Adam Scott expects at least some PGA Tour members to be upset if some sort of reunification of the sport happens in the near future.
Scott, who is the Tour’s Player Advisory Council chairman and joined commissioner Jay Monahan at the White House earlier this month to discuss negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and LIV Golf, said this week that he gets why some would be frustrated to suddenly see LIV Golf members playing on Tour again.
After all, in the early days of the startup league, there was plenty of fighting when some of the biggest names in the sport left and received incredibly large paychecks to do so.
“I wouldn’t be surprised — or I wouldn’t judge anyone, the members — if reunification happened and they weren’t happy with how it happened,” Scott said, via The Associated Press’ Doug Ferguson. “I hope they’re not spending as much time talking about it as I have.
“I wouldn’t hold it against anybody if there were negative emotions attached to it, the thought of players coming back.”
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Scott’s comments were very different from the ones Rory McIlroy made ahead of the Genesis Invitational last week. McIlroy, who was initially one the harshest critic of LIV Golf, thinks people need to just “get over it.”
“If people are butt hurt or have their feelings hurt because guys went [to LIV] or whatever, like who cares?” McIlroy said. “Let’s move forward together and let’s just try to get this thing going again and do what’s best for the game.”
Reunification isn’t ‘solely the Tour’s decision’
The Tour and the PIF have been negotiating the terms of the partnership since Monahan made his stunning merger announcement in June 2023. That followed years of a heated battle between the two leagues, though no deal has been finalized. Monahan and Scott met with President Donald Trump about the negotiations earlier this month, and another meeting is expected to happen soon. Monahan said after that meeting that “everything is moving forward with pace.”
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One of the priorities in the negotiations, Monahan has said, is reunification and what that would look like. Many golfers had their respective Tour cards revoked, faced suspensions and fines and more after making the jump to LIV Golf initially, so it’s not as simple as just welcoming them back with open arms.
“It’s not solely the Tour’s decision, you know what I mean?” Scott said about reunification, which he described as “one way forward” for the partnership.
“There’s two people in this discussion, more to be honest — the DP World Tour, a lot of other stakeholders in the pro game. The Tour and its representatives talk a lot about it. But we’re not in control of the entire situation. There’s another side to the story. It’s not been an easy thing to solve, otherwise we’d have solved it, I believe.”
When a deal gets struck, or if it does at all, still remains to be seen. While things feel closer than ever, the two sides have already flown past their initial deadline to get a deal in place. Both the Tour and LIV Golf have already started their 2025 seasons separately, too.
Once things finally settle down and the golf world comes back together, whatever that looks like, Scott is well aware that not everyone is going to be happy.
“There aren’t easy answers to any of this stuff. Everyone is entitled to feel something about what’s happened,” Scott said.
“The one thing I do know is we’re not going to please everyone, but everyone should know that I will stand behind these player directors. They’re trying to do the best thing for the entire membership. They’ve been faced with some tough decisions the last two years — tough calls, big consequences — for whatever we vote on.”
