Elite global tour planned for 2025 as part of golf’s peace with PIF
EXCLUSIVE: Elite global golf tour – featuring 18 tournaments across the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Series – is in the works for 2025 as part of extraordinary peace deal with Saudi Arabia’s PIF
- The plans developed after a framework agreement was signed back in June
- The possibility of establishing an umbrella organization, managed by the PGA, is currently under review.
- The amount of money awarded as a prize would experience a substantial rise, reaching approximately £20 million for each occasion.
The world’s top golfers will be invited to play in a unified global tour featuring 18 tournaments as part of golf’s extraordinary peace deal with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
Mail Sport has learned of plans for a united global schedule involving tournaments on the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi-backed LIV Series, developed after a framework agreement was signed in June.
The three primary tours will maintain separate operations in the upcoming year, although it is anticipated that modifications will be implemented by 2025.
Although the framework agreement was light on detail, it is hoped a new calendar backed by around £2billion of Saudi investment will be agreed by the end of the year.
Sources familiar with the discussions have informed Mail Sport that a potential plan under serious consideration involves establishing an umbrella organization, overseen by the PGA, to manage all three tours. Without this arrangement, the tours would likely overlap.
Newcastle chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan is the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund
As many as 12 events are anticipated to take place in the US to recognise the PGA Championship’s pre-eminence
Officials of the PGA, DP World Tour and LIV remain in talks over the unified tour’s schedule (pictured, LIV chief Greg Norman)
Players will have the opportunity to participate in all three tours, unlike the current situation. However, a select group of 18 events, along with the four major tournaments, will be established exclusively for top players, who will receive exclusive invitations.
It is expected that as many as 12 of these events would take place in the United States to recognise the pre-eminence of the PGA Tour, with around three each given to European and LIV events.
Invitations would be determined by world rankings, although some wildcard entrants may also be permitted.
To recognise the status of the top 18 tournaments, prize money would increase significantly to around £20m per event. American investment bank Allen and Co have been engaged to work out the details of the prize fund with the Saudis.
The DP World Tour and LIV will continue operating as they currently do, alongside these events. However, players will have the freedom to switch between them. The significant difference in prize money between the tours will also be greatly reduced.
Officials from the PGA, DP World Tour and LIV remain in talks over the schedule. Any significant changes from the current set-up would require the backing of players, whose influence has grown after Tiger Woods was named as a sixth player-director on the PGA Tour’s policy board last month.
That means golfers now outnumber the board’s independent directors.
