The PGA Tour and LIV Golf settlement everyone expected after June 2023 never fully materialized. The private antitrust litigation between the two sides was dismissed with prejudice under a framework agreement announced that month, but the promised merger of commercial assets was never finalized, and as of mid-2026 the PGA Tour and LIV Golf remain separate entities with no partnership in place.1Greenberg Glusker. From Enemies to Partners: LIV Golf and PGA Tour Resolve Antitrust Lawsuit Through Merger2The Fried Egg. PGA Tour PIF Framework Agreement Second Anniversary Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has since announced it will stop bankrolling LIV after the 2026 season, and the practical resolution is now happening piecemeal, through a narrow program that lets a handful of elite LIV players return.
What the 2023 Framework Agreement Actually Did
On June 6, 2023, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan announced a framework agreement on CNBC. The deal envisioned a new for-profit entity combining the commercial assets of the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour, and the PIF. Its most concrete effect was legal: the private antitrust suit brought by LIV Golf and eleven of its players, along with the PGA Tour’s counterclaim alleging tortious interference with player contracts, would be dismissed with prejudice, blocking either side from refiling.1Greenberg Glusker. From Enemies to Partners: LIV Golf and PGA Tour Resolve Antitrust Lawsuit Through Merger3Golf Digest. Senate Findings PGA Tour PIF
What the framework did not do was merge the tours. It set a December 31, 2023, deadline for a definitive agreement, and that deadline passed without one.4Sky Sports. PGA Tour PIF Framework Agreement: Where Is Men’s Golf Heading One Year On A U.S. Senate investigation later concluded that a federal court ruling in April 2023, which compelled the PIF and Al-Rumayyan to submit to discovery and depositions, was what pushed the Saudi fund to negotiate in the first place.3Golf Digest. Senate Findings PGA Tour PIF The Department of Justice had also opened its own antitrust investigation into the PGA Tour’s conduct toward LIV before the two sides began settlement talks.5Kellogg School of Management. PGA LIV Golf Merger Antitrust
Why No Final Deal Has Been Reached
Two structural disagreements have blocked every attempt at a definitive agreement. The PIF has insisted LIV Golf remain intact as a second premier circuit and that Al-Rumayyan serve as co-chairman of any combined entity’s board. The PGA Tour has treated the first condition as a nonstarter and rejected LIV’s team-golf format as a permanent fixture, insisting instead on a single tour featuring the world’s top golfers.6ESPN. Sources: PGA Tour Rejects PIF Recent Offer to Invest $1.5B
The PGA Tour’s leverage grew in January 2024, when it finalized a $3 billion investment deal with the Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of sports team owners led by Fenway Sports Group. The agreement created PGA Tour Enterprises with an initial $1.5 billion investment, and nearly 200 players received access to more than $1.5 billion in equity grants vesting over time.7PGA Tour. PGA Tour Launches PGA Tour Enterprises The deal was unanimously approved by the Tour’s policy board, whose player directors then included Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay, and Adam Scott.8ESPN. PGA Tour Finalizes $3B Deal; LIV Talks Continue The SSG agreement left room for a future PIF co-investment but gave the Tour room to walk away.
Talks continued anyway. A February 2025 meeting at the White House brought together President Donald Trump, Al-Rumayyan, Monahan, Tiger Woods, and Adam Scott. The Tour described it as a “constructive working session” on the “reunification of golf,” but no breakthrough followed.9PGA Tour. Commissioner Jay Monahan, Tiger Woods, Adam Scott Met With President Trump and Yasir Al-Rumayyan at the White House In April 2025, the PGA Tour reportedly rejected a $1.5 billion PIF offer that still required preserving LIV as a separate league.6ESPN. Sources: PGA Tour Rejects PIF Recent Offer to Invest $1.5B
The PIF Pulls the Plug on LIV
On April 29, 2026, the PIF announced it would fund LIV Golf only through the end of the 2026 season, stating that the “substantial investment required by LIV Golf over a longer term is no longer consistent with the current phase of PIF’s investment strategy.”10CBS Sports. Saudi Arabia LIV Golf Funding 2026 Season PGA Tour Al-Rumayyan stepped down as LIV’s chairman the same day.11Golf Digest. LIV Golf: Yasir Al-Rumayyan Steps Down
The numbers behind the decision are heavy. The PIF has invested more than $5 billion in LIV since its 2022 launch, with total spending projected to pass $6 billion by the end of 2026. Annual losses ran between $500 million and $600 million, and public filings from October 2025 showed a $461.8 million deficit for LIV’s non-U.K. operations in 2024 alone.12Front Office Sports. LIV Golf Norman Shakeup Spending The league never generated meaningful media rights revenue or television ratings.10CBS Sports. Saudi Arabia LIV Golf Funding 2026 Season PGA Tour
A new independent LIV board led by restructuring and advisory specialists Gene Davis and Jon Zinman has been tasked with finding long-term investors.13The Athletic. LIV Golf Founder Yasir Al-Rumayyan PIF CEO Scott O’Neil, who replaced founding CEO Greg Norman in January 2025, has said he is seeking roughly $350 million in new investment through either a single private equity partner or a syndicate of ten to twelve investors contributing between $25 million and $50 million each. He has projected profitability within three years under a “dramatically” different business model.14Sports Business Journal. LIV Golf’s Scott O’Neil Pitches Investors on League
How Returning Players Are Being Handled
With no merger and LIV’s funding running out, the practical resolution is now moving through the players themselves. In January 2026, the PGA Tour under new CEO Brian Rolapp announced the Returning Member Program, a narrow pathway for elite LIV players to come back.
