EQUITY WAR! Only loyal PGA Tour pros to get paid - NOT LIV Golf pros!

PGA Tour policy board member Jimmy Dunne confirms current PGA Tour members will receive equity in new enterprise, while Jay Monahan will take take full control of LIV Golf!

Andy Roberts

10 Jun 2023

EQUITY WAR! Only loyal PGA Tour pros to get paid - NOT LIV Golf pros!

PGA Tour pros that remained loyal to the circuit will be the only players receiving equity shares under a new for-profit company that was finalised with Saudi PIF this week, confirms ESPN.

Jimmy Dunne, the PGA Tour policy board member primarily responsible for sorting out the new merger, told ESPN all current PGA Tour members will receive equity in the new enterprise based on an undisclosed formula.

Those on LIV Golf will get nothing.

Revealed: HUGE money some of best PGA Tour pros turned down to join LIV Golf!

Earlier this week, shock news emerged that the PGA Tour and DP World Tour were merging with Saudi PIF, which currently bankrolls the LIV Golf League.

But under the new for-profit company that will soon be formed, those players who left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf such as Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith, will not be entitled to the same opportunities as those that remained loyal.

The news will come as relief to a number of PGA Tour players such as Jon Rahm and Hideki Matsuyama, who turned down huge contracts to go and play on LIV Golf.

Rory McIlroy revealed this week he was not offered a single dollar to join LIV Golf.

Dunne revealed all in an exclusive interview with ESPN on Friday:

“The new [company] would grow, and the [current PGA Tour] players would get a piece of equity that would enhance and increase in value as time went on. There would have to be some kind of formulaic decision on how to do that. It would be a process to determine what would be a fair mechanism that would be really beneficial to our players.”

Dunne, who helped broker the shock merger between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf, also told ESPN that current PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan will be in full control of LIV under the new agreement.

News emerged in Sports Illustrated earlier this week that Greg Norman's days as LIV Golf CEO are very much numbered.

According to ESPN, Monahan will soon serve as CEO of the new entity with Saudi PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan operating as the chairman.

Al-Rummayyan has a number of other roles in the world of sport, one of which includes acting as Newcastle United FC chairman.

Reports suggest Monahan is going to wait until the current LIV Golf season concludes in November before making any decisions on the future of the LIV Golf League.

There are seven more events left to play on the LIV Golf League this season.

ESPN writes:

"If it [LIV Golf] folds, Dunne claimed a committee - including current PGA Tour members and administrators - will determine the punishment for players who left for for LIV Golf and want to apply for reinstatement to the Tour."

Dunne told ESPN:

"I think we would form a panel, including Tour players, that would evaluate what the terms would be. Remember, they're coming back to compete on the tour, so they have to be confident that they would be good enough to continue to play, and they have to be willing to incur the penalty for having gone."

ESPN also reports how punishment for LIV players attempting a return to the PGA Tour will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

The report confirms the 11 LIV Golf players who sued the PGA Tour in federal court last year may also receive stronger penalties than other players.

Dunne concluded:

“Players on the LIV [tour] that wanted to reinstate into the PGA Tour would go through a process [and] suspension. Whatever the penalty was, they'd have to decide whether they wanted to do that or not and then they could play.”

READ THE FULL ESPN REPORT HERE