Uncertainty and controversy over a ability merger with LIV golfing’s Saudi backers loom over the USA PGA excursion as its 2024 season tees off Thursday in Hawaii.
The PGA’s match of champions, now dubbed The Sentry, once more will be played at Kapalua, this time in aid of wildfire-devastated host Maui following last August’s tragedy.
A discipline of 59 will compete in the $20 million opener with four-time main winner Rory McIlroy the simplest certified player skipping the event to start his 2024 campaign later.
even as the PGA tour returns to a calendar-year format, the effect of closing June’s shock assertion of a framework merger deal with the Saudi Public funding Fund (PIF) and DP world tour lingers over the series.
Reigning Masters champion Jon Rahm of Spain, who won closing year’s Kapalua crown, will no longer defend his identify, having jumped to LIV final month for wealthy monetary ensures.
That alerts the upstart series can drain top PGA talent ahead of LIV’s season openers next month at Mayakoba in Mexico and Las Vegas all through first-rate Bowl week there.
Negotiations between PGA and PIF officers have long gone past an unique December 2023 cut-off date and nevertheless no info have emerged approximately plans for what a unified PGA-LIV structure would characteristic while the competitors plan separate 2024 seasons.
PGA tour commissioner Jay Monahan, criticized by many players for maintaining information of LIV merger talks secret, said in a memo to gamers on Sunday that LIV talks had been “energetic and productive” and the PGA became operating to extend talks into 2024.
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3 of the past 5 principal winners are actually with LIV golf — Rahm, 2023 PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka and 2022 British Open winner Cameron Smith — despite the fact that its lack of global rating points method fewer LIV golfers qualify for majors.
For now, the simplest occasions wherein LIV and PGA rivals will compete are the majors, which this 12 months characteristic the Masters on April eleven-14 at Augusta national, the PGA Championship at Valhalla on can also 16-19, the us Open at Pinehurst on June thirteen-16 and the British Open at Royal Troon on July 18-21.
Tiger Woods, a fifteen-time important winner and member of the tour coverage Board that need to approve any LIV deal, stated closing month he was “thrilled at the manner and how it has developed” in PIF talks however pissed off with the aid of its slowness.
asked how a merged PGA-LIV series might work, Woods stated, “the solution is murky,” bringing up a big quantity of possibilities and attempting to find what works excellent for gamers.
“i’m confident a deal will get accomplished in a few way,” Woods said. “we are working together. we’re seeking to get a deal performed for the excursion and for all events concerned.”
until then, the PGA tour’s revamped 2024 agenda includes 8 “signature” tournaments, beginning this week, in a 36-event lineup finishing with 70 players qualifying for the FedEx Cup playoffs that finish September 1.
other signature events, with limited fields and higher prize cash, include Pebble beach, Riviera, Bay Hill, the background a week after the Masters, Quail hole and the Memorial event and travelers Championship in the weeks before and after america Open.
