PGA Tour announces shock reconciliation with Saudi-backed breakaway LIV Golf

The US-based PGA Tour is set to partner with the Saudi-backed breakaway LIV Golf, ending a feud that has dogged the men's professional game for the past year.

The PGA Tour made the shock announcement on Tuesday, saying a new partnership with LIV and the DP World Tour would "unify the game of golf."

"The parties have signed an agreement that combines PIF's golf-related commercial businesses and rights (including LIV Golf) with the commercial businesses and rights of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour into a new, collectively owned, for-profit entity," the statement read.

A spokesperson for the PGA Tour told CNN that the new relationship between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour (formerly known as the European Tour) and LIV Golf is not a merger, but "a partnership/creation of a new commercial entity."

The LIV Golf series, backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), officially launched in June 2022, with participating players subsequently barred from competing in PGA Tour events. The PIF is a sovereign wealth fund chaired by Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, known by his initials MBS.

Bin Salman is the man a US intelligence report names as responsible for approving the operation that led to the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Bin Salman has denied involvement in Khashoggi's killing.

According to the US State Department, the Kingdom's dismal human rights record includes free speech restrictions, torture, political prisoners and enforced disappearances.