Golfers have reacted with shock on the sudden announcement of a merger between the PGA Tour, Europe’s DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s controversial LIV Golf.
The information, introduced in an announcement on Tuesday, ended the authorized wrangling between the events, and the preliminary response amongst golfers instructed they weren’t knowledgeable and had no say within the final result.
“I love finding out morning news on Twitter,” two-time main winner Collin Morikawa tweeted. Fellow American PGA Tour participant Michael Kim wrote: “Very curious how many people knew this deal was happening. About 5-7 people? Player run organization right?” Canada’s Mackenzie Hughes tweeted: “Nothing like finding out through Twitter that we’re merging with a tour that we said we’d never do that with.”
The reliably droll Joel Dahmen tweeted a dig at LIV Golf’s group format: “I’ve grown up being a fan of the 4 Aces. Maybe one day I get to play for them on the PGA Tour!”
While the main points stay sketchy, the deal will see a approach again to the PGA Tour and DP World Tour for these gamers who jumped ship for huge sums of cash to affix LIV over the previous two years.
One golfer was delighted with the information. Phil Mickelson has been one of many main figures on the LIV Golf tour and has been outspoken in his criticisms of the PGA Tour and its defenders, together with Rory McIlroy.
“Awesome day today,” Mickelson tweeted.
And Brooks Koepka, one other main LIV star contemporary from successful the PGA Championship in New York, aimed a dig at one of many Saudi tour’s most outspoken critics, NBC and Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee.
“Welfare Check on Chamblee,” Koepka wrote.
South Korea’s Byeong Hun An supplied an evaluation of what unfolded in negoatiations between the events. “I’m guessing the liv teams were struggling to get sponsors and pga tour couldn’t turn down the money. Win-win for both tours but it’s a big [loss] for [those] who defended the tour for last two years.”