Saudi-backed LIV Golf announced it’s merging with the stalwart Professional Golfers Association, ending two years of legal wrangling and protests against the upstart league and likely cutting off a stream of funds for embattled former president Donald Trump, whose family has been given billions of dollars from the Saudis since he lost the 2020 election.
ESPN reports that the deal also includes a third organization, DP World Tour, with the three groups entering into a partnership to merge “golf-related commercial businesses and rights” after the current season into one organization. Three LIV events are scheduled for Trump properties this year which will put millions of dollars of Saudi money into the pocket of an announced 2024 Republican presidential nominee after the Saudis gave Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner $2 billion for a start-up investment fund; Kushner has never run an investment fund. The Saudi foreign influence on the Trump family is unsurprisingly overlooked by GOP critics slandering Biden family members for conducting legitimate business overseas.
“After two years of disruption and distraction, this is a historic day for the game we all know and love,” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said in a statement. “This transformational partnership recognizes the immeasurable strength of the PGA Tour’s history, legacy and pro-competitive model and combines with it the DP World Tour and LIV — including the team golf concept — to create an organization that will benefit golf’s players, commercial and charitable partners and fans.”