Donald Trump hails 'big, beautiful and wonderful' deal for golf as players talk of 'betrayal'

Donald Trump hailed a “big, beautiful and glamorous deal” as sport was sent reeling by the PGA Tour and DP World Tour’s merger with Saudi-backed LIV Golf.

While players said they felt “betrayed” at the shock decision to join forces, the former president and Phil Mickelson, the notable LIV name, immediately expressed delight.

“Great news from LIV Golf,” tweeted the 45th US president, who has hosted LIV events at his courses.  “A big, beautiful, and glamorous deal for the wonderful world of golf. congrats to all!!!”

Six-time major champion Mickelson, meanwhile, added: “Awesome day today!” Brooks Koepka, another member of the LIV breakaway, joked that Brandel Chamblee, a former golfer and critic, should have a “welfare check” after the announcement.

Justin Thomas, winner of 15 PGA Tour events, also made light of scenes, tweeting a gif of his phone blowing up with messages.  However, other figures in the sport expressed immediate dismay.  “I feel betrayed,” said Wesley Bryan, who plays on the PGA’s developmental Korn Ferry Tour, adding he will not be able to “trust anyone within the corporate structure of the PGA Tour for a long time.”

PGA Tour’s Collin Morikawa, who has ranked as high as No. 2 in the World Golf Rankings and has five PGA Tour wins, added: “I love finding out morning news on Twitter.... And everyone thought yesterday was the longest day in golf.”

Mackenzie Hughes, the Canadian professional, tweeted “nothing like finding out through Twitter that we’re merging with a tour that we said we’d never do that with,” while Byeong Hun Am, a PGA Tour golfer from South Korea, added: “I’m guessing the LIV teams were struggling to get sponsors and PGA Tour couldn’t turn down the money. Win-win for both tours But it’s a big lose for [those] who defended the tour for last two years.”

American professional Mike Kim added that he was  “very curious how many people knew this deal was happening. About 5-7 people? Player-run organisation right?”

United States senators also weighed in. “So weird,” said Senator Chris Murphy. “PGA officials were in my office just months ago talking about how the Saudis’ human rights record should disqualify them from having a stake in a major American sport. I guess maybe their concerns weren’t really about human rights?”

Dylan Wu launched an attack on PGA’s commissioner Jay Monahan:

Martin Slumbers, the R&A’s chief executive, welcomed the move, however. “We are pleased that an agreement has been reached which will help men’s professional golf move forward in a collaborative, constructive and innovative fashion,” he said. “We care deeply about golf’s future and are committed to ensuring that the sport continues to thrive for many years to come. This agreement represents a huge step toward achieving that goal for golf and we look forward to working with the new entity for the benefit of the sport globally.”

LIV/PGA Tour/DP World Tour merger: as it happened

06:40 PM

'Shark in the Dark' reports Reuters

Nobody told LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman what was coming Tuesday until word began to leak via CNBC that the PGA Tour rival circuit was on the verge of a transformative peace treaty.

Norman learned moments before a TV interview aired on CNBC with Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which is the primary financial backer of LIV Golf, breaking down the agreement.

“I made a call just before this and of course he is a partner with us, and all the stakeholders that we have with us they had the call right before this interview,” Yasir Al-Rumayyan said in the interview of when Norman was in the know.

Norman, named CEO of LIV from its launch, was not listed in any of the formal announcements or press releases discussing the merger. He has been operating largely behind the scenes in the second season of LIV Golf since Tiger Woods bluntly said there could be no handshake between the sides because first, Norman “has to go.”

06:22 PM

A word from Augusta National

06:17 PM

Never mind the casualties ...

06:14 PM

No better person to consult on this than the peerless Shane Bacon

06:04 PM

More unrest in the PGA Tour ranks

05:51 PM

Statement from The R&A...

Martin Slumbers, CEO The R&A, said: “We are pleased that an agreement has been reached which will help men’s professional golf move forward in a collaborative, constructive and innovative fashion.

“We care deeply about golf’s future and are committed to ensuring that thes sport continues to thrive for many years to come

“This agreement represent a huge step forward achieving that goal for goal and we look forward to to working with the new entity for the benefit of the sport globally.”

05:44 PM

Joel Dahmen weighs in

I will let you decide whether Dahmen really is a fan of the 4 Aces LIV Golf team...

05:39 PM

"On behalf of this game we’re coming together"

Jay Monahan, PGA Tour commissioner:

“A lot of people have been reading about the tension, and we’ve talked a lot, and I said previously ‘we are going down our path, they were going down theirs’, and today that tension goes away. The litigation is dropped, we’re announcing to the world that on behalf of this game we’re coming together. It’s less about how people respond today, and it’s all about how people respond in 10 years.”

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Saudi PIF Governor: 

“We are investing in the game that everybody loves. The control is not there, it’s the governance that we would like to have, it’s going to be a vote system, a vote and the majority of the vote system will be with the PGA Tour, it’s not going to be with us. I heard this many times with different investments, like what we’ve done with Newcastle - the same story. But what we’ve done with the turnaround story in Newcastle, it was really a case study by itself. In less than one-and-a-half years we turned a team that was threatened to be relegated all the way up to fourth position in the Premier League. The same thing, I think, we will do with our new company between the PGA Tour and ourselves.

05:33 PM

More from Rich Beem

Again talking to Sky Sports News: “I’d be surprised if Rory [McIlroy] wasn’t informed about this, or possibly even part of the discussion.

“If you’re Jay Monahan and you don’t include Rory and or Tiger Woods in the discussions for what’s going to happen going forward, then shame on you.”

05:28 PM

'PGA officials were in my office just months ago'

US Senator from Connecticut, Chris Murphy has spoken of his experience meeting PGA Tour officials recently

05:23 PM

The assessment of Sky Sports Golf's Rich Beem

Speaking to Sky Sports News, Beem said: “I think it’s very interesting, to be fair. This came so far out of nowhere, that when I got a phone call earlier from my son asking me about it, I was like: ‘No this can’t be real,’ but obviously it is.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out, because there’s going to be a million things that are asked, but for us we need to question what the PGA Tour and DP World Tour are going to do with all these players that did receive the funds, what happens to that money?

“What happens to the tournaments? What tournaments are these players eligible for? How do they make their way back into the good graces of the PGA and DP World Tours?

“There’s going to be a lot of questions asked of the leaders of both entities.

“It’s definitely historic news, we’ll have to wait to see if it’s a positive historic.”

05:19 PM

The rocky road to golf unity

2021

May 4 The Telegraph’s golf correspondent James Corrigan reveals that some of the world’s top golfers have been offered contracts worth up to $100million (£72million) each to play in a Saudi-backed rebel world tour that could mean they forsake the PGA Tour and even the Masters and Ryder Cup.

October 27 Greg Norman announces that he has accepted the position of CEO for LIV Golf Investments, of which the majority stakeholder is the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. The fund will underwrite 10 events on the Asian Tour. Norman is also tipped to become commissioner of a Saudi-backed golf league managed by LIV Golf.

November 21 PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan sends members a memo saying the season-long purse total is set to rise by 16 per cent in 2022 from $367 million (£295 million) to $427 million (£344 million) in 2022.

2022

February 2 Phil Mickelson, competing in the Saudi international, tells Golf Digest that the PGA Tour’s obnoxious greed that has really opened the door for opportunities elsewhere.” He refers to the Saudis as “scary mother------s” but says LIV offers golfers a “once-in-a lifetime opportunity. It provokes a backlash, Mickelson says he is taking time away from the game and Monahan warns would-be rebels they will be banned from the Tour if they join LIV.

March 17 LIV reveals its 2022 schedule - eight events, with the launch to be at Centurion in St Albans in June. The prize purse is $255 million, there will be 12 teams with shotgun starts, 54 holes and no cuts.

June 1 PGA Tour announces that members who take part in  LIV Golf events could be sanctioned for playing in a conflicting event without the Tour’s permission, which could result in fines, suspensions, or bans.

