The past 12 months had it all — crazy winning streaks, new major champs, a major-week arrest (!) and more. With 2025 on the horizon, our writers are looking back at the most memorable moments from 2024.
No. 15 — Charley Hull goes viral
No. 14 — LIV, LPGA CEOs say goodbye
No. 13 — Solheim Cup parking fiasco
No. 12 — Phoenix Open chaos
No. 11 — Lydia Ko’s Hall of Fame resurgence
Biggest moments of 2024 No. 10: PGA Tour-PIF stalemate
It was roughly this time, one year ago, when PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan sent a memo to the Tour membership titled, “Negotiations Update.”
It was just a few paragraphs long, but it stated things very clearly: “Our goal for 2024 is to reach agreements with SSG, PIF and the DP World Tour, bringing them on board as minority co-investors in PGA Tour Enterprises. These partnerships will allow us to unify, innovate and invest in the game for the benefit of players, fans and sponsors.”
The timing was crucial — 3 p.m. ET on Dec. 31, the day the Framework Agreement between the Tour and the Saudi PIF had settled for a deadline. But despite missing the original goal, Monahan’s pep and clarity made 2024 feel like it was going to be the of reunification in pro golf.
It was not. In fact, it was a pretty jerky roller coaster ride that is best displayed via timeline.
Jan. 31: The PGA Tour established a deal with Strategic Sports Group. The year got off to a flying start! Monahan made good on his pre-2024 memo. The deal, valued at $1.5 billion, with the potential to reach $3 billion, earned the Tour what it called “growth capital” thanks to investment from a number of leading sports industry executives. It valued the Tour at $12.3 billion and was dubbed ‘sports history’ by making Tour loyalists equity owners in PGA Tour Enterprises.
Jan. 31: During a press conference at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Jordan Spieth was asked if the Tour needed an investment with the Saudi PIF now that they’d established one with SSG. “I don’t think it’s needed,” Spieth said, adding that a positive element of a Saudi investment would be reunification of the sport. But was it necessary? Spieth made clear that he didn’t think so, and that ruffled the feathers of Rory McIlroy in particular.
Feb. 14: Tiger Woods spoke on the potential investment for the first time in months, saying, “Ultimately, we would like to have PIF be a part of our Tour and a part of our product.”
March 12: During his annual state of the Tour press conference, Monahan stated that the negotiations were “accelerating,” having recently met with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi PIF. “While we have several key issues that we still need to work through, we have a shared vision to quiet the noise and unlock golf’s worldwide potential.” Monahan also noted he did not intend to “negotiate in public,” keeping his details extremely limited.
March 18: All six player-directors of the PGA Tour policy board descend upon the Bahamas, where they meet and greet for the first time with Al-Rumayyan. Tiger Woods was among them, playing golf with Al-Rumayyan. Also making the trip were Spieth, Peter Malnati, Webb Simpson, Adam Scott and Patrick Cantlay, as well as Monahan, SSG members and player liaison Joe Ogilvie. “I still certainly think a path forward for professional golf makes more sense with [Al-Rumayyan] on our side than him as an antagonist,” Malnati told reporters later that week.
April 24: 193 Tour members received an email clarifying they would earn an equity grant from the PGA Tour, making them part owners in the Tour product. A total of $930 million was earmarked for grants to be dished out to impactful and successful players from the past, present and future of the Tour.
Early May: The PGA Tour policy board created numerous subcommittees, one of which — the Transaction subcommittee — would focus on negotiations with the PIF. Woods, Scott and McIlroy were named to the Transaction committee, despite McIlroy not being a policy board member himself.
May 13: Jimmy Dunne, a member of the PGA Tour policy board, who originally helped broker engagement between the warring sides, resigns from his post, citing “no meaningful progress.” Dunne called his role “utterly superfluous” in his resignation letter and stated that he had zero involvement with PIF negotiations since June 2023. McIlroy called Dunne’s resignation “a huge loss for the PGA Tour” while Woods labeled it “a bit surprising.”
May 19: While Xander Schauffele was putting the final touches on his PGA Championship victory, Mark Flaherty, another independent director of the PGA Tour policy board, resigned from his post.
May 21: The New York Times reported that the PGA Tour and Saudi PIF exchanged term sheets, evidence that negotiations were still alive and progressing.
Aug. 28: During his annual Tour Championship press conference, Monahan noted regular correspondence with the PIF, but said there was no deadline to reach an agreement. “I don’t think we want to restrict ourselves in that way,” he said. “We want to achieve the best and right outcome at the right time.”
Aug. 29: After his first round of the Tour Championship, a frustrated Rory McIlroy put his thoughts out there. “I think if it doesn’t happen soon, then honestly, I think PIF and the Saudis are going to have to look at alternative options, right?” McIlroy said. “I think that’s probably the — I’d say that’s the next step in all this if something doesn’t get done.”
Early October: Jay Monahan and Yasir Al-Rumayyan play together in a round of great public interest at the Dunhill Links Championship in St. Andrews. While it was indicative of a relationship between the sides, there wasn’t much time for deal-making. Billy Horschel, who was Monahan’s teammate, said, “[Negotiations] may not move as quickly as people want. There’s a lot of complicated things to figure out and there’s a lot of things behind the scenes that the public just don’t understand; that they can’t comment on.”
Oct. 7: Speaking with The Scotsman, McIlroy alluded to a lengthy transition period. “I think all tours are going to keep trucking along and doing their own thing for the foreseeable future and I think the best thing we can maybe hope for is a bit of crossover between them,” he said. “Then maybe while that is happening over that period of time, whether it be one year, two years, three years, just trying to figure out the rest.”
Tired yet?
You’re allowed to be. It’s been a long year. And that didn’t even include Monahan’s visit to Saudi Arabia at the end of October as part of the annual Future Investment Initiative conference. It also didn’t include the recent Bloomberg report that a deal is coming soon.
If you follow each step of that timeline above, there’s been a whole lot being said about the negotiations with very little felt as a result of them. Some of that is due to their private, complicated nature. Other parts are due to the Biden administration’s crackdown on illegal mergers via the Department of Justice. If we’ve actually learned anything absolute about what the future holds on a potential merger, it’s that the DOJ will need to approve it, which is only recently more interesting as a new president will take office in 30 days, meaning the Justice Department could feel completely different on the prospects of pro golf coming back together.
What does that mean for golf fans? The wait continues. 2024 was not the year of reunification. 2025 might be, but we’ll have to wait and see.
