Liverpool FC owner to partner PGA as golf split widens

Strategic Sports Group, a consortium led by FSG, was the unanimous choice for the new PGA Tour enterprises organization, according to reports over the weekend.Professional golf is supposedly heading towards a merger of the established PGA and European tours with the breakaway LIV Golf, funded by the Saudi Public Investment Fund.

A deadline of 31 December was set for the merger talks to be concluded but golf experts say that timeline is looking increasingly shaky with both groups now arranging deals to get themselves in the strongest negotiating position or even to go it alone.

Last week, LIV pulled off a major coup by signing the PGA’s top player and Masters Champion, Spaniard Jon Rahm, in a deal said to be worth US$500 million to the player. Commentators said the fact that LIV could and did attract Rahm was a clear declaration of intent.

To bolster its firepower, the PGA is pulling in a consortium of some of the US hedge fund industry’s most serious sports investors. FSG’s consortium includes backers of teams in American football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey as well as its Liverpool interest.

The members that make up

Four of the Strategic Sports Group are heavily involved in the indoor league set up by Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods, two of the most vocal opponents of LIV Golf. Speculation now though has turned to the possibility of other PGA players defecting and joining Rahm, especially as LIV is organised on a team basis with the Spaniard to be captain of one.