June 12 Charles Schwartzel wins the inaugural LIV event in Hertfordshire. The field also includes Dustin Johnson, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia and Louis Oosthuizen. They are soon joined by major champions Patrick Reed, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Kopepka, who days earlier had committed his future to the Tour.

July 21 Ryder Cup captain Henrik Stenson is announced as LIV’s latest signing and is sacked as Europe’s Ryder Cup captain.

August 28 Eleven LIV golfers file an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour.

2023

January 23 The LIV Golf Invitational Series is renamed the LIV Golf League. The season will consist of 14 54-hole tournaments with no cuts.

June 6 LIV Golf and the PGA Tour announce they and the European Tour are to merge into a new entity.

05:14 PM

'Big lose for PGA Tour defenders'

The PGA Tour’s Ben An, a former winner of the BMW PGA Championship, says the deal is a “big lose” for PGA Tour defenders.

05:10 PM

More angry voices from the PGA Tour

05:09 PM

Monahan and Al-Rumayyan on CNBC

Jay Monahan, PGA Tour commissioner:

“I think today is a historical day for the PGA Tour and the game of golf. It’s a historical day for the PIF and the DP World Tour, and you’re right, there’s been a lot of tension in our sport over the last couple of years. But what we’re talking about today is coming together to unify the game of golf, and to do so under one umbrella. And the way that we’re doing that is we’re creating a for-profit LLC that the PIF is going to invest in alongside the DP World Tour, and together we’re going to move forward and grow and expand this great game and to take it to new heights. So what’s happened today is we’ve recognised that together we can have a greater impact on this game than we can working apart.

“I give Yasir great credit for coming to the table, coming to discussions with an open heart, an open mind. We did the same and the game of golf is better for what’s been done today.

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Saudi PIF Governor:

“We met at London. We had lunch, followed by a next-day round of golf, then another lunch. We had discussions, we covered everything. One of the things that I said then, had we met two or three years ago, the impact that we had on the game of golf would have been lesser, because it would be something small. But the way that we’re doing our partnership is going to be really big in many senses. We will have both LIV and the PGA tour, in addition to all of our assets, and we will be investing the growth of the game of golf and doing many new things that I think will have a better engagement from the players, the fans, the broadcasters, the sponsors and everyone else. And hopefully we can even give a better access for more people to the game of golf. The way we would love to make the game of golf very much accessible like any other sport, like football, basketball, any other sport, and that’s what we don’t have today.”

05:01 PM

'The onward march of Saudi sportswashing'

Human rights campaigners expressed immediate dismay at the deal. Felix Jakens, of Amnesty International, said in a statement sent to Telegraph Sport: “While this may have taken some golf fans and commentators by surprise, it’s really just more evidence of the onward march of Saudi sportswashing.

“It’s been clear for some time that Saudi Arabia was prepared to use vast amounts of money to muscle its way into top-tier golf - just part of a wider effort to become a major sporting power and to try to distract attention from the country’s atrocious human rights record.

“Away from the glamour of the golf courses and the TV cameras there’s been mounting repression in Saudi Arabia, with government critics and human rights activists arrested, a spate of unfair trials, and with the death penalty widely used, including as a tool of political repression. Last year alone, the Saudi authorities executed 196 people, the highest number for at least 30 years, and the Leeds University PhD student Salma al-Shehab was given a long jail sentence for tweeting her support for Saudi women’s rights activists.

“The world of golf may be about to put one of its most high-profile commercial battles behind it, but it’s vital that this latest surge in Saudi sportswashing isn’t allowed to obscure the increasingly dire human rights situation in Saudi Arabia.”

04:53 PM

Notable absentee

LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman has not been part of any official press releases to this point.

04:46 PM

US PGA champion having some fun

Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee has been one of the LIV’s most outspoken critics from within the punditry ranks.

His comments clearly did not pass Brooks Koepka by...

04:39 PM

Andrew Coltart speaking to Sky Sports News

On his initial reaction...

