PGA Tour, LIV and the 720 billion dollar question - what now for crazy world of golf after jaw-dropping twist in tale?

Even allowing for the last year having easily marked the most crazy spell in golf’s long and rich history, the past week has been off the charts. Blink these days and you are likely to miss something and, most of the time, something big.

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, chief of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and now set to become chairman of a powerful new entity in golf, is pictured with Dustin Johnson and DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley during the 2019 Saudi International at the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City. Picture: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images.

What was once, for the most part anyway, a fairly quiet and peaceful environment has become anything but and the most recent development, which was a real twist in the tale, has merely added fuel to the fire.

The agenda over the past 12 months, of course, has been dominated by LIV Golf, the breakaway circuit funded by Saudi Arabia and fronted by Greg Norman that held its inaugural event on UK soil exactly a year ago.

Having lured the likes of Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith with huge cheques, a foothold has certainly been secured but obstacles were still in its way, notably a fight to try and secure Official World Golf Ranking points for its events.

‘Will LIV Golf have a long-term future’ has been a question posed by many to this correspondent since its arrival on the scene and my answer was constantly along the lines of ‘probably but always as rival to the PGA Tour and DP World Tour’.

Well, along with just about everyone else, talk about being blind-sided because LIV Golf is now about to come under the same umbrella as the two traditional tours and, even a few days on from that being announced, it is still hard to believe.

Without even the prominent members of both circuits knowing, a deal has been brokered with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and, according to one of the men at the heart of it, we are talking about a mouth-watering sum of money set to be pumped into the game. “They have a $720 billion fund,” said Jimmy Dunne, a PGA Tour board member, of the cash in the PIF purse in an interview with Sports Illustrated.

How some of that money will be used to change the landscape of the game at the top level over the next decade and beyond has still to be discussed. The PGA Tour had already shaken up its schedule following LIV Golf’s launch by introducing ‘elevated’ events this season and, in a further overhaul, the term for those will become ‘designated’ events in 2024.

Rory McIlroy, for one, is hoping the future doesn’t involve LIV Golf in any form. “I still hate LIV,” he declared in response to the astonishing U-turn by Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour’s commissioner, that has created one of the biggest storylines across the whole sporting world in 2023. “Like, I hate LIV. Like, I hope it goes away. And I would fully expect that it does.”

Not so, according to Norman. “The spigot is now wide open for commercial sponsorships, blue-chip companies, TV networks,” said the former world No 1, also speaking to Sports Illustrated in the wake of the announcement, which he’d only been made aware of just before it was made public. “LIV is and will continue to be a standalone enterprise. Our business model will not change. We changed history and we’re not going anywhere.”

Ultimately, that call will not be made by Norman. It will fall to Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the PIF chief, who, in his role as chairman of a new entity involving the Saudi wealth fund, the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, is going to become one of the most influential figures in the Royal & Ancient game.

“It’s the start of many good things that will happen in Saudi, not only in golf,” Al-Rumayyan told this correspondent on the eve of the inaugural Saudi International at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City in 2019 and his personal profile has certainly risen quite spectacularly in just over four years.

The Saudis, of course, were initially brought to the table by the DP World Tour through the aforementioned Saudi International. That relationship then turned sour after the DP World Tour, having held talks about a potential mega-deal with the PIF, entered into a Strategic Alliance with the PGA Tour. Yet, right out of the blue, they are happy to sit around the same table again with Al-Rumayyan.

“The divisiveness is now over and two years of disruption and distractions,” insisted Keith Pelley, the DP World Tour CEO. “Now we can concentrate on building our respective tours, and we are building it with PIF, which is clearly committed to the game. His Excellency (Al-Rumayyan) has an unwavering love and passion and commitment to the game.

“The PGA Tour have proven to be great partners of ours and now, to work with both of them, I think presents a tremendous opportunity. I am thrilled. I'm excited. I'm energized. As is my executive leadership team.”

Teams, of course, are a big part of the LIV Golf product and the Saudis also back the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour. The jury is still out, though, in respect of whether that element is actually generating added interest in the game and we’ll also have to wait and see if a totally new concept has any impact.

Being launched in January by a company owned by McIlroy and Tiger Woods, TGL will be a ‘tech-infused’ competition on a Monday, with its first team - Los Angeles Golf Club - having just been sold to a group led by the Williams sisters, Serena and Venus. “It’s an entertainment product - a more made-for-TV type of deal,” said McIlroy of that.

Yes, change can be good, especially in a sport that was regarded by many as being ‘boring’ in the past. But, make no mistake, change has led to the game being badly damaged over the past year and, consequently, its image. And more money being tossed around, sadly, isn’t going to repair that on its own. Golf is far from being back to normal again, certainly not in the short term.