LIV Golf suffers setback with Asian Tour joining new alliance with European and PGA tours

LIV Golf suffered a potential setback Tuesday when the PGA Tour, European tour and Asian Tour announced a strategic alliance aimed at global collaboration that is likely to affect the partnership the Asian Tour had with LIV.

In an alliance that takes immediate effect through 2029, the PGA Tour and European tour will partner with the Asian Tour to help provide commercial and playing opportunities and establish a path for Asian Tour members to join European circuits.

The PGA Tour and DP World Tour -- as it is known commercially -- have a separate alliance that has yet to be renewed, which includes 10 top European tour players earning PGA Tour cards. Officials from both tours met at the British Open. The alliance with the Asian Tour, along with the PGA Tour's involvement with the Australian Open, is seen as progress on a new deal.

The announcement was a blow to LIV Golf, which has had a relationship with the Asian Tour since before the rival league launched in 2022.

LIV invested $300 million in the Asian Tour to create the “International Series” with purses of up to $2 million. They have been won by LIV players such as Peter Uihlein, Carlos Ortiz and David Puig.

The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, the financial muscle behind LIV Golf, has said it will no longer fund the league after this season. Scott O’Neil, the CEO of LIV Golf, has been trying to find investors to keep the league alive for 2027 and beyond.

The European tour had an alliance with the Asian Tour from 2016 until 2021. It stopped co-sanctioning Asian Tour events in 2022.

Now that’s back in play under the alliance that is expected to have at least two co-sanctioned Asian Tour events each of the next three years. Other details, such as Asian Tour players having access to European and Challenge Tour events, are still being worked out.

“We feel the time is now right to collaborate with the DP World Tour and PGA Tour to enhance the Asian Tour for our members, fans and partners,” said Cho Minn Thant, commissioner and CEO of the Asian Tour. “Bringing the three tours together under one partnership will increase the bandwidth of the professional game in Asia.

“Not only will co-sanctioning events see our members competing regularly on the global stage, but we are excited to welcome players from the other Tours to our pinnacle events.”

The announcement comes one day after reports that Canadian-based Mobii Systems Group has sued LIV Golf in U.S. District Court in Miami, alleging LIV has not paid $925,100 in fees to the company that supplies the league’s “Any Shot, Any Time” technology during the LIV broadcasts.

Mobii Systems also claims $209,531 in lost revenue for the remaining six events in 2026.

ESPN reported that Nick Connor, LIV Golf’s senior vice president of technology, wrote in a May 25 email to Mobii Systems that LIV would no longer use the technology after the South Korea event that ended May 31 or the remaining events on the schedule as it evaluates its business model.

The PGA Tour recently announced a commercial partnership with the European tour involving the Australian Open as golf makes a push to recognize more national opens. The Masters this year added to its invitation criteria the winners of six national opens.

Christian Hardy, the senior vice president of international for the PGA Tour, said the three-tour alliance was an example of collaboration by tours “with a shared vision for the future of professional golf.”

“Through our strategic alliance with the DP World Tour, we have worked to build a more connected global golf ecosystem, and we are excited to welcome the Asian Tour into that effort,” Hardy said. “Together, we are creating new opportunities for players, enhancing key national opens around the world and continuing to evolve and strengthen pathways to identify and develop the next generation of elite talent.”

___

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf