In June, the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and the DP World Tour announced a landmark — and shocking — framework agreement to combine forces.
Four months later, the truce appears to be on the verge of collapse with LIV Golf star Phil Mickelson revealing that it’s not a matter of “if” but rather “when” more PGA Tour players will join him in the Saudi Arabian-backed competitor.
“Do I think that?” Mickelson replied to Telegraph Sport (via Yahoo Sports) when asked if he believed more defections to LIV Golf would occur. “No. I know that’s going to happen. When players look at LIV, they are wanting to be a part of it. Everybody here is happy and enjoying what we are doing and enjoying the team aspect of it and the camaraderie and all the benefits that come with playing this tour.
“The reality is, I’ve been fielding calls, as we all have, from players who are free agents to PGA Tour players who want to come over. So the question is how many spots are available? There’s a lot more players that want to come than there are spots.”
While the original agreement between the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and the DP World Tour included a clause that LIV wouldn’t attempt to recruit players from the two other tours, that part of the agreement was quietly dropped in July due to anti-trust concerns. As such, it appears that LIV will continue to recruit other players — likely major stars — from the PGA Tour after the former’s 2023 season wraps up at Trump Doral on Sunday.
“LIV needs to keep evolving,” Mickelson said. “But we have only been around a year and a half and look at the quality of players that we have already. And that’s going to continue to improve next year and it’s going to continue to improve the following year.”
While the battle between the PGA Tour and the LIV Tour gets most of the headlines, the first true test of the agreement will come in December when LIV hosts its qualifying event in Abu Dhabi, which will go head to head against the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa. According to Ian Poulter — who like Mickelson, defected from the PGA Tour — players have already contacted him about making the jump.
“And that’s no surprise,” he told The Telegraph. “Think about it, they’ll probably get fined, but if a player takes that chance, pays say $50,000 or whatever, then he makes it into the top three then he will earn minimum $1.75 million in 14 events in 2024. That’s minimum. Even if they shoot level 80s every week.”
As the situation currently stands, the truce between the PGA Tour, LIV Tour and DP World Tour seems more complicated than it did when it was first announced in June. And if Mickelson and Poulter’s comments are any indication, it might not be a truce for much longer.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.