On Rory McIlroy...

04:36 PM

Another disgruntled PGA Tour player

Canada’s Mackenzie Hughes is another PGA Tour player to reveal his first knowledge of the deal came through Twitter.

04:33 PM

'A big, beautiful, glamourous deal'

Former US President Donald Trump has chimed in with his reaction. Trump’s properties have hosted the Saudi-backed LIV Tour.

“GREAT NEWS FROM LIV GOLF. A BIG, BEAUTIFUL, AND GLAMOROUS DEAL FOR THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF GOLF. CONGRATS TO ALL!!!”

04:29 PM

Rory quotes on LIV

Rory McIlroy has been the face of the PGA Tour’s campaign against LIV Golf over the past two years. He has, at times, been cutting about LIV and the players who chose to join the breakaway tour.

Here is a selection of McIlroy’s comment about LIV.

• “I think at this stage, if you go over and play on a different tour, then go over and play on a different tour. You’re sort of basically leaving all your peers behind to go make more money, which is fine. But just go over there. Don’t try and come back and play over here again.”

• “It was when that lawsuit was filed last week or whatever it was. And the thing that I would say, I certainly have a little more respect for the guys that haven’t put their names to the suit. So yeah, I mean, it’s become a little more personal because of that.”

• “There’s no room in the golf world for LIV Golf. I don’t agree with what LIV is doing. If LIV went away tomorrow, I’d be super happy.”

04:22 PM

Monahan on LIV

Just a year ago, Jay Monahan called LIV “a for­eign monar­chy that is spend­ing bil­lions of dol­lars in an at­tempt to buy the game of golf.”

The stance of many has clearly changed a lot since then.

04:19 PM

An important reminder

Today’s announcement has unveiled a commercial deal between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf.

There is little clarity as yet on how golf will actually look as a product moving forward.

04:13 PM

Split down the middle?

Reading initial reactions to this news is extraordinary. It genuinely appears to have caught the game completely off guard – with varying viewpoints already emerging.

Michael Kim has questioned whether PGA Tour players should have been considered in this deal.

Bernd Wiesberger, who left the DP World Tour for LIV Golf, has also offered some reaction.

04:07 PM

Full statement from DP World Tour

Keith Pelley, Chief Executive of the DP World Tour, said “This is a momentous day. We are delighted to be able to not only reignite our relationship with PIF, but also to have the opportunity to build on our current Strategic Alliance partnership with the PGA Tour.

“Together we will be stronger than ever and well positioned to continue to bring the game to all corners of the globe.

“To partner in this new entity and influence the growth of the game for all our DP World Tour members is energizing and exciting.”

04:05 PM

Bolt from the blue

This is a story that caught many off guard, Collin Morikawa included it appears.

04:02 PM

Mickelson among first to chime in

04:00 PM

A merger of huge proportions

LIV’s Golf’s sensational merger with the PGA and DP World Tours is a seismic event in world sport.

The initial steps in closing a two-year schism that had the potential to fundamentally alter the landscape of golf has begun but how this new partnership will manifest itself remains unclear.

A statement from the PGA Tour’s commissioner Jay Monahan, read: “The PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund [PIF] today announced a landmark agreement to unify the game of golf, on a global basis.

“The parties have signed an agreement that combines PIF’s golf-related commercial businesses and rights [including LIV Golf] with the commercial businesses and rights of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour into a new, collectively owned, for-profit entity to ensure that all stakeholders benefit from a model that delivers maximum excitement and competition among the game’s best players.

“In addition, PIF will make a capital investment into the new entity to facilitate its growth and success. The new entity [name TBD] will implement a plan to grow these combined commercial businesses, drive greater fan engagement and accelerate growth initiatives already underway. With LIV Golf in the midst of its second, groundbreaking season, the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF will work together to best feature and grow team golf going forward.”

This is a commercial agreement between the three dominant golf tours in the world, leaving questions as to how golf will practically look in future.

Also up in the air is what this means for the Ryder Cup…

Stay with us for full reaction as this story develops.