Uncertainty and controversy over a possible merger with LIV Golf’s Saudi backers loom over the US PGA Tour as its 2024 season tees off Thursday in Hawaii.
The PGA’s event of champions, now dubbed The Sentry, shall be performed at Kapalua, this time in assist of wildfire-devastated host Maui following final August’s tragedy. A discipline of 59 will compete within the $20 million opener with four-time main winner Rory McIlroy the one certified participant skipping the occasion to start his 2024 marketing campaign later.
Even because the PGA Tour returns to a calendar-year format, the influence of final June’s shock announcement of a framework merger take care of the Saudi Public Funding Fund (PIF) and DP World Tour lingers over the collection.
Reigning Masters champion Jon Rahm of Spain, who gained final 12 months’s Kapalua crown, is not going to defend his title, having jumped to LIV final month for wealthy monetary ensures.
That indicators the upstart collection can drain prime PGA expertise forward of LIV’s season openers subsequent month at Mayakoba in Mexico and Las Vegas throughout Tremendous Bowl week there.
Negotiations between PGA and PIF officers have gone past an unique December 2023 deadline and nonetheless no particulars have emerged about plans for what a unified PGA-LIV construction would function even because the rivals plan separate 2024 seasons.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, criticized by many gamers for retaining particulars of LIV merger talks secret, stated in a memo to gamers on Sunday that LIV talks have been “energetic and productive” and the PGA was working to increase talks into 2024.
Three of the previous 5 main winners at the moment are with LIV Golf — Rahm, 2023 PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka and 2022 British Open winner Cameron Smith — although its lack of world rating factors means fewer LIV golfers qualify for majors.
For now, the one occasions the place LIV and PGA rivals will compete are the majors, which this 12 months function the Masters on April 11-14 at Augusta Nationwide, the PGA Championship at Valhalla on Might 16-19, the US Open at Pinehurst on June 13-16 and the British Open at Royal Troon on July 18-21.
Tiger Woods, a 15-time main winner and member of the Tour Coverage Board that should approve any LIV deal, stated final month he was “happy on the course of and the way it has advanced” in PIF talks however annoyed by its slowness.
Requested how a merged PGA-LIV collection would work, Woods stated, “The reply is murky,” citing a lot of potentialities and looking for what works greatest for gamers.
“I’m assured a deal will get accomplished not directly,” Woods stated. “We’re working collectively. We’re making an attempt to get a deal accomplished for the tour and for all events concerned.”
Till then, the PGA Tour’s revamped 2024 schedule consists of eight “signature” tournaments, beginning this week, in a 36-event lineup ending with 70 gamers qualifying for the FedEx Cup playoffs that conclude September 1.
Different signature occasions, with restricted fields and better prize cash, embrace Pebble Seashore, Riviera, Bay Hill, the Heritage per week after the Masters, Quail Hole and the Memorial Match and Vacationers Championship within the weeks earlier than and after the US Open.