Years from now, when we look back on the 2024 golf season, we’ll probably point to Bryson DeChambeau’s 72nd-hole victory over Rory McIlroy at the U.S. Open as the defining moment of the year. Maybe we’ll look back at Scottie Scheffler’s tearful gratitude on the top step of the podium at the Olympics as the most emotional victory of the year. Or maybe we’ll look back at Xander Schauffele’s decisive victories at the PGA Championship and the Open as the most impressive performances of 2024. Who’s to say?
You know what we won’t remember as a highlight of the season? Scheffler winning the $25 million portion of a $100 million FedEx Cup purse at the Tour Championship, or Jon Rahm winning an $18 million bonus as the 2024 LIV individual champion last weekend at LIV Golf Chicago. Congratulations, guys. You took home another eight-figure check. That’s great news for you, your family, your agent, your accountant. And the fans—the ones still watching—are shrugging.
Golf is not a game built on paychecks, but on moments, moments when the best in the world compete for titles and championships. Money is a motivator for players, not fans… and fans are responding by leaving the professional game in ever-greater numbers.
Money is also what seems to divide the sport, resulting in a game where the sum of the parts is far less than the whole. The PGA Tour season ended a few weeks ago with the Tour Championship, the LIV season ends this weekend with its team championship — and the sport seems no closer to unification than it did at the start of the year.
The PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, LIV Golf’s financial backer, announced a surprise “framework agreement” in June 2023. The expectation – realistic or not – was that LIV Golf and the PGA Tour would reunite in some form within the next two years.
That hasn’t been the case. We’ve heard plenty of “optimism” that “negotiations are moving forward,” from various figures like Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth, but little real progress has been made. In fact, the most visible outward sign of the state of the negotiations has been the resignation of one of the key people who helped get the deal done. When Jimmy Dunne resigned from the board in May, citing “no significant progress” which runs counter to the “nothing to see here, everything is fine” statements from players and Tour officials involved in the negotiations.
It is easy – perhaps too easy – to view ratings as an indicator of the health of the sport. But ratings have declined at virtually every tournament on both circuits. Fewer than 100,000 people watched Rahm’s individual victory during the season last weekend, a figure so surprisingly low that it suggests that if people aren’t logging into LIV now after three years, they never will.
But rankings are only as bad as the tournaments they measure. The top-performing tournaments can quickly turn things around. The biggest concern is that the PGA Tour is losing major sponsors, like Wells Fargo and Honda. Strategic Sports Group’s massive investment of more than $1 billion won’t be enough to replace the departing sponsors. Golf is in an unsustainable arms race.
Earlier this week, McIlroy suggested that the Justice Department’s potential interest in a merger between the LIV and the PGA Tour was holding up negotiations, which is certainly a legitimate concern. He also noted that there may be some voices — some loud voices — that aren’t enamored with the idea of a reunification.
“I would say half the LIV players want the deal to go through and half the LIV players don’t,” McIlroy said. “I would say it’s probably the same on the PGA Tour. Because like anything, everybody’s looking out for their own interests. You know, it would be beneficial for some people if a deal didn’t go through, but obviously it would be beneficial for some people if a deal did go through.”
He highlighted the difficulty encountered when players represent both their interests as players and their interests in the business, noting that these can often be in conflict with each other – that is, what is good for the business may not be good for an individual.
“I think the tours want it to happen,” McIlroy said. “The investors certainly want it to happen because they can see the benefits for themselves. But right now it’s the Justice Department and the players’ differing opinions.”
There are signs of hope, but they come from outside the trading room. Thursday’s PGA Championship codified what had been his Actually practice the last two years, allow LIV players to participate in its events if they qualify. More importantly, McIlroy and Scheffler will play DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka in a televised event later this year, as clear a sign as any that at least a few The players want to make a deal.
Are we, to borrow some of the grating golf clichés, within sight of the clubhouse? Or are we at the turning point? Or are we still in the equivalent of a Thursday afternoon tournament, where everything remains uncertain and the conclusion is still far away?
Regardless, the game goes on — on separate paths — and there is little apparent urgency to strike a deal. Maybe appearances are deceptive, and maybe the continued silence is a good negotiating tactic, but it gives the impression that golf’s powerful players are making putts — and cashing huge checks — while the sport burns.
