LeafGolf: What does the future hold after Brooks Koepka’s departure?

So what lies behind the PGA Tour’s continued onslaught, and how big of a challenge does the LIV face?

Back in 2022, the PGA Tour called LIV an “existential threat” after its bids for lucrative contracts threatened a civil war between the two organizations.

However, the following year, a framework agreement was announced, ending the threat of litigation and appearing to pave the way for a shock merger.

However, the PGA Tour has since agreed a private equity deal worth around £2.3bn with a group of US investors led by Fenway Sports Group, which owns Liverpool Football Club, with golfers who remain loyal receiving shares in a new for-profit organisation.

The PGA Tour said its deal allowed for co-investment from the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is financing LIV. But although US President Donald Trump – whose courses organize LIV events – then hosted what the PGA Tour called “constructive” talks about “reunifying” golf at the White House, the conversation stalled, and the framework agreement was never ratified.

“Since our conversations at the White House last February, there have always been ways [to] “We’re making our sport unified again,” Tiger Woods, the PGA Tour’s player manager, said this week when asked about the American circuit’s attempt to attract some of its former stars.

“Is it complete consolidation, or some kind of integration? How do we do it, where do we do it? There are different rounds. But this is a first step, and it’s a great step.”

Perhaps taking into account investors’ desire to generate as much interest in their product as possible, and feeling emboldened since their arrival, the PGA Tour’s new approach has proven crucial to Koepka’s return. “I believe in the place [it] “It is led by new leadership, new investors and an equity program that gives players a meaningful ownership stake,” he said.

With some of golf’s major sponsors known for wanting to put an end to the brokenness plaguing the sport, it will be interesting to see if the Europe-based DP World Tour offers a similar olive branch to the likes of Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, both of whom are currently appealing against penalties imposed for playing in LIV events.

It seems that a lot can now depend on the charismatic, hard-hitting DeChambeau, the most followed golf star on social media, who – with another season remaining on his contract with LIV – now finds himself in the strongest bargaining positions.

The American is said to be demanding $500m (£372m) to stay with LIV, and when asked if he might follow Koepka, he simply said: “I’m contracted until 2026, and I’m very excited about this year.”

It doesn’t feel like a long-term commitment. By then, DeChambeau had posted a mysterious photo of himself staring past an “Exit” sign, along with a message asking his followers “What are you going to do?”