Report: PGA Tour Couldn't Afford 'Spending War' with LIV Golf Prior to Merger

The PGA Tour was at a distinct financial disadvantage with LIV Golf prior to the surprise merger between the two competing entities earlier this week.

Per Andrew Beaton and Louise Radnofsky of the Wall Street Journal, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan delivered a message to employees explaining why the Tour couldn't get involved in a "spending war" with Saudi Arabia's government.

Monahan specifically told the workers it "cannot compete with a foreign government with unlimited money" in a meeting at PGA Tour headquarters in a meeting with employees on Thursday

Beaton and Radnofsky noted Monahan also explained the Tour had already spent $50 million in its legal battle with LIV, which wasn't anywhere close to being resolved, and pulled funds from the $100 million in reserves to pay for its schedule.

In the wake of several marquee players making the jump to LIV Golf, Monahan announced in August 2022 the PGA Tour was overhauling its schedule and prize compensation as part of an agreement with players after top stars committed to playing against each other more frequently.

There were competing lawsuits between the two golf leagues. Eleven LIV golfers filed an antitrust lawsuit after the PGA Tour banned them from competing in PGA-sanctioned events.

ESPN's Mark Schlabach noted in April eight of the 11 players involved in the antitrust lawsuit asked a judge to be removed from the case.

The PGA Tour filed a countersuit against LIV Golf in September, claiming the new league executed a plan to pay its players "astronomical sums of money to induce them to breach their contracts with the Tour in an effort to use the LIV Players and the game of golf to sportswash the recent history of Saudi atrocities and to further the Saudi Public Investment Fund's Vision 2030 initiatives."

Schlabach noted a federal judge vacated the scheduled trial date for LIV's antitrust lawsuit and "indicated it might not start until May 2024 at the earliest" with both LIV and the PGA Tour trying to work through "discovery disputes involving Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and the fund's governor."

In a press release issued on Tuesday, the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf reached agreement to merge into a single entity and end all pending litigation.

LIV Golf was founded in 2021 by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund. The project was presented as being part of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 intended to diversify the country's economic portfolio and be less dependent on oil, but it's also been accused of sportswashing by distracting from its history of human rights violations.

Per Matthew Martin of Bloomberg, the Public Investment Fund is currently worth $600 billion with the goal of accruing "$2 trillion in assets by 2030."