'Don't Hold Your Breath' - Paul McGinley Expects Golf's Struggles To Continue With Unification Deal Potentially 'A Few More Years' Away

Depending on who you ask in the world of golf, a unification deal involving the PGA Tour and LIV Golