What does golf’s blockbuster ‘merger’ mean for the game and its players?

The playing of a Presidents Cup, for so long the Ryder Cup’s poor relation, in Saudi Arabia now has to be on the table. The deal struck between LIV Golf and one-time rivals, the PGA and DP World Tours, is all about bang for buck.

The Saudis will believe they have saved face by joining forces with golf’s establishment – there will be no more potentially embarrassing litigation – but their desperate bid to earn legitimacy via sport also means this deal has to work two ways.

The Presidents Cup, a PGA Tour entity which involves the rest of the world except Europe against the United States, is an example of potentially useful collateral. So too is LIV’s controversial commissioner, Greg Norman.

The Australian’s long-time and deep-rooted resentment towards the PGA Tour is such that his involvement in what has been portrayed as golf’s brave new dawn is inconceivable. Whether next week, next month or quietly over a longer period of time, Norman will have to step back from his integral role in the disruption plan.

Long before a “merger” that was only weeks in the making, the PGA Tour had made it plain there was no chance of amicable discussion while Norman was in the room. When it surprisingly transpired, he was not. Norman is not the only one attached to LIV who will surely soon discover services are no longer required.

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi’s public investment fund, insists the controversial and multi-billion dollar deal “makes financial sense to us”. Pushed on whether he anticipates significant monetary return, Al-Rumayyan added: “That’s the whole idea.”

This is of course a departure from the LIV we have come to recognise. An aggregate of hundreds of millions of dollars has been thrown at players to join the