PGA Tour and LIV Golf announce merger: What it means for PGA Championship 2024 in Valhalla

In a surprise announcement Tuesday morning that comes after a year of bitter fracturing in men's professional golf, the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour announced an agreement to merge their business operations.

Both entities, along with the DP World Tour, announced the move in a joint statement published Tuesday. The merger aims to create "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."

The terms of the agreement are not fully finalized and are scheduled to be completed in the coming months.

"After two years of disruption and distraction, this is a historic day for the game we all know and love," PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said Tuesday in a statement.

"Going forward, fans can be confident that we will, collectively, deliver on the promise we’ve always made — to promote competition of the best in professional golf and that we are committed to securing and driving the game’s future."

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There are still several key details that are unknown about the merger. For starters, the new entity does not have a name yet.

A key element in the merger is financial. The Public Investment Fund (PIF), the sovereign wealth investment fund of the Saudi government, "will make a capital investment into the new entity to facilitate its growth and success," according to the news release. The PIF had been the sole entity to entirely fund the LIV Golf operation.

Additionally, the merger stipulates that the PIF "will initially be the exclusive investor in the new entity" and "will have the exclusive right to further invest in the new entity, including a right of first refusal on any capital."

A newly established Board of Directors will direct and oversee the new entity's operations, schedule, investments. PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan will be part of the new entity's Board of Directors and will be on its executive committee. The announcement of the full board will come at a later date.

Additionally, the merger will lead to "a mutually agreed end to all pending litigation between the participating parties." In August 2022, a number of golfers who joined the LIV tour filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour, challenging their suspensions.

The merger stipulates that after the conclusion of the 2023 season, the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and the DP World Tour "will work cooperatively and in good faith to establish a fair and objective process" to allow players who left the PGA Tour and DP tour to re-apply for membership.

What does the merger with LIV Golf mean for the PGA Tour?

While the merger announced the creation of "a new, collectively owned, for-profit entity," the PGA Tour is retaining its position as "a 501(c)(6) tax exempt organization."

The difference with the merger, however, is that — in the threat of continued disruption in men's professional golf — the PGA Tour reversed course and is aligning with the massive influx of Saudi capital.

In an interview on CBS in June 2022, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan ripped the LIV tour over links between the Saudi government and the terrorist attacks on 9/11. In the interview, Monahan spoke about players who joined LIV Golf needing to apologize to the families of those who lost loved ones on 9/11 and asked: "Have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?"

What does the merger mean for the 2024 PGA Championship at Louisville's Valhalla Golf Club?

It's too early to tell how majors such as the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville will be impacted by the merger as the terms of agreement are finalized in the months to come.

Golfers who made the switch to LIV were allowed to compete in the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York, as long as they met the following eligibility requirements:

• All former winners of the PGA Championship

• Winners of the last five Masters (2019-23)

• Winners of the last five U.S. Opens (2018-22)

• Winners of the last five Open Championships (2017-22)

• Winners of the last three THE PLAYERS Championships (2021-23)

• The top three on the OWGR’s International Federation Ranking List as of April 24, 2023

• Winner of 2022 Senior PGA Championship

• The top 15 finishers and ties from the 2022 PGA Championship

• The top 20 finishers from the 2023 PGA Professional Championship

• The top 70 players who are eligible and have earned the most PGA Championship points from the 2022 AT&T Byron Nelson through the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship (ending May 7, 2023)

• Playing members of the last named U.S. and European Ryder Cup teams (2021), provided they remain in the top 100 on the Official World Golf Rankings as of May 7, 2023

• Winners of PGA TOUR co-sponsored or approved tournaments whose victories are considered official, from the 2022 Charles Schwab Challenge through the 2023 AT&T Byron Nelson

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Eighteen LIV golfers qualified for the 2023 PGA Championship: Brooks Keopka; Phil Mickelson; Martin Kaymer; Dustin Johnson; Joaquin Niemann; Talor Gooch; Patrick Reed; Harold Varner III; Dean Burmester; Anirban Lahiri; Mito Pereira; Abraham Ancer; Brendan Steele; Cameron Smith; Bryson DeChambeau; Sihwan Kim and Paul Casey.

The 2024 PGA Championship is scheduled for next May. It will be the first time Valhalla has hosted the major in a decade.

Reach Louisville men's basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @brooksHolton.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: PGA Tour and LIV Golf merge: What it means for golf, PGA Championship