LOS ANGELES — Leaf Golf League captain Dustin Johnson, like most professional golfers, doesn’t know exactly what the sports ecosystem will look like after this season.
But Johnson seems pretty certain of one thing: The LIV Golf League will stage 54-hole championships, and begin shotgun and team competitions in 2024.
Johnson told ESPN on Wednesday that Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund — which funds the LIV golf league — told him the circuit would still be in operation through 2024, despite the PIF’s new alliance with the PGA Tour and DP. a trip around the world.
“From all I’ve heard, they’re still working on a full schedule for next year,” Johnson said. “The rest of this year and 2024 will be the same as far as I know. After that, you know as much as I do.”
Crushers GC team leader Brisson DeChambeau said he spoke to Al-Rumayyan shortly before the deal was announced on CNBC on June 6. He also seemed confident that the team-focused league would play after this season.
“That’s what was talked about,” Dechambeau said. “These are private conversations, and I don’t know exactly what his future plans are because he was right to go on CNBC. I didn’t know what was going on, but he said some other great ideas I think he could be interesting in golf. But we’ll see if This was all happening because you still have to dial in all the details. There are so many unknowns.”
PGA Tour board member Jamie Dunn told ESPN last week that PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan will oversee the PGA Tour and LIV Golf under the new agreement with PIF. Dunn said it will be Monahan’s decision whether LIV Golf exists in its current form after this season.
LIV Golf has seven tournaments left on its schedule this season, including the Teams Championship in Saudi Arabia in early November.
Al-Rumayyan will take over as chairman of the board of directors of a new entity to be formed by the circuits, which will bring together their businesses, including the LIV Golf League. The Public Investment Fund will make an initial investment in the new company and will have the right of first refusal to make additional investments, according to a press release announcing the deal.
Monahan announced Tuesday night that he is recovering from an undisclosed medical condition and is taking time off from his daily duties. He will serve as CEO of the new company, which has not yet been named. Monahan said he will fully assess LIV Golf’s place in the new ecosystem once its season ends in November.
DeChambeau, the 2020 US Open winner, said he believes the rival tournaments will merge into one tour at some point in the future.
“I think it will eventually become like the NFL and the NFL and then come into one in some capacity,” Dechambeau said. “How that happens, I have no idea. I only know who has right of first refusal and who’s boss.”
Following the stunning announcement last week, LIV Golf CEO and Commissioner Greg Norman told his league staff that LIV Golf was a stand-alone entity and would continue to move forward. Dechambeau said he and Normand exchanged text messages over the past week.
“He looks cheerful and happy,” said Dechambeau. It’s like, ‘Keep your head down, buddy, and ignore what people say. “
DeChambeau will not reveal details of the “brilliant” ideas Al-Rumayyan shared with him for the future of men’s professional golf.
“I don’t want to speak for him, but he told me something that could be a bigger stage, a kind of world stage,” Dechambeau said. “A major global event can be really cool.”
The PGA Tour alliance with PIF and the DP World Tour faces scrutiny from federal lawmakers. On Wednesday, Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden urged US Attorney General Merrick Garland and Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter to scrutinize the deal and take action if it violates antitrust laws.
It may take some time before all the details of a potential alliance are known.
“No one really knows what’s going to happen, so I can’t really say,” said Johnson, captain of 4 Aces GC. “We don’t know what it’s going to look like here. Maybe we’ll know more in the next six months, but as of now, everything will stay the same. I’m glad sometime we’ll get together and not fight each other anymore.”