The PGA Tour-LIV Partnership Is Dead

Back when the pandemic first started, everyone had the same question:

When the hell is this going to end?

A lot of historians and experts in the science community had similar answers. More or less, pandemics end when enough people agree they are “over” for them.

That means the new “normal” takes place of the “old” normal.

There was no specific date where everything moved to the new normal. COVID-19 still continues, to the extent where there are meaningful illnesses and annual vaccine recommendations.

But, at some juncture, society agreed that it was done. We would all live with COVID and the world continues to spin on as it always has.

This PGA Tour-LIV saga has been a lot like the pandemic in terms of that slow progression into a “new normal.”

There was the initial rush of drama, panic and intrigue in 2022 when LIV Golf disrupted the pro golf world and punctured the Tour by taking some of its top talent.

There was mass confusion and hysteria when the two sides made a handshake agreement to come together for what was first called a merger (not really a merger).

There were bold proclamations about how different this new world would be. I made some over the years.

But, in the end, although so much has changed, water has found its level. The new status quo already feels established and familiar, like we’ve been living it for two decades.

Pro golf is different than it used to be—but not by nearly as wide of a margin as we thought.

The Tour and LIV continue to coexist more than 26 months since signing the framework agreement that never delivered anything official.

The air of controversy has slowly leaked out of the balloon. Where has it led us?

Not too far from where we started, honestly.

The Tour-LIV partnership is going nowhere

As I wrote about earlier this year, the Tour feels like it’s in a position of total power right now.

It certainly got a scare over the past few years as some of its talent was poached and TV ratings took a nosedive, bringing the future viability of the whole operation into question.

The Tour scrambled to make fundamental changes like creating signature events, bolstering purses and limiting the number of full-time cards available. The existential threat of LIV bleeding them dry in an arms race was a huge factor in that.

But circumstances changed over time.

First off, viewership has largely stabilized. It’s nothing glamorous compared to other sports—pro golf is still a niche offering in the grand scheme of things—but it’s been at a functional level this year.

Golf on CBS garnered its most viewers in seven years. The network’s weekend coverage averaged 2.969 million people per tournament in 2025, up 17 percent from last year. And 14 of the 19 final-round telecasts saw a year-over-year ratings jump. 

While it’s been a mix of ratings increases and decreases for Tour events, the results have been fairly positive. Given the rise of YouTube golf and ever-shortening attention spans, there are still serious questions about whether younger generations will watch the Tour now and in the future—but that is a worry for another day.

There has been a lot of sponsor turnover among lower-tier Tour events, but that is to be expected when you prioritize signature events. Those top-tier tournaments have mostly avoided sponsor issues.

The Tour feels like its product is popular and operational without an influx of Saudi money or the addition of other players.

Can it improve? Of course.

Does it have to improve to survive? In the scope of the next 10 to 20 years and beyond, the answer is probably yes. But in the short term, the sky is not falling like it appeared to be.

Meanwhile, LIV remains an afterthought. The Tour’s TV audience is some 17 times larger than LIV’s. There were no excuses this year, and yet there is little to no buzz around the circuit. Outside of notable exception Bryson DeChambeau, several of the league’s stars have become ghosts since switching to the rival league (can anyone check on Cam Smith to make sure he’s still alive?).

Several prominent players are getting close to the end of their deals. DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka have contracts expiring at the end of 2026. A handful of others, such as Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson and Ian Poulter, are closing in on retirement.

There is the prospect of having to invest more money—renewing player contracts and bringing in fresh blood—into a product that has been losing almost $400 million per year.

LIV could definitely benefit from a Tour partnership, but why does the Tour need LIV? They might want a few players back, but they could be getting those guys back in a couple of years regardless.

The Tour is automatically a better product, if for no other reason than its $700 million per year TV contract on main broadcast channels. Until that is up (in 2030), the Tour will continue to dominate.

So, for the time being, there is no deal to be made. There are fewer and fewer rumblings of negotiations, and who knows how genuine those efforts were in the first place.

The Tour is in a position of strength that could only change if LIV magically turned into a successful business.

Why LIV hasn’t been able to lure more talent

While a better payday might sound nice for a depth player on Tour, there is also the threat of having no way back to the Tour.

Just look at Hudson Swafford. He played five LIV events in 2022 and, according to him, won’t be allowed back on the Tour until 2027.

“I don’t know how you can come up with a five- or five-and-a-half-year suspension based on how I played five events while the PGA Tour season was going on in ’22 that I wasn’t able to get media releases for,” he said on the Subpar Podcast.

That is a harsh punishment. Even LIV players who never had any Tour status have to sit out a year before coming back.

The reduction to 100 full-time Tour cards (starting next year) might leave some depth guys and former stars with more playing opportunities on LIV, although that won’t move the needle.

And in terms of star players, Tour purses have increased and the game’s best have more access to guaranteed paychecks because of limited fields. The Tour is only catering to those top guys more in the coming years.

Some of the second-tier Tour players on the border of making the Tour Championship might be swayed to stay because of better access to the majors. LIV is trying to solve its long-standing Official World Golf Ranking problem but their argument for points has always been tenuous at best.

The circuit meets virtually none of the well-established OWGR criteria, which mandates realistic qualification pathways and the ability to lose your spot due to poor play.

So far, LIV “relegation” has been a farce. They have just been picking and choosing who they want to stay, regardless of their finish in the standings.

When you add up all of this, there isn’t a lot of incentive for big-name Tour players to jump ship.

We’re coming up onto two years since Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton left. There hasn’t been much movement since then.

Forget the greater good

I think most golf fans want the best players together on a consistent basis.

That is not a priority for pro golf’s stakeholders.

The Tour’s loyalty is to its membership and sponsors—not to professional golf as a whole, and certainly not to fans. New CEO Brian Rolapp’s job is to put as much money as possible into the pockets of players, executives and sponsors. It’s a business.

The best business move is not to partner with LIV (and that’s not even mentioning all of the obstacles that come with trying to maneuver through Department of Justice scrutiny in getting a deal done).

Two years ago, when LIV was taking talent away from a reeling Tour, playing that card might have made more sense.

Not anymore. The Tour is doing fine and LIV never progressed.

I like what Scottie Scheffler said this year: “If we want to figure out why the game of golf is not back together, go ask (LIV players). Go to wherever they are playing this week and figure out when the game is going to come back together.”

While the Tour is far from blameless here, the scrutiny should be on LIV. Had the league made an intriguing product, that would have put the Tour in a terrible spot. A partnership would have been inevitable. The entire concept of pro golf could have changed.

Instead, LIV gave us a worse version of the Tour—worse players on worse golf courses on worse TV networks, all with even less at stake.

Because of that, the Tour and LIV will continue to coexist separately. The Tour will be fine but a little watered down from what it was.

Is the pro golf war over? Who decides such a thing?

We all decide it when we go back to what feels like normal.

And, right now, this “new” version of pro golf is feeling pretty damn normal.

Top Photo Caption: New Tour CEO Brian Rolapp won’t be rushing to get a deal done with LIV. (GETTY IMAGES/Tracy Wilcox)

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