Government officials put pressure on LIV Golf & PGA Tour

The biggest reason it seems that the PGA Tour decided to merge with LIV Golf is because they were losing their best players to them.

LIV Golf managed to pick off big names like Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, and others to leave the PGA Tour for the big bucks of their tour.

The poaching of players became a huge issue for the PGA, so much so that they tried to come to an agreement in which LIV Golf would no longer do that, but according to a New York Times report, that agreement was dropped from the deal.

The agreement was that neither organization would try to steal players from the other league, but that was quickly dissolved.

William E. Kovacic, a former Federal Trade Commission chairman, was quoted in the story as saying the language in the contract appeared “to be right in the field of vision that the Department of Justice has staked out for its no-poaching enforcement program.”

The US government along with the Department of Justice is in the process of investigating and having hearings on the merger, which according to many, isn’t official yet.

It looks from the outside looking in that maybe the PGA is having second thoughts about this merger because of all the backlash they are receiving from not only players but also the general public.

These hearings and investigation may be their way of dissolving the merger before it actually happens.

{New York Times}