Professional golf at a crossroads: what next for the PGA Tour & LIV Golf?

It’s been a year since the shocking announcement in June 2023 that the PGA Tour[1] and LIV Golf[2] had settled their antitrust litigation[3] and, with the DP World Tour (the European Tour), had entered a Framework Agreement to create a “global golf partnership.”[4] Yet, unification still eludes the sport as negotiations toward a definitive agreement drag on and government concern about the consolidation has surfaced at both the U.S. Senate[5] and the U.S. Department of Justice[6] (DOJ).
Meanwhile, LIV Golf’s owner — the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund[7] (PIF) — continues to pour its wealth into LIV while the PGA Tour strives[8] to (1) generate revenue to compete with LIV and (2) empower and enrich its golfers sufficiently to keep them loyal. This article examines how professional golf has evolved during this tentative truce, the legal shoals it still must navigate, and the prospects for the proposed PGA Tour-LIV Golf alliance:
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- Tags: Anti-Trust | Commercial | Competition | Dispute Resolution | Golf | LIV Golf | PGA Tour | Saudia Arabia | USA
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Written by
Jodi Balsam
Professor of Clinical Law/Director of Externship Programs, Brooklyn Law School at Brooklyn Law School.
Professor Jodi Balsam is a member of the faculty of Brooklyn Law School, New York City. She teaches Sports Law there, and at NYU School of Law. She is a co-author of the leading Weiler Roberts Sports Law casebook, and frequently appears in the media commenting on sports law developments. Prior to joining academia, she was Counsel for Operations & Litigation at the National Football League. She received her J.D. from NYU School of Law, and her B.A. in History from Yale College.