accepting Saudi "blood money" is, in effect, irrelevant, since that same money now bankrolls the entire venture of men's professional golf.

Plus, LIV players now have a pathway back onto the PGA Tour and into the majors, which was one of the key reasons against joining LIV in the first place. LIV players can enjoy the riches they were granted in 2022, and then potentially jump right back onto the PGA Tour in 2024.

What does the merger mean for the fans?

From a pure golf perspective, this is nothing but good news. The best in the game will once again potentially play against one another on a regular basis. Interesting new versions of golf, including team play, will come to the game as a whole, not just LIV. The game will expand far beyond the boundaries of the United States, bringing in a whole new international contingent of fans and, eventually, players.

However, the fans who were disgusted at LIV for its Saudi origins will be no more inclined to watch a Saudi-backed PGA Tour, either. The new venture will test American fans' appetite for Saudi-backed ventures ... which could factor significantly into American sports in the future.

What does the PGA Tour-LIV agreement mean for future Saudi investment in American sports?

Golf, as embodied by Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods, is as American as it gets: dramatic, big-hitting, celebratory. But golf now is under the financial auspices of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Previously, Saudi investment in existing major sports had been limited to individual teams ( Newcastle United in the Premier League, for instance) or individual events (as with Formula 1), but this marks the first time that Saudi Arabia has taken a significant financial stake in an established worldwide league. The implications for the future of golf — as well as other major sports — are unclear, but the PIF is clearly making a play to take a key role in the biggest sports on the planet.

Much remains to be revealed, and much more to play out, but this much is clear: Tuesday marked a historic day in golf, one whose effects will resonate for decades — one way or another.

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PGA Tour players learn how much loyalty is worth in new equity program

Tiger Woods waves after his final round at the Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club Sunday, April 14, 2024, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, waves after making a putt on the sixth hole during the second round of the RBC Heritage golf tournament, Friday, April 19, 2024, in Hilton Head Island, S.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

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Players who stayed loyal to the PGA Tour amid lucrative recruitment by Saudi-funded LIV Golf are starting to find out how much that loyalty could be worth.

The PGA Tour on Wednesday began contacting the 193 players eligible for the $930 million from a “Player Equity Program” under the new PGA Tour Enterprises .

The bulk of that money — $750 million — went to 36 players based on their career performance, the last five years and how they fared in a recent program that measured their star power.

How much they received was not immediately known. Emails were going out Wednesday afternoon and Thursday informing players of what they would get. One person who saw a list of how the equity shares were doled out said the names had been redacted. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because many details of the program were not made public.

The Telegraph reported Tiger Woods was to receive $100 million in equity and Rory McIlroy could get $50 million, without saying how it came up with those numbers.

Commissioner Jay Monahan outlined the first-of-its-kind equity ownership program in a Feb. 7 memo to players, a week after Strategic Sports Group became a minority investor in the new commercial PGA Tour Enterprises.

The private equity group, a consortium of professional sports owners led by the Fenway Sports Group, made an initial investment of $1.5 billion that could be worth $3 billion. The tour is still negotiating with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia — the financial muscle behind the rival LIV Golf league — as an investor.

Any deal with PIF would most certainly increase the value of the equity shares.

Another person with knowledge of the Player Equity Program, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the dealings, said the equity money is not part of the SSG investment. That money was geared toward growth capital.

Golf.com received a series of informational videos on the Player Equity Program that was sent to players and reported only 50% of the equity would vest after four years, 25% more after six years and the rest of it after eight years.

It also reported how the 36 players from the top tier were judged on “career points,” such as how long they were full members, victories, how often they reached the Tour Championship and extra points for significant victories.

Jason Gore, the tour’s chief player officer, said in one of the videos, “It’s really about making sure that our players know the PGA Tour is the best place to compete and showing them how much the Tour appreciates them being loyal.”

Emails also were sent to 64 players who would share $75 million in aggregate equity based on the past three years, and $30 million to 57 players who are PGA Tour members. Also, $75 million in equity shares was set aside for 36 past players instrumental in building the tour.

The program has an additional $600 million in equity grants that are recurring for future PGA Tour players. Those would be awarded in amounts of $100 million annually started in 2025.

Players only get equity shares from one of the four tiers now, although everyone would be eligible for the recurring grants.

Even with equity ownership geared toward making the PGA Tour better, the concern was players questioning who got how much and whether they received their fair share.

LIV Golf lured away seven major champions dating to 2018 since it launched in 2022, all with guaranteed contracts and most of them believed to have topped $100 million.

McIlroy, playing this week in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, was asked how much would make players feel validated for their decision to stay with the PGA Tour.

“I think the one thing we’ve learned in golf over the last two years is there’s never enough,” McIlroy replied.

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Rory McIlroy admits PGA Tour equity “never enough” as players flood to LIV Golf

McIlroy weighed in on the PGA Tour equity news as he explained LIV Golf will have the upperhand regardless.

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Share All sharing options for: Rory McIlroy admits PGA Tour equity “never enough” as players flood to LIV Golf

Earlier this year, the PGA Tour and Strategic Sports Group made a deal worth up to $3 billion. Reports suggest that part of that money will be given to PGA Tour players as equity payments for their loyalty.

Some of the projected share numbers were released on Wednesday ahead of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans . Tiger Woods will reportedly receive upwards of $100 million, and Rory McIlroy will receive the second most, at $50 million.

With that information, McIlroy was asked for his thoughts.

“I think the one thing we’ve learned in golf over the last two years is there’s never enough,” McIlroy said Wednesday.

The PGA Tour will never be able to compete with LIV Golf and their seemingly endless amounts of money.

Nearly two-thirds of the infused money will be distributed through equity shares. A number of factors determined how much players would receive in shares.

Among the factors are ‘career points’ and how golfers have finished in the Player Impact Program (PIF). Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas will allegedly receive $30 million each.

pic.twitter.com/qFOaPHJPYb — Sean Zak (@Sean_Zak) April 24, 2024

It seems McIlroy comprehends that no matter what kind of money is given out, there will still be guys tempted to leave for LIV Golf.

Earlier this month, a rumor suggested McIlroy was taking an $850 million deal to leave for LIV Golf. The four-time major winner quickly suppressed that allegation and said he would remain on the PGA Tour for the rest of his career.

This week, reports surfaced that McIlroy may also return to the PGA Tour Policy Board .

“I don’t think there’s been much progress made in the last eight months, and I was hopeful that there would be,” McIlroy said. “I think I could be helpful to the process, but only if people want me involved.”

Webb Simpson's resignation from his position sparked this chain of events. Under the circumstances, McIlroy would replace him.

The Northern Irishman expressed his interest in the seat if other people wanted him to take it.

“I feel like I can be helpful. I feel like I care a lot, and I have some pretty good experience and good connections within the game and sort of around the wider sort of ecosystem and everything that’s going on,” he said. “But at the end of the day, it’s not up to me to come back on the board. There’s a process that has to be followed.”

Nothing has been finalized regarding McIlroy's return, but there will be a vote to determine whether he will replace Simpson.

The 33-year-old has not always seen eye-to-eye with the LIV Golf players, but after he resigned from the board in 2023, a number of his opinions on the matter shifted. McIlroy has publicly voiced numerous times how the divide is hurting the sport. He feels unification is the only way forward for golf.

“We obviously realize the game is not unified right now for a reason, and there’s still some hard feelings and things that need to be addressed, but I think at this point, for the good of the game, we all need to put those feelings aside and all move forward together,” McIlroy said.

The PGA Tour has made multiple changes to its schedule in the last eight months and has gotten sponsors to add money where they could. Although more money is involved in professional golf than ever before, fewer people are watching.

Television ratings are down, and golf feels even more divided.

The end of April is quickly approaching, and there appears to be no movement on the PGA Tour’s deal with PIF. Their deadline for an agreement was initially set for the end of December, but they pushed it back to April. However, now all movement seems to have stalled.

With just over 40 days until the year mark of the June 6 announcement, will the PGA Tour and PIF find a way to make a deal and bring golf back together?

Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, be sure to follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.

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More Money Is Being Handed out in Golf, Again, But There Are Still No Winners

Bob Harig explores the report of PGA Tour equity shares being awarded, some Ryder Cup eligibility news and a tour gets OWGR points (but not that one).

• Author: Bob Harig

You know the plot has been lost—if it hadn’t already occurred long ago—when the social media warriors mocked Rory McIlroy after it was reported he will receive “only” $50 million in the PGA Tour’s equity share plan, while his buddy, Tyrrell Hatton, got $65 million up front from LIV Golf.

Never mind that McIlroy was to receive $27 million in Player Impact Program bonus money the last two years as well as numerous other tour-guided endorsement opportunities.

The fact that anyone on the sideline is claiming “victory” over all of this is beyond comical at this point.

Professional golfers, especially star players, are being rewarded at record levels, some of it overdue, but a good bit of it unsustainable in a commercial world that is still grappling with niche sports status and a divided game.

