Fracas between LIV Golf and PGA Tour highlights eventful year

Once dismissed by many as a joke, the launch of LIV Golf divided the sport in 2022 as the Saudi-backed circuit lured top players from the PGA Tour with huge paydays while the two sides entered an ongoing legal battle.

And though Tiger Woods's return to competition after a near-fatal car crash in February 2021 grabbed plenty of attention, LIV Golf proved the defining story of the year as it upended the professional golf landscape.

In February, current world number one Rory McIlroy said the proposed LIV Golf circuit was "dead in the water" after many high-profile players pledged their loyalty to the PGA Tour.

But LIV Golf has since seen its stable of golfers grow more impressively than many expected and counts majors winners Cameron Smith, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau among its recruits.

Critics say LIV Golf, which is bankrolled by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, amounts to "sportswashing" by a nation trying to improve its reputation in the face of criticism over its human rights record.

McIlroy, who has become the PGA Tour's unofficial spokesperson on all things LIV Golf, has said the sport is "ripping itself apart" and the damage may be "irreparable" without a truce.

Moments after the first tee shots were struck in LIV Golf's inaugural event in June the PGA Tour suspended its members who were in the field and said anyone else who makes the jump would face the same fate.

Along the way, LIV Golf joined a handful of its players in an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour, which then filed a counter-claim saying golfers knew they had no unilateral right to defect and that breaching contracts would result in bans.

Faced with the LIV Golf threat, the PGA Tour announced new measures