“It takes two to tango. So if one party is willing and ready and the other isn’t, it sort of makes it tough,” said Rory McIlroy addressing the current merger situation. If he was trying to be cryptic, he failed miserably. What the Northern Irish golfer is trying to say is that the deal is currently in limbo because of the hangup from the other side, i.e. LIV Golf side. And it does seem to be a popular opinion.
Addressing the global golf media, ahead of his title defense at the Masters, Scottie Scheffler made it clear that he feels that there should be more of an effort from the players on the LIV side to bring about a change. Scheffler was very candid when speaking about the LIV players who had forsaken the PGA Tour.
He still feels that they include some of the best players in the world and would love to compete with them again. “I definitely miss the competition. They got some pretty good players on their tour. I still think the PGA Tour has by far the best players in the world. The depth of our fields and the competition that we have is still hands down the best competition that there is in the game of golf. That’s why I’m still playing on the Tour,” he said.
The likes of Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Sergio Garcia, and Bubba Watson have fourteen major victories amongst themselves. This excludes the well-celebrated Phil Mickelson with 6 major wins. So LIV is clearly not short of talent. However, the competition format and the way each event plays out is more enticing on the PGA Tour, at least for Scottie Scheffler.
He stated, “I love the competition. I wish some of those guys had stayed, but at the end of the day, they made their choice. They knew the consequences of that decision, and I’m not here to change their minds. I hold no ill will toward any of those guys that left.” While Scheffler does not hold any ill will, he undoubtedly feels that to get back together, the majority of the decision of reunification stays with the golfers who left.
“They did what they wanted to do, and I can’t control their life. I’m not going to sit here and say they should have done something differently. They made their choice. If we want to figure out why the game of golf is not back together, go ask those guys. Go to wherever they are playing this week and figure out when the game is going to come back together,” the two-time major winner added.
#GO ASK THOSE GUYS — On a pre-Masters media conference call, defending champion Scottie Scheffler tee’d off on LIV golfers, blaming them for the current divide in the game: “They did what they wanted to do, and I can’t control their life. I’m not going to sit here and say… pic.twitter.com/h5iD03ezi4
— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) March 19, 2025
The reunification has been in discussion for a long time. A potential PGA Tour-PIF deal came on the ideation block in June 2023, but the deal has still to an end. There have been many discussions, some of which even included the President of the United States Donald Trump, but an agreeable deal is yet to happen.
The potential PGA-PIF Deal and the stumbling blocks
Adam Scott, the player-director of the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council was very open speaking about the challenges of the new deal. “I think the biggest hangup is in how we see the highest level of competitive golf going forward. The product of LIV and the product of the PGA Tour work in very different ways. So I think the challenge is figuring out how that can come together and be really reunification, which is kind of what everyone is shooting for.”
LIV CEO Scott O’Neill had made the difference clear. According to the new head of the Saudi-backed tour, the product at LIV is more in tune with something like Formula 1. The services they provide and the kind of locations they travel to are along similar lines and the underlying concept is way different from what the PGA Tour is. Scott seems to agree and think along similar lines.
This is what is potentially acting as an obstacle to the completion of the deal. “I think it is part of the stumbling block. The Tour’s being very careful and respectful of everyone and wants to give everyone, the golf fans and the media, and the players, the product that they want. But we’re starting from two different sides of this, so I think it’s hard to find the balance that’s acceptable for everybody. And it also may not be ultimately possible,” he added.
Do you also think the LIV golfers are to be blamed for the delay in the merger? Let us know in the comments below.
The post ‘Ask Those Guys’: Scottie Scheffler Blames Bryson DeChambeau & Co. as Professional Golf Remains Divided appeared first on EssentiallySports.