"Highly uncertain" - Eamon Lynch casts doubt on prospects of definitive PGA x LIV merger deal amid negotiations

Journalist Eamon Lynch, golf columnist for Golf Week, published a new article on Friday in which he reinforces his criticism of the PIF/PGA Tour agreement. He considered "highly uncertain" the conclusion of the agreement and made several controversial statements.

According to Lynch, the intended merger between the LIV and PGA tours is highly unlikely to materialize due to a number of factors. To lend weight to his words, he returned to the idea of a supposed "player revolt," which he had already discussed in at least one previous article.

So wrote Eamon Lynch:

"Even if both parties are aligned and negotiating a definitive deal in good faith — a generous grant given that one is proven to prefer bonesaws to brokering — the prospects of it being consummated are highly uncertain."

"A player revolt on the PGA Tour is precariously near," he added, "and likely emboldened by Randall Stephenson’s July 9 resignation as an independent director on the Policy Board."

Lynch stated that the players are concerned about the lack of clarity that has prevailed in the matter, as well as the fact that they have lost confidence in their leadership.

"That was apparent in comments by Tour members who are congenitally serene. Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth were pointed in expressing their impatience with the pace at which members are being informed in what is nominally a member-led organization, while Xander Schauffele only just stopped shy of voting no confidence in Jay Monahan.

"Trust is a precious commodity in commerce," he added "but in the present-day PGA Tour, it’s more scarce than snow in the Sahara. There isn’t much among Policy Board members, most of whom were oblivious that a sleeper cell was negotiating such a consequential deal."

Reality of the deal, according to Eamon Lynch

Eamon Lynch stated in his article that the PGA Tour executives who testified at the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations' Hearing, Ron Price and Jimmy Dunne, gave two reasons as the rationale for the deal with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF):

1. The financial impossibility of sustaining litigation against LIV Golf.
2. The possibility that LIV Golf would continue to take key players off the PGA Tour.

Ron Price and Jimmy Dunne at the Senate Hearing about PGA-LIV Golf Deal (Image via Getty).

Lynch debunked these justifications, saying they "are really assumptions." According to the journalist, the PIF/PGA Tour agreement is nothing more than a "peace accord."

"A more plausible explanation for the Framework Agreement is that both parties were incentivized to end the invasive legal discovery process, so they crafted not a roadmap to a shared future but a patchwork quilt of fig leaves to conceal embarrassing shortcomings.

"It was sufficient (and legally necessary) to end the litigation, and like many peace accords, is intentionally vague so all parties can claim a measure of victory."

Lynch predicted that the vagueness of the framework agreement will soon lead to new problems. He said representatives from both sides have already expressed conflicting effects of the agreement, indicating that much remains to be clarified.