LIV Golf Taking Its Pursuit Of Hideki Matsuyama Public Proves Making Amends Isn't In The Saudi Playbook

When PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan sat next to Saudi Public Investment Fund governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan on June 6, 2023, and the two announced a framework agreement there was a sense of hope that the rapid division we were witnessing in professional golf would slow down. We now know that hope was false.

Nine months have passed since the framework agreement was announced and the PGA Tour, Saudi PIF, and LIV Golf have only grown further apart. If you are someone who is still under the impression that a coming together of sorts is coming in the near future, I applaud you for being an optimist. But at the same time, you're refusing to pay attention to reality.

The PGA Tour has accomplished three things since June 6. It has struck a $3 billion deal with American investors, pissed off the Saudis in the process, and lost one of the game's biggest global stars in Jon Rahm as a result.

LIV Golf, which has the benefit of not having to worry about investors or running out of funds, has only strengthened its roster of players in the same time frame. 

The Saudi-backed circuit has always been confident as an entity that could take down the Tour.  We've now reached the point where LIV is publicly calling out its next target it plans to persuade with a blank check. It's simply been assumed that LIV has tried to sign every big-name professional golfer in the world over the past couple of years, but LIV CEO Greg Norman's recent admission that Hideki Matsuyama is the player the league is currently gunning after is a new strategy.

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Speaking with Australian Golf Digest, Norman dropped the subtle note about trying to get the former Masters champ to join LIV Golf.

"We’ve been trying to get Hideki Matsuyama. I don’t mind admitting that," Norman said. "When Hideki won in L.A., what’s the first thing I did? I said, ‘Congratulations, Hideki. I’m proud of you, mate.’"

LIV Golf's Objective To Take Down The PGA Tour Hasn't Changed

Maybe the golf world as a whole is numb to this by now with LIV already acquiring the likes of Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Cam Smith, and Rahm.  LIV's pursuit of another superstar player needs to be seen as a reminder of what the breakaway circuit's main objective is, and that is to become the top golf tour in the world.

The only way LIV can become that is to take down the PGA Tour. 

The PGA Tour continuing to say that it is in discussions about a possible merger with the Saudi PIF seems to be this odd distraction that the league the Saudis are already funding is still out to make the Tour a lesser product.

There is also the fact that the dynamic in play here is incredibly strange. 

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If Matsuyama wakes up tomorrow and decides to sign with LIV Golf for some nine-figure check, the Tour can't do anything about it. On the flip side of that, the only way the Tour can keep a hold of other players LIV may have its eye on is to get in bed with the Saudis who are bankrolling these players to leave the Tour in the first place.

You can have a negative opinion about LIV Golf, you can laugh at their ratings and their format, but what is inarguable at this point is that the Saudis are very much in control of this game.

The Tour may have bought itself some time to reassess with its $3 billion influx from American investors, but the Saudis and LIV Golf are very clearly not planning on slowing things down.