PGA Tour fans blast LIV Golf merger, call for boycott: ‘What a disgrace’

PGA Tour fans blast LIV Golf merger, call for boycott: ‘What a disgrace’

Golf Twitter is raging over the bombshell PGA Tour-LIV Golf merger.

After news of the merger, which also includes the European DP World Tour, some fans are calling for a PGA boycott, with others blasting the PGA Tour for walking back its original stance in banning players that defected to the Saudi-funded LIV Golf league.

“Imagine turning down 100 million from LIV and your own tour ends up burying you. What a disgrace,” ex-NHLer Ryan Whitney wrote on Twitter.

Another added, “Lots of folks need to boycott PGA now, let’s see if they follow through with it.”

Taking to Twitter, ESPN host Scott Van Pelt quoted rapper Nino Brown’s famous line: “Always business, never personal.”

“So, you preach loyalty to a tour and convince guys not to take 8 and 9 figure deals based, in part, on that loyalty and, in part, on the source of the money,” Van Pelt wrote.

“Then those guys find out on Twitter YOU took the very same money?”







Other tweets mentioned Rory McIIroy’s silence after the PGA Tour announced the unprecedented merger.

“I’m sure Rory [McIlroy] is pleased with the Tour rolling him out week after week to fight its battle so that, in the end, Phil [Mickelson] Brooks [Koepka], Bryson [DeChambeau] and DJ [Dustin Johnson] could walk away with $500M and reunification with the league he defended,” CBS Sports’ Kyle Porter wrote — referring to McIIroy’s efforts for the PGA Tour and LIV Golf league to reach a compromise for the sake of the sport.



“The PGA Tour convinced many of its players that taking Saudi money from LIV Golf was immoral,” investor Joe Pompliano wrote.

“But now the PGA Tour is merging with LIV, creating a new entity with Saudi’s sovereign wealth fund as the only outside investor. The players that turned down the money must be PISSED.”



Some PGA Tour players also took to Twitter with puzzled reactions to the merger.

“I love finding out morning news on Twitter,” two-time major champion Collin Morikawa wrote on the social media platform.

“You and me both,” Scott Stallings replied to Morikawa.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan reportedly failed to warn players of the merger before it was announced.


Jay Monahan the Commissioner of The PGA Tour speaks to the media as a preview for THE PLAYERS Championship on THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 7, 2023 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
Jay Monahan the Commissioner of The PGA Tour speaks to the media as a preview for THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass on March 7, 2023 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Getty Images

Prior to the merger, Monahan made it known where he stood on the subject: that any player who chose to participate in a LIV Golf tournament would be banned from the PGA Tour.

Monahan also preached about PGA Tour players staying loyal throughout the antitrust litigation after the Saudi-backed rebel league lured some of the sport’s top players to LIV last year with nine-figure contracts — including Koepka, Johnson, Mickelson and Sergio Garcia.


Greg Norman Commissioner and CEO of LIV Golf speaks during the press conference with Cameron Smith captain of the Ripper GC and SA Premier Peter Malinauskas ahead of Liv Golf Adelaide at The Grange Golf Club on April 20, 2023 in Adelaide, Australia.
Greg Norman Commissioner and CEO of LIV Golf speaks during the press conference ahead of Liv Golf Adelaide at The Grange Golf Club on April 20, 2023 in Adelaide, Australia. Getty Images

All parties will reportedly work on the potential for LIV players to reapply for memberships with the PGA and DP Tours after this year.

The PGA Tour said the Saudi Public Investment Fund “will make a capital investment” into the new supertour.