Sources - PGA Tour rejects PIF's recent offer to invest $1.5B - ESPN

The PGA Tour wants one premier circuit operating in men's professional golf.

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund wants two — and that's why the sides' talks to reunify the sport seem to be back at square one.

Sources confirmed to ESPN that the PGA Tour has rejected the PIF's most recent offer to invest $1.5 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises, the tour's for-profit entity, which came with the caveat that the rival LIV Golf League would remain intact.

The PIF, which has funded LIV Golf since its inception in 2022, also wants its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, to serve as co-chairman of PGA Tour Enterprises' board. Former Valero Energy CEO Joe Gorder is chairman of the PGA Tour Enterprises board, and Tiger Woods serves as vice chairman.

The Guardian of London reported that the PGA Tour replied to the PIF in a letter on Monday.

Sources previously told ESPN that the LIV Golf League continuing in its present form was a non-starter for the PGA Tour, which prefers to have the top golfers in the world competing on one circuit.

Sources said the PIF has dug in its heels in negotiations and wants team golf to be part of the sport's future ecosystem if the sides reach a deal. The PGA Tour has tried to offer solutions to the PIF that would include some sort of iteration of LIV Golf in future schedules, such as having team competitions at international venues in the fall.

«We will not do so in a way that diminishes the strength of our platform or the very real momentum we have with our fans and our partners,» PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said at last month's Players Championship. «So while we've removed some hurdles, others remain. But like our fans, we still share the same sense of urgency to get to a resolution.»

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