Golfers who stayed with the PGA Tour instead of taking millions to join the LIV Golf League could be rewarded with equity shares in the new venture between the Tour, the DP World Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF).
Jimmy Dunne, the PGA Tour Policy Board Member who helped broker the landmark deal, told ESPN that current PGA members could get an equity stake in the for-profit venture.
A LIV Golf sign stands on the practice range during day two of the LIV Golf Invitational – Tulsa at Cedar Ridge Country Club on May 13, 2023, in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. (Ian Maule/Getty Images)
Golfers who left the PGA Tour to join LIV golf would not be able to participate in the stock plan, according to Dunne.
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«The new [company] would grow, and the [current PGA Tour] players would get a piece of equity that would improve and increase in value as time went on,» Dunne told ESPN. “There would have to be some kind of decision made on how to do that. It would be a process to determine what would be a fair mechanism that would be really beneficial to our players.»
He bomb deal was announced Tuesday with the goal of «unifying the game of golf globally.»
The new agreement will merge PIF’s golf-related businesses, which include LIV Golf, with those of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour into a «new for-profit entity, collectively owned to ensure that all stakeholders benefit.» of a model that offers maximum excitement and competition among the best players in the game».
Rory McIlroy watches a putt slide down the hole. The PGA is back in Canada at the Oakdale GC in Toronto on Friday. (RJ Johnston/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
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Dunne will serve on the company’s board of directors, according to the ESPN report.
There have been many questions regarding the merger, including whether players who remained loyal to the PGA Tour would be rewarded for staying away from LIV.
Thursday, Winner of the US Open 2022 Matt Fitzpatrick was asked what he thought about the golfers who remained on the PGA Tour after the merger.
England’s Matt Fitzpatrick hits his first shot on the 18th hole during the second round of the RBC Canadian Open at Oakdale Golf & Country Club on June 9, 2023 in Toronto, Ontario. (Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
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«Obviously it’s a tough question to answer. I never got a formal offer anyway. It wasn’t something I was interested in from the start,» Fitzpatrick said, according to Golf Digest. «I just spoke to them for meddling in what they were going to do, what they were going to do, what the setup would be. So, yeah, to me it didn’t really make a difference.» He was always going to be on the PGA Tour.
«Obviously, for the guys who turned down significant amounts of money, it’s probably hard to swallow, and I feel sorry for them.»