Eligibility is limited to players who had been away for at least two years and had won a major championship or The Players Championship between 2022 and 2025. Four players qualified: Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, and Cameron Smith.15Golf Channel. PGA Tour Creates Elite Returning Member Program; Brooks Koepka Returning at Farmers The application deadline was February 2, 2026.
The cost of coming back is steep. Returning players must forfeit five years of equity in the PGA Tour’s Player Equity Program (estimated at $50 million to $85 million depending on performance), make a $5 million charitable donation, and accept ineligibility for FedExCup bonuses in 2026. Rolapp described the program as a “one-time, defined window” that was “not a precedent for future situations.”16PGA Tour. PGA Tour Announces Returning Member Program
Brooks Koepka was the first through, returning at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in late January 2026. Adam Scott said the decision to allow the return was “unanimous across the board.” Patrick Reed came back through a separate, less expedited pathway, acknowledging he would need to “earn my way back.”17ESPN. Brooks Koepka Returns to PGA Tour From LIV Golf at Torrey Pines
Jon Rahm took a different route. Rather than apply through the PGA Tour program, he resolved a separate dispute with the DP World Tour in May 2026, agreeing to pay outstanding fines (reported at less than $3 million), commit to five non-major DP World Tour events, and withdraw pending appeals. The deal restored his eligibility for the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor.18The Guardian. Jon Rahm DP World Tour Agreement Ryder Cup LIV Rahm described the resolution as involving “concessions on both sides.”19Golf Digest. Jon Rahm Ends DP World Tour Dispute; Now Eligible for Ryder Cup
Not every PGA Tour member is welcoming the returns. Wyndham Clark expressed frustration that defectors could “get the cake and also eat it” after collecting guaranteed money on LIV. Brian Harman noted lingering resentment over the antitrust suit filed by eleven LIV members, including Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, and Talor Gooch.20GOLF.com. PGA Tour Players React to LIV Golf Funding News Rolapp acknowledged what he called “scar tissue” among tour members and officials, saying it “has to be accounted for in some shape or form.”21Yahoo Sports. LIV Golf Members Reached Out to PGA Tour
Where Things Stand in 2026
The 2023 framework agreement has now been moribund for more than 500 days past its original deadline.2The Fried Egg. PGA Tour PIF Framework Agreement Second Anniversary22Golfweek. Greg Norman Leaving LIV Golf After 4 Years
The PGA Tour is now governed by PGA Tour Enterprises under chairman Joe Gorder, with Tiger Woods as vice chairman.23PGA Tour. Chairman Elected for PGA Tour Enterprises Rolapp, a former NFL executive, has said LIV’s existence as a competitor “made us better” and helped “expose some things that maybe the PGA Tour could do better,” and has focused on strengthening the Tour from within rather than pursuing a Saudi deal at any cost.24ESPN. CEO: PGA Tour to Consider Paths to Bring Back LIV Players Internal PGA Tour officials have voiced concern that readmitting players only because LIV’s collapse removed their alternatives would signal the Tour is willing to “revise its own framework under pressure.”21Yahoo Sports. LIV Golf Members Reached Out to PGA Tour
LIV Golf faces a harder question. With PIF funding ending after 2026 and no replacement investor secured, reports have said “every remaining tournament is on the fence.”22Golfweek. Greg Norman Leaving LIV Golf After 4 Years Multiple representatives for remaining LIV players have reportedly contacted the PGA Tour about return pathways.10CBS Sports. Saudi Arabia LIV Golf Funding 2026 Season PGA Tour The settlement that closed the courtroom fight in 2023 has, three years on, produced neither a merger nor a rivalry, but a slow drift of players back to one side while the other looks for someone to keep the lights on.