Breaking News: The Biggest Sports Merger in the History of Sports Just Happened on a Casual Tuesday Morning

Over the last two years, the upstart, Saudi-backed, completely unlimited in funding, not based in any sort of reality performance or money wise LIV Golf Tour (nobody still has any idea what LIV stands for, I'm very much convinced) and old school, business as usual, too big for their britches PGA (Professional Golfer's Association) have been at complete odds about what the future golf landscape will look like.

At the beginning of 2021, the world began to hear rumblings of this new league planning to form, and with the backing of massive oil money, outrageous cash guarantees, less commitment, and the leadership of one of the most aggrieved athletes in the history of athletics in Greg Norman, it was next to impossible for many of the top golfers in the world to turn down 9 (NINE) figure deals, and make what many would call a Faustian Bargain with a new league, playing in tournaments with no history, and funded by a part of the world that has no history of golf to my knowledge. Phil Mickelson was the first big name on board, then Brooks Koepka, then the dominoes began to fall, with LIV signing some of the biggest names in the sport, and offering those who did not make the deal outrageous offers as well (Tiger reportedly $700+ million).

I was back in Boston for the '22 US Open at the Country Club in Brookline, and this was all the buzz. It was a weird feel having golfers who were in different leagues competing on the same course, and credit to the 2013 US Amateur winner Matt Fitzpatrick getting it done in his first major that week. But that's beyond the point... the tension has been there since, and the PGA (the entrenched goliath that deemed itself too big to fail) was on its heels from the get go. In the short time span of LIVs solo existence, its players were not permitted to play in normal PGA events outside of the majors, though I believe the Masters, British, and US Open are not technically sanctioned PGA events (may need a fact check there). Seemed like LIV was on the up and up, as they were playing the the 'Dollar Shave Club' direct to consumer model that was completely rocking the established pups like Unilever and Procter and Gamble, but while they had an incredible roster of players, unlimited funding, and a compelling message, the main issue was that nobody was watching their tournaments. They struggled significantly to develop and maintain any semblance of a broadcasting contract, and couldn't sniff a deal with any of the Big 3 in Disney, CBS, or NBC. They were relegated to the CW, and getting less ratings than reruns of the Gilmore Girls, or whatever the hell plays on that network on Sunday afternoons.

So what did the two orgs do? PGA heads undoubtedly kept leading the negotiations with the weakness of LIVs ratings and lack of history, but must have realized that they were going against an essentially blank checkbook that made up their mind they weren't going anywhere. At the end of the day, this has to be considered a massive win for the upstart LIV, and this constitutes the first major sports league coming in and disrupting the normal flow of professional sport in my lifetime easily, and most influential since the USFL-NFL merger in the 80s or ABA-NBA merger in 70s.

SO many questions come out of this though: LIV teams that they built, how will they incorporate into the product going forward? What about future LIV tournaments, will 3-day tournaments still be a thing? How will the LIV golfers now get incorporated back into the normal PGA tour flow? How pissed must every top golfer (Rory, Tiger, Rahm, Scheffler, et. al) be at the fact they just got burned out of hundreds of millions AND now have to suit up against the DJs, Koepkas, and Mickelson's of the world as soon as this weekend? How will history look on those names, as sellouts or trendsetters?

To put a feather in their cap, the LIV guys also get to say they had the last major champion in their stable pre-merger as well... at the PGA Championship no less last month. That's something tough to come back from... no doubt there will still be some animosity and hard feelings in the near term, and likely long term.

US Open can't get here soon enough! The PR from the PGA here is going to be FASCINATING. All that 9/11 talk and guilting, now they have to pretend like people will forget? That will be some damn good television.

P.S. DevNest Ezy, can we not put gifs into our blogs?! What is happening here? Got an electric one of Phil Mickelson dancing and I can't embed... SAD!