Masters bringing PGA Tour, LIV golfers together, but tours remain apart

• The PGA Tour appears to hold leverage in the situation after securing a significant investment from the Strategic Sports Group.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Golf’s civil war has all the greatest players in the world playing in the same field four times a year.

While No. 1 in the world Scottie Scheffler slowly has been rounding his game into shape on the PGA Tour, Jon Rahm has gone unnoticed playing LIV Golf events around the globe, before the league returned to the U.S. last week.

When Rory McIlroy was winning The Players at TCP Sawgrass, Brooks Koepka was finishing runner-up in Singapore.

Now, for the first time this year the best golfers from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf will be in the same field.

But with the Masters kicking off golf’s majors’ season, the two tours are in the same spot they were nearly two years ago.

More: Masters ‘Champions Dinner’ is one of the ‘most special nights we have all year’

With Augusta National as a backdrop, fatigue over the negotiations between the PGA Tour and LIV’s financial backers, Saudi’s Public Investment Fund (and the two main players, Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan), is real.

The parties have met in different spots around the world and in settings from golf courses to the White House.

With one constant: They always part without a deal.

And after the last month, it appears the idea of golf reuniting is as far apart as ever.

“I think we all hoped it would have been a little bit further along, and that’s no secret,” said Koepka last week from Doral.

PGA Tour tells LIV its proposal not acceptable

The latest setback came last week. As LIV new CEO Scott O’Neil was warning everyone not to “read too much one way or another” into what the media has been reporting, the media was reporting the PGA Tour shot down PIF’s latest offer.

The Guardian was the first to report that PIF was willing to make a $1.5 billion investment into the for-profit PGA Tour Enterprises in exchange for LIV Golf continuing its same format and Al-Rumayyan becoming a co-chairman of PGA Tour Enterprises.

The PGA Tour released a strong statement saying neither condition is acceptable, including “LIV continuing in its present form.”

This coming on the heels of what appeared to be an unproductive meeting in the White House in late February. That is when McIlroy said the landscape has changed and Monahan promised the Tour will not agree to a deal with LIV that “diminishes the strength of our platform.”

O’Neil countered last week during a meeting at Doral with selected members of the media saying LIV’s future is not dependent on a deal.

“Have to do a deal? No,” O’Neil said. “Nice to do a deal? So long as we’re all focused on the same thing, which is growing the game of golf.”

PGA Tour now holds all the power

Yes, the landscape has changed, especially in the last year. While nothing’s changed when it comes to the two sides being any closer to a deal, what has changed is the PGA Tour clearly has leverage.

About 16 months ago, when Rahm announced he was joining the league then run by Greg Norman, and Tyrrell Hatton followed, LIV was doing a victory lap, and rightfully so. The breakaway league appeared to have some momentum.

But since, LIV appears to have lost that leverage, especially after the PGA Tour received a $1.5 billion investment from the Strategic Sports Group that will grow to $3 billion.

Even Tiger Woods hinted the Tour no longer needed LIV’s money after the SSG got involved.

According to The Guardian, the PIF’s proposal last week was the first correspondence between the two parties since the divide that occurred during the second of two February meetings at the White House with Donald Trump.

Even Trump’s optimism appears to be waning. The man who once said it would take him “the better part of 15 minutes” to get the two sides to unite once he got into the White House, was less enthusiastic when he spoke to reporters prior to arriving at Doral Thursday to host LIV golfers for dinner.

“Ultimately, hopefully the two Tours are going to merge, I’m involved in that, too,” he said aboard Air Force One. “You got the PGA Tour and the LIV tour and I think having them merge would be great.”

It could happen. But right now, as the PGA Tour flexes its muscles, it appears it will be on its terms.

Tom D’Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.