PGA Tour rejects $1.5 billion offer from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, per reports

The two sides continue to have different opinions regarding the future of the professional game

The PGA Tour has rejected a $1.5 billion investment offer from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, the financial backer of LIV Golf, according to multiple reports. Though the sides have long remained in negotiations to consolidate operations, the PGA Tour would not agree to a PIF stipulation that LIV Golf remain active amid potential reunification. The PGA Tour wishes for one active circuit.

Should a deal materialize, PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan would be welcomed as a co-chairman on the PGA Tour Enterprises board of directors; however, it has long been reported that another hiccup in negotiations has been the PIF's insistence on team golf having some place in the professional ecosystem. 

"We appreciate Yasir's innovative vision, and we can see a future where we welcome him on to our board and work together to move the global game forward," PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said at The Players Championship. "As part of our negotiations, we believe there's room to integrate important aspects of LIV Golf into the PGA Tour platform. We're doing everything that we can to bring the two sides together. 

"That said, we will not do so in a way that diminishes the strength of our platform or the very real momentum we have with our fans and our partners. So while we've removed some hurdles, others remain. But like our fans, we still share the same sense of urgency to get to a resolution. Our team is fully committed to reunification. The only deal that we would regret is one that compromises the essence of what makes the game of golf and the PGA Tour so exceptional."

The PGA Tour's rejection comes two months after Monahan, Tiger Woods and Adam Scott traveled to the White House to meet with President Donald Trump and Al-Rumayyan. A four-hour working session took place a few weeks later, though it was not confirmed whether Trump was in attendance for that as well.

"Ultimately, hopefully, the two tours are going to merge. That'll be good. I'm involved in that too," Trump told reporters on Air Force One while traveling to a LIV Golf event at his golf club in Doral, Florida. "But hopefully we're going to get the two tours to merge. You have the PGA Tour and the LIV Tour. And I think having them merge would be a great thing."

It has been nearly two years since the PGA Tour and PIF announced a framework agreement to combine commercial operations under a new for-profit entity. That entity has since been dubbed PGA Tour Enterprises, which last year received a $1.5 billion injection from the Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of U.S. pro sports team owners and investors.

Members of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf will step foot on the same property for the first time all year when the golf world meets at Augusta National Golf Club for the 89th playing of the Masters beginning Monday. It represents one of four times each season the leagues converge on the same location, a number which may not be growing anytime soon.

"If the deal can help grow the game of golf, I'll jump in with two feet," LIV Golf CEO Scott O'Neil said. "Do we have to do a deal? No. It would be nice to do a deal, so long as we're all focused on the same things.

"So, do we have to do a deal or need a deal, whatever word you use, leave that to somebody smarter than me. I will say I love what we're doing, I love our prospects. I love the growth in three months. I know what's coming in the next three months. And I love where we are."