‘An awesome day’: LIV’s Mickelson and Koepka celebrate merger with PGA

The world of professional golf reacted with emotions ranging from bemusement to disbelief to triumph after Tuesday’s announcement that the PGA Tour and DP World Tour have agreed to merge commercial operations with the Saudi backed LIV Golf.

Six-time major winner Phil Mickelson was perhaps the most high-profile player to defect from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf when it started operations last year. Mickelson lost sponsors over the decision and was widely criticised for the move after he acknowledged Saudi Arabia’s record of human rights violations.

On Tuesday, Mickelson celebrated the merger on Twitter. “Awesome day today,” he wrote.

Another LIV golfer, Brooks Koepka, was also in triumphant mood. Koepka won this year’s US PGA Championship but has been embroiled in rows with those who believe LIV golfers sacrificed their principles for the huge amounts of money available on the Saudi-backed tour. One of LIV’s biggest critics has been Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee, who said last month that “any yielding to or agreement with [LIV] is a deal with a murderous dictator.”

On Tuesday, Koepka greeted news of the merger by tweeting “Welfare Check on Chamblee”.

Awesome day today