President Donald Trump expressed his aspirations for golf harmony while aboard Air Force One en route to Florida on Thursday.
Back in February, Trump invited representatives from both factions to the White House, demonstrating a keen interest in resolving the divide between the PGA Tour and Liv Golf, a breakaway league supported by the Saudi public investment fund.
Efforts to unify the sport have persisted for over a year, but the timeline for these negotiations remains unclear.
“I aspire for both tours to combine in the end. That’d be beneficial. I’m also involved in that.” Trump stated to reporters while on his way to a LIV golf tournament. “Ideally, we will merge the two tours. We have a PGA Tour as well as a LIV Tour. I believe merging them is excellent.”
The president was set to dine with LIV golfers in advance of the first major event on the tour occurring at Trump National Doral Golf Club this weekend.
The LIV golf tournament is scheduled to start on Friday and last until Thursday.
Trump conveyed his desire for both sides to find common ground, according to The Guardian. Recently, the PGA Tour rejected a $1.5 billion funding proposal from PIF, which included two significant concessions from the tour.
One proposal would allow the Liv Golf circuit to persist, while the other would involve co-chairing Yasir Al-Rumayyan, PIF Governor of PGA Tour Enterprises, which is a commercial entity established in 2023.
This investment offer would match the same dollar amount proposed by Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of professional sports franchise owners, inclusive of Mets owner Steve Cohen.
This offer is reported to have been the first interaction between the two sides since the White House gathering in February.