LIV Golf doesn’t come close to paying its way and almost assuredly never will without big changes. The PGA Tour is asking its nonprofit charitable host organizations to dip into the till to pay future purses to try and keep up. And now the new PGA Tour Enterprises is pledging approximately $930 million to be distributed to 193 players as part of a vesting program that will take eight years.

As part of that program, which was first announced in February , the Tour last week began sending correspondence to players spelling out how much of the loot they are expected to receive. The Telegraph first reported that Tiger Woods is down for $100 million, McIlroy $50 million and players such as Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth for $30 million.

Who knows if those figures are accurate, and it’s hard to believe anyone will publicly confirm them. But it’s all on paper anyway, as this money is not sitting in a vast pot waiting to be scooped up in four, six or eight years’ time.

The initial $1.5 billion in investment from the Strategic Sports Group that landed in the PGA Tour Enterprises account in late January is not earmarked for the players, contrary to numerous reports. The $930 million is based on a PGA Tour Enterprises valuation in excess of $12 billion. The SSG money is meant to be used by the Tour to grow the business, or, to bring back the kind of return that will allow for those massive pay days down the road.

That is the multi-billion-dollar question.

It doesn’t take a financial wizard to see that getting that kind of return on the existing business model of the PGA Tour is far-fetched. PGA Tour events, most of which are non-profit anyway and give their proceeds to charity, make millions not billions. And hitting them up is just a small piece of the plan.

There has to be something else, something bigger and more lucrative.

Buying the DP World Tour’s rights to the Ryder Cup would be one potential avenue for PGA Tour Enterprises. The PGA Tour and DP World Tour have a working alliance and a purchase of that could come with a windfall that props up the struggling DP World Tour for years. Getting its hands on the Ryder Cup would finally give the PGA Tour a bigger piece of a huge asset, and along with the Presidents Cup, potentially bring in significant revenue.

Beyond that?

Well, that’s where golf fans should really be focused.

All of this money talk hasn’t exactly left the game in a great place. The idea of “unification” first broached nearly a year ago with the controversial and secret “framework agreement” has yet to even see all of the parties meet in the same room.

McIlroy, who captured his 25th PGA Tour title on Sunday when he won the Zurich Classic with partner Shane Lowry, resigned his spot as a player director on the PGA Tour policy board last November and is now talking about returning to that role , in theory, to knock some heads together and see about getting something done.

Because the game is divided—no matter what you think of LIV Golf or the PGA Tour or both—is not good. And thinking it is going back to the old way, and thus, being bitter toward those who have a role in this current climate, is also not productive.

Getting there, of course, is complicated. There have been rumblings that LIV Golf is perfectly content to operate separate from the PGA Tour. And LIV is planning for the future, with no signs that is conceding. If so, how does that bring the game back together?

Without changes, there is no way for players to compete on both LIV Golf and the PGA Tour. McIlroy’s idea for a Champions League-type series of golf events beyond the existing tours is intriguing, but again, how will it work? Who would qualify? When would the events be played? Would any of them count as PGA Tour or LIV events?

A deal with the PIF, in theory, would only enhance PGA Tour Enterprises and allow for some investment into some of these ideas. But getting there remains a long journey.

In the interim, the greater golf world is getting more annoyed by all the money talk. Nobody wants to hear that already well-compensated golfers are going to cash in even more. Meanwhile, TV ratings of PGA Tour events, even the Masters , are down, and fans aren’t exactly switching over to watch LIV in droves.

It's a game-wide problem that could use some serious attention. And soon.

A path to the Ryder Cup

When Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton signed with LIV Golf, Rory McIlroy was quick to say that the rules need to be amended to allow them to play for Europe in the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.

But as new DP World Tour CEO Guy Kinnings said last week that is not necessary.

Those players are already eligible under the current rules—although the qualification process for next year’s matches has yet to begin.

“If you look at what the qualification/eligibility criteria was for 2023, then I think there has been a slight misconception because the reality is under the current rules, if a player is European and is a member of the DP World Tour and abides by the rules as they currently are—so, if you don’t get a release, there are sanctions and if you accept those sanctions and take those penalties and work with that —there is no reason why players who’ve taken LIV membership but maintain membership with the DP World Tour could not a) qualify or b) be available for selection,” Kinnings said in a media session with UK and Irish golf writers.

Jon Rahm (left) and Tyrrell Hatton are with LIV Golf but may not be out of the picture for the 2025 Ryder Cup.

Adam Cairns-USA TODAY Sports

Rahm and Hatton will face a one-event suspension and fine for playing in the LIV Adelaide event. A similar scenario exists for this week’s LIV Singapore event. Both are up against DP World Tour events, thus requiring a release.

