PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — The state of professional golf is like a former game show: Deal or No Deal.

The answer to the unfinished PGA Tour-LIV Golf framework agreement, so far is this: “No deal, Howie!” (With apologies to Howie Mandel, the former host of the infamous game show of the same name that all of us have watched at least once, even if you won’t admit it.)

Don’t bother holding your breath. I don’t see the PGA Tour and LIV finalizing a deal. Not soon, probably not ever.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan shocked the world with the announcement of a “framework agreement” nearly two years ago but since then, the two parties have agreed upon only one thing (as far as we know) and that seems to be, “We don’t agree on Jack Squat.” 

This whole episode has inspired more questions than who shot J.R. on Dallas. (Younger readers should ask Mr. Google about this pop-culture TV cliffhanger, which was a gigantic event in its day.) But unlike that prime-time soap opera, which delivered the unsatisfying answer of Kristen, the sister-in-law and former mistress, the PGA Tour-LIV battle is unlikely to have any resolution stronger than, “Why can’t we all just get along?”

Monahan fielded questions from golf media members Tuesday at the Players Championship. He didn’t give away any inside information. He repeated that the Tour is committed to the process of negotiation, won’t do anything to diminish its own perceived momentum and will aggressively continue to try to improve its product. To any specific questions about the talks, Monahan said either:

  • A: I’ve shared our position in the past.
  • B: I don’t have any additional information to share.
  • C: I’m focused on the PGA Tour and what we can control.

After Monahan played dodgeball with his answers, I give him credit for recognizing his awkward position. When asked his recollection of the 2020 Players that was canceled by the pandemic after one round, he said, “Listen, I shared our priorities—no, I’m just kidding.” He drew laughs. The man has a sense of humor, in case you were wondering. So maybe I’ll reconsider nicknaming him Old Stonewall.

I’m not kidding, either, though when I say I can’t find many reasons why the PGA Tour should consider a merger with LIV Golf.

For starters, it feels to me as if the PGA Tour’s goal is for LIV Golf to just go away or to be eliminated. That’s a hurdle I don’t think either side can get over and it’s one that no one talks about.

What does LIV have that the PGA Tour needs? Among the LIV players, the only true needle-mover is U.S. Open champion and Internet prince Bryson DeChambeau. He was The Show on the PGA Tour in his brief bulked-up era before he switched sides and, oh yeah, he made a hole-in-one hitting shots over his house, a social-media Mount Rushmore moment.

Three other LIV notables are Jon Rahm, a two-time major champion; Cameron Smith, former owner of golf’s most famous mullet and British Open winner; and Brooks Koepka, a four-time major champ. They are outstanding golfers who are intriguing to watch and fans will go watch them if they’re playing in an event. Does their appearance in an event sell any extra tickets? Do they actually move the needle for John Q. Golf Fan? I don’t think so.

All golf has a needle-mover problem, in fact. Beyond Tiger Woods, who rarely plays and Tuesday announced that he had Achilles surgery, who else moves the needle? Scottie Scheffler, yes, and Rory McIlroy, for sure. Jordan Spieth, maybe, but he’s had only two wins since 2017 and is coming back from wrist surgery. Xander Schauffele won a pair of majors last year but can still walk through a Cracker Barrel virtually unrecognized.

Do any other 2025 PGA Tour winners move the needle? Russell Henley? Joe Highsmith? Ludvig Åberg? Brian Campbell? Hideki Matsuyama? Not at all. Åberg has a bright future but he’s no household name yet. 

There are other name players competing in LIV but they’re either past their primes, such as Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Phil Mickelson and Ian Poulter, or not highly rated in public interest, such as Patrick Reed, Robert Bland, Adrian Meronk, Harold Varner, Tyrrell Hatton and Talor Gooch. They’ve been gone for three years and we haven’t missed them.

From a money standpoint, the PGA Tour is protected by the $1.5 billion investment they received from Strategic Sports Group (SSG), whose other properties include Fenway Park, the Boston Red Sox, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Liverpool soccer team in the Premier League. The Tour needed SSG’s financial backing once it decided to meet LIV’s business challenge by raising many of their own purses to $20 million. So for now, the Tour does not need the billions the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) is pouring into LIV nor is it threatened by those billions.

What else does LIV have? Oh, the team competitions. Those haven’t gained any traction with the public whatsoever. Ask any golf fan you know to name more than two LIV teams. Their stumbling answers will provide confirmation: “Uh, the Four Aces and, um, the Range Goats, and, I dunno, the Hyphens? The Flamethrowers? ...”

Garcia won last week’s LIV event in Hong Kong and his team, the Fireballs, won for a second straight week and have a chance to be the first LIV team to win three times in a row. But LIV Golf gets minimal coverage among the mainstream golf media, it’s like they’re all part of the FBI Witness Protection Program. That may change with its new Fox Sports deal to televise events in the U.S. this year. Or it may not.

Maybe there is a place for sustained team golf but it’s a new concept. As team golf goes, TGL had a bigger impact with its prime-time, televised simulator competitions in six weeks than LIV Golf has in three years. Of course, it benefited from the presence of Woods. It also benefited from pre-selling ownership of the teams to an assortment of investors, some of them big names such as Serena Williams, Shohei Ohtani, Justin Timberlake, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry and Shaquille O’Neal. TGL’s opening night telecast drew more than one million viewers. LIV Golf hasn’t done anywhere near that kind of business.

Other than DeChambeau, I don’t see any upside for the PGA Tour in a LIV deal. There is one potential downside, of course. LIV Golf could resume poaching more PGA Tour players with ridiculously large sums of money. It would hurt to lose, say, Åberg, Viktor Hovland or Patrick Cantlay, but the other LIV departees helped prove that nearly everyone is replaceable. 

Since LIV Golf’s inception, I’ve always thought there was room in pro golf for two competing organizations. Why not, really? LIV Golf might be better served to play most of its events outside the U.S. in golf-hungry markets that are currently underserved such as Australia, South Korea, Japan and South Africa. 

Another possibility would be to make LIV a team-only competition and lose the individual scoring. Treat LIV like any other team sport, such as major-league baseball, and each franchise has a manager, can make trades, maybe even hold a draft and seriously build the team brands. It could be played in addition to a PGA Tour schedule, in case some kind of merger did occur, and could take place during the fall or winter months. 

I don’t see that happening, though. The PGA Tour probably had that in mind when it started TGL, an idea it may expand across multiple venues and multiple countries as a counter to LIV. Or maybe it was just to create another revenue stream. The SSG investment bankers who bought into the PGA Tour like things like revenue streams, profits and dividends.

Meanwhile, everyone is tired of talking about this entire topic.

“This is like the third time I’ve played this tournament while this has been going on in some way, shape or form,” said former Players champ Justin Thomas. “I think we’re past the level of exhaustion.”

We haven’t heard the last word on the framework agreement, of course. The PGA Tour is negotiating from what appears to be a position of power. But I think I already know what the last words will be.

No deal, Howie.


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Golf’s ‘Deal or No Deal’ Keeps Dragging on, but the PGA Tour Doesn’t Need One.