But according to Kinnings, as long as the players pay the undisclosed fine and serve a one-tournament suspension—even if they were not planning to play a DP World Tour event—they will be eligible, provided the meet the criteria of playing in four DP World Tour events this season.

“It’s not a loophole,” Kinnings said. “That’s the rules we’ve always had and those are the rules we are going to continue to apply. They have been tested and, if everyone applies and follows those rules as they are ... ”

Asked how a player can be suspended from an event they were not planning to play, Kinnings said: “Because rules are rules. Rules are for all of the membership and it’s important for people to know how those apply and they apply to every member.”

LIV Golf has yet to announce the final two events of its schedule but it is expected to conclude the weekend of Sept. 20-22—which is when the DP World Tour’s BMW PGA Championship is contested.

That means Rahm and Hatton would likely need to play a few events prior to that time because they’ll get one-event suspensions for missing that week, thus possibly knocking Rahm out of a tournament in Madrid. The British Masters and European Masters proceed LIV’s final two events.

Following LIV’s season-ending event are tournaments in Spain, France and Scotland.

A 54-hole tour gets OWGR accreditation

During another point in time, the Official World Golf Ranking announcement that it was accrediting the Clutch Pro Tour beginning this week would have barely been noticed.

There are now 25 tours around the world that are getting OWGR points, and you’d probably be hard-pressed to know a single player competing on the Clutch Pro Tour unless he is a family member or acquaintance.

But in the era of the LIV Golf League—which has quite publicly lamented its lack of accreditation and subsequently withdrew its application—any tour stepping up to get entry into the system at least brings a bit of curiosity.

The Clutch Pro Tour is in its fifth season based in the United Kingdom as a developmental tour or feeder tour to the Challenge Tour, which subsequently allows access to the DP World Tour.

Also referred to as the Mizuno Next Gen Series, the tour has a 17-event schedule in 2024.

What is interesting is how the OWGR seemingly went out of its way to highlight aspects of the Tour that have been sticking points for LIV Golf, including the 54-hole format—which, ultimately, has never been a deal-breaker for LIV.

“The Clutch Pro Tour provides access to its official tournaments, conducted over 54 holes with a 36-hole cut, via its 2024 qualifying series held in the UAE and, for its 2025 season, an annual open qualifying school,” the OWGR said in a statement announcing the accreditation. “It also provides local and regional players opportunities, culminating with a no-cut, season-ending Championship. As such, the Clutch Pro Tour is in keeping with long-standing OWGR Eligibility and Format Criteria.”

The OWGR also noted that the process took 17 months in which the “Tour worked continuously toward the standards required to become eligible.”

LIV Golf officially applied for accreditation in July 2022. Its bid was rejected in October 2023, with OWGR chairman Peter Dawson—the former head of the R&A—basically saying that the closed nature of the league and its small relegation and promotion were the main problems.

“We are not at war with them,” Dawson said in an interview with the Associated Press at the time. “This decision to make them eligible is not political. It is entirely technical. LIV players are self-evidently good enough to be ranked. They’re just not playing a format where they can be ranked equitable with the other (now 25) tours and thousands of players who compete on them.”

How much interaction between LIV and the OWGR there was over this was up for debate and speculation. The bid was denied before LIV Golf played its first promotions event, one that saw three players and the winner of the International Series Order of Merit get promoted—with four LIV players being relegated off the tour.

This year, LIV added a new four-man team for Jon Rahm as well as two “wildcard” players to bring its total from 48 players to 54. But aside from injury, it is the same field every week.

It remains puzzling, however, why LIV Golf would rescind its bid and not try and work with OWGR to fix issues to help comply. OWGR went out of its way to say it did the very thing with the Clutch Tour. Both sides should figure this out, because it doesn’t appear the majors will offer access via LIV’s points list.

“I think it will be difficult to establish any type of point system that has any connection to the rest of the world of golf because they're basically, not totally, but for the most part, a closed shop,” Masters chairman Fred Ridley said of the LIV Golf League structure when asked about LIV getting direct spots in future Masters. “There is some relegation, but not very much. It all really depends on what new players they sign.

“Those concerns were expressed by the OWGR, but I don't think that that prevents us from giving subjective consideration based on talent, based on performance to those players.”

Ridley singled out Joaquin Niemann, who was given a special invitation, having won the Australian Open and posted high finishes at the Australian PGA and the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. He said nothing about Talor Gooch, whose three LIV Golf League wins last year and individual player title, apparently carried little weight.

The PGA Championship is in two weeks and it is expected to announce those who receive exemptions next week. Typically—although not officially—it issues spots to those otherwise not exempt via the top 100 OWGR. A majority of the field finds its way into the tournament through a top-70 year-long PGA Tour points list and PGA Tour victories.

Niemann has already been extended an invitation and Tyrrell Hatton, who remains a top-20 player, finished among the top 15 last year so he is already exempt. Defending champion Brooks Koepka as well as past major champions Johnson, DeChambeau, Cam Smith and Phil Mickelson are also in the field.

LIV players Adrian Meronk, Lucas Herbert and Patrick Reed would also be in line for exemptions, if the PGA continues to invite those in the top 100.

David Puig will be an interesting case. The Spaniard who plays for LIV was 104th going into the weekend. He has risen to that point from 239th at the end of the year, having won twice on the Asian Tour as well as a fifth-place finish at the recent Saudi Open.

LIV Golf’s success Down Under ... and other notes

There is no denying the passion for golf in Australia. For the second year, the LIV Golf Adelaide event delivered, with boisterous crowds, an enhanced party hole and even more spectators than last year. Various media reports put Sunday’s final tally at 35,000 spectators and LIV Golf announced more than 94,000 for the week.

The tournament got an added bonuses of the first-ever team playoff and it included the Australian team captained by Cam Smith. He and Marc Leishman of Ripper GC took on Louis Oosthuizen and Dean Burmester from the all-South African team Stinger GC and went two holes in a sudden-death playoff with both scores counting. The atmosphere was quite lively, as spectators cheered, for example, when Burmester left a shot in a bunker. And the Aussies won to the delirious delight of the Australian fans.

Brendan Steele got his first LIV Golf win in Australia.

Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports

Brendan Steele got his first individual victory and his HyFlyers team captained by Phil Mickelson got a third-place finish and a first time on the podium (only the top three teams share in team prize money). All in all, it appeared a rousing success and makes you wonder if LIV Golf should schedule more than one event for Australia.

Greg Norman, the Aussie legend and LIV Golf commissioner, couldn’t help himself afterward. In an interview with Australian Golf Digest , the two-time major winner who has long sought to bring more meaningful golf to his homeland, took a victory lap.

“Vindication is not the right word,” Norman told the publication, before pausing. “It’s the ignorance of others who simply didn’t understand what we were trying to do. I actually feel sorry for them because they now see the true value of LIV Golf and want to be a part of it.”

The Shark might have gotten caught up in the moment.

“The support Australia gave me during my own playing career for decades was something I have never forgotten,” Norman said. “It’s why I brought LIV Golf back home—I did it for them. The people have well and truly spoken. Both individual and team golf is alive and well in Australia and they deserve it. I knew they would support this event.

“I’m feeling extremely proud right now. With what we’ve (LIV Golf) gone through over the past 16 months, both as a league and what I’ve copped personally ... the hatred ... this makes it all worthwhile.”

Some of the vitriol toward Norman is not likely to subside. To many, he’s viewed as the person who divided the game—even if it is far more complicated than that. But Norman did deliver on his idea in his homeland, and he told Australian Golf Digest that he’s looking to bring the concept to other places, such as South Africa. Next up is this week’s event in Singapore.

And a few more things ...

Rory McIlroy was credited with his 25th PGA Tour victory after winning the Zurich Classic with Shane Lowry . And he’s entered some rare air among all-time PGA Tour winners. That tied him with Johnny Miller at 23rd all time along with Tommy Armour and Macdonald Smith . He’s one behind Henry Picard . The victory moved McIlroy past Dustin Johnson , who now plays for LIV Golf. The only active PGA Tour player ahead of McIlroy is Tiger Woods (82). Phil Mickelson (45), Tom Watson (39) and  Vijay Singh (34) are the only players ahead of McIlroy whom he would have competed against. ... Not surprisingly, Scottie Scheffler is not in his hometown Byron Nelson event this week as he awaits the birth of his first child. The tournament has just four of the top 30 in the Official World Golf Ranking. ... A big stretch awaits as the Wells Fargo Championship, a signature event, follows and then the PGA Championship. Last year, Scheffler skipped Quail Hollow. ... The Byron Nelson is the cutoff for the PGA Championship’s 70-player points list that began the week prior to last year’s PGA Championship. The tournament can go beyond 70 to fill out its field and traditionally also invites the top 100 OWGR who are not otherwise exempt. ... LIV Golf reaches the halfway point of its 14-event schedule when it returns to Singapore and Sentosa Golf Club this week. ... The PGA Championship begins in 17 days.

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April 30, 2024, 9:45 AM

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THE CJ CUP BYRON NELSON

Site: McKinney, Texas.

Course: TPC Craig Ranch. Yardage: 7,414. Par: 71.

Prize money: $9.5 million. Winner’s share: $1,710,000.

Television: Thursday-Friday, 4-7 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 1-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3-6 p.m. (CBS).

Defending champion: Jason Day.

FedEx Cup leader: Scottie Scheffler.

Last week: Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

Notes: Jordan Spieth, Will Zalatoris and Tom Kim lead the contingent of Dallas-area residents playing the tournament. … CJ Cup takes over as title sponsor after AT&T ended its sponsorship after nine years. CJ Cup started out with a tournament in South Korea, then moved to Las Vegas and South Carolina during the COVID-19 pandemic. … The field features only 10 of the top 50 in the world ranking. Spieth is the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 20. … Scottie Scheffler is missing the tournament as his wife is expecting their first child. … Adam Scott is playing the tournament for the third straight year. He won the Byron Nelson in 2008. … This is the final week to finish among the top 70 in the PGA Championship points list to assure a spot at Valhalla in two weeks. The points list is PGA Tour earnings the last 12 months. … Spieth now has gone 43 starts over two years on the PGA Tour since his last victory.

Next week: Wells Fargo Championship.

Online: https://www.pgatour.com/

LIV GOLF LEAGUE

LIV GOLF SINGAPORE

Site: Singapore.

Course: Sentosa GC (Serapong). Yardage: 7,406. Par: 71.

Prize money: $20 million. Winner’s share: $4 million.

Television: Thursday-Saturday, 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. (CW app); Saturday-Sunday, 1-6 p.m. (The CW Network-Tape Delay).

Defending champion: Talor Gooch.

Points leader: Joaquin Niemann.

Last week: Brendan Steele won LIV Golf Adelaide.

Notes: Brendan Steele last week became the third straight first-time winner on LIV Golf, matching the longest such streak since the league launched in June 2022. … Jon Rahm has yet to win since joining LIV this year, but he is the only player in 2024 to have finished in the top 10 in all six events. … Ian Poulter and Hudson Swafford were the only players who did not have a round under par last week in Australia. … Poulter in 2009 and Sergio Garcia in 2018 won the Singapore Open when it was played at Sentosa. … With the PGA Championship approaching, LIV has three players in the top 100 who are not already eligible — Adrian Meronk, Lucas Herbert and Patrick Reed. … LIV already has 10 players in the PGA Championship field at Valhalla. … After back-to-back weeks in Australia and Asia, LIV Golf is off for a month until a week before the U.S. Open.

Next tournament: LIV Golf Houston on June 7-9.

Online: https://www.livgolf.com/

EUROPEAN TOUR

VOLVO CHINA OPEN

Site: Shenzhen, China.

Course: Hidden Grace GC. Yards: 7,147. Par: 72.

Prize money: $2.25 million. Winner’s share: $375,000.

Television: Thursday-Friday, 12-5 a.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday, 12-4:30 a.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday, 11:30 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. (Golf Channel).

Previous winner: Sarit Suwannarut.

Race to Dubai leader: Rory McIlroy.

Last week: Yuto Katsuragawa won the ISPS Handa Championship.

Notes: The China Open returns to the European tour schedule for the first time since 2019 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tournament was held last year co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and the China Tour. … This is the final event that counts toward the Asian Swing on the European. The top three players get exemptions into the PGA Championship next month at Valhalla. Sebastian Soderberg, Keita Nakajima and Jesper Svensson are currently holding down the top three spots. … Thriston Lawrence leads the European tour this season with five finishes in the top 10. … Katsuragawa is the fourth player from Japan in the last seven months to win on the European tour. The others were Ryo Hisatsune, Rikuya Hoshino and Nakajima. … The tour is off until the PGA Championship on May 16-19. After that begins a stretch in which 17 consecutive events (outside the majors) are staged in European countries.

Next tournament: PGA Championship on May 16-19.

Online: https://www.europeantour.com/dpworld-tour/

PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS

INSPERITY INVITATIONAL

Site: The Woodlands, Texas.

Course: The Woodlands CC (Tournament). Yards: 7,002. Par: 72.

Prize money: $2.7 million. Winner’s share: $405,000.

Television: Friday, 12:30-3:30 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 3-6 p.m. (Golf Channel).

Defending champion: Steven Alker.

Charles Schwab Cup leader: Stephen Ames.

Last week: Stephen Ames won the Mitsubishi Electric Classic.

Notes: Bernhard Langer returns to competition after injuring his Achilles tendon while playing pickleball on Feb. 1. The injury caused him to miss the Masters. … Langer has won every year since first becoming eligible for the PGA Tour Champions in 2007. He is a four-time winner of the Insperity Invitational. … Stephen Ames took over the Charles Schwab Cup lead over Steven Alker by winning at the TPC Sugarloaf last week. It was his second win this season. … Alker is the two-time defending champion at The Woodlands. … Ames is the only multiple winner on the PGA Tour Champions in 2024. … The field includes Steve Stricker, who missed the cut last week in New Orleans on the PGA Tour. … Paul Broadhurst of England has won and finished runner-up in his last two starts. … This is the last regular event before the first of five majors on the PGA Tour Champions schedule.

Next week: Regions Tradition.

Online: https://www.pgatour.com/pgatour-champions

Last week: Hannah Green won the JM Eagle LA Championship.

Next week: Cognizant Founders Cup.

Race to CME Globe leader: Nelly Korda.

Online: https://www.lpga.com/

KORN FERRY TOUR

Last week: Tim Widing won the Veritex Bank Championship.

Next tournament: AdventHealth Championship on May 16-19.

Points leader: Tim Widing.

Online: https://www.pgatour.com/korn-ferry-tour

OTHER TOURS

Epson Tour: Casino Del Sol Golf Classic, Sewailo GC, Tucson, Ariz. Defending champion: Gigi Stoll. Online: https://www.epsontour.com/

PGA of America: PGA Professional Championship, Fields Ranch at PGA (East and West), Frisco, Texas. Defending champion: Braden Shattuck. Television: Tuesday, 5-8 p.m. (Golf Channel); Wednesday, 4-7 p.m. (Golf Channel). Online: https://www.pga.com/

Japan Golf Tour: The Crowns, Nagoya GC (Wago), Aichi, Japan. Defending champion: Hiroshi Iwata. Online: https://www.jgto.org/en/

Asian Tour: GS Caltex Maekyung Open, Namseoul CC, Seongnam, South Korea. Defending champion: Chanmin Jung. Online: https://asiantour.com/

Legends Tour: Barbados Leges, Apes Hills Barbados, Saint James, Barbados. Defending champion: New tournament. Online: https://www.legendstour.com/

Japan LPGA: World Ladies Championship Salonpas Cup, Ibaraki GC (East), Ibaraki, Japan. Defending champion: Yuri Yoshida. Online: https://www.lpga.or.jp/en/

Korea LPGA: Kyochon 1991 Ladies Open, Sunsan CC, Gumi South Korea. Defending champion: Bokyeom Park. Online: https://klpga.co.kr/

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

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2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson odds, field: Surprising PGA picks, predictions by model that's nailed 11 majors

Sportsline's proven model simulated the cj cup byron nelson 2024 10,000 times and revealed its pga golf picks.

The third PGA Tour event in Texas this year begins on Thursday as the 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson tees off in the Dallas metro. Stephan Jager won in Houston and Akshay Bhatia won in San Antonio prior to the Masters, with the PGA Tour coming back to Dallas-Fort Worth at the end of May. The CJ Cup Byron Nelson 2024 field is loaded with Dallas natives like Jordan Spieth and Will Zalatoris, and the Texans also happen to top the 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson odds board. Spieth is the 12-1 favorite, and Zalatoris is the third-favorite at 22-1, with Jason Day (18-1) sandwiched in between.

TPC Craig Ranch, a par-72, 7,468-yard course with Bentgrass greens will host the tournament, which has Day as the defending champion and a two-time winner. Si Woo Kim, who was runner-up last year, is at 22-1, while K.H. Lee, who was the back-to-back winner in 2021-22, is a 60-1 longshot. Before making any 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson picks, be sure t o see the golf predictions and projected leaderboard from the proven computer model at SportsLine .

SportsLine's proprietary model, built by DFS pro Mike McClure, has been red-hot since the PGA Tour resumed in June of 2020. In fact, the model is up more than $9,000 on its best bets since the restart, nailing tournament after tournament.

McClure's model correctly predicted Scottie Scheffler would finish on top of the leaderboard at the 2024 Masters, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Players Championship, and the RBC Heritage this season. McClure also included Hideki Matsuyama in his best bets to win the 2024 Genesis Invitational. That bet hit at +9000, and for the entire tournament, McClure's best bets returned nearly $1,000.

The model also predicted Jon Rahm would be victorious at the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions and The American Express. At the 2023 Masters, the model was all over Rahm's second career major victory heading into the weekend. Rahm was two strokes off the lead heading into the third round, but the model still projected him as the winner. It was the second straight Masters win for the model, which also nailed Scheffler winning in 2022.

In addition, McClure's best bets included Nick Taylor (70-1) winning the 2023 RBC Canadian Open, Jason Day (17-1) winning outright at the 2023 AT&T Byron Nelson, and Rickie Fowler (14-1) finishing on top of the leaderboard at the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic.

This same model has also nailed a whopping 11 majors entering the weekend and hit the Masters three straight years. Anyone who has followed it has seen massive returns.

Now that the CJ Cup Byron Nelson 2024 field is finalized, SportsLine simulated the tournament 10,000 times, and the results were surprising. Head to SportsLine now to see the projected leaderboard .

Top 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson predictions 

One major surprise the model is calling for at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson 2024: Day, the defending champion and one of the top favorites, stumbles and barely cracks the top five. Day got off to a hot start this season when he posted three top-10 finishes in his first five tournaments, but he has struggled since then. He has finished outside the top 15 in his last five events, including a missed cut at the Texas Children's Houston Open at the end of March. 

Day ranks 183rd on the PGA Tour in approach shots from more than 200 yards, which will be a shot that he has to take throughout this tournament. He is also ranked 133rd in green in regulation percentage (63.62%) and 152nd in strokes gained: approach to green (-0.380). Day is not in strong form right now, so the model is looking elsewhere with its pick to win this tournament. 

Another surprise: Min Woo Lee, a 28-1 longshot, makes a strong run at the title. Lee entered this tournament last year ranked 62nd in the world, but he's steadily risen and is now No. 32 in World Ranking. That's thanks to collecting a pair of international victories since October and just missing another with a runner-up on the Cognizant Classic of the PGA Tour last month. Lee's last tournament was at the Masters where he finished a solid 22nd, giving him three top 25s over his last four major starts.

TPC Craig Ranch presents birdie opportunities on the four par 5s, and Lee is among the best in the world on these holes. He ranks 13th on tour in par 5 scoring, thanks to elite driving skills as Lee ranks in the top 20 in driving distance, driving accuracy and total driving. Maybe just as importantly, Lee is one who avoids major mistakes as he ranks 21st on the PGA Tour in 3-putt avoidance. With a somewhat diluted field devoid of many of the top players on tour, a golfer with Lee's strengths would be a valuable asset in 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson bets.  See who else to pick here . 

How to make 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson picks

The model is also targeting three other golfers with odds of 28-1 or longer to make a strong run at the title. Anyone who backs these longshots could hit it big. You can only see the model's picks here .

Who will win the 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson, and which longshots will stun the golfing world? Check out the CJ Cup Byron Nelson 2024 odds below and then visit SportsLine to see the projected CJ Cup Byron Nelson leaderboard , all from the model that's nailed 11 golf majors, including the last three Masters.

2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson odds, field

Get full 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson picks, best bets, and predictions here .

Jordan Spieth +1200 Jason Day +1800 Will Zalatoris +2200 Si Woo Kim +2200 Sungjae Im +2500 Alex Noren +2500 Adam Scott +2500 Tom Hoge +2800 Min Woo Lee +2800 Byeong Hun An +3000 Stephan Jaeger +3000 Keith Mitchell +3500 Tom Kim +4000 Thomas Detry +4500 Patrick Rodgers +5000 Maverick McNealy +5000 Mackenzie Hughes +5500 Adam Schenk +5500 Aaron Rai +6000 Beau Hossler +6000 K.H. Lee +6000 Davis Thompson +6500 Taylor Montgomery +6500 Seamus Power +7000 Mark Hubbard +7000 Luke List +7500 Doug Ghim +8000 Ryan Fox +8000 Kevin Yu +8000 Ben Griffin +8000 Jake Knapp +9000 Taylor Pendrith +9000 Daniel Berger +9000 Thorbjorn Olesen +9000 C.T. Pan +10000 Alejandro Tosti +10000 Matt Kuchar +10000 Sam Stevens +10000 Nate Lashley +10000 Peter Kuest +10000 Chan Kim +10000 Joseph Bramlett +10000 Michael Kim +11000 Greyson Sigg +11000 Andrew Novak +11000 Matti Schmid +11000 Justin Lower +11000 Max Greyserman +11000 Chesson Hadley +11000 Cameron Champ +11000 Charley Hoffman +11000 Garrick Higgo +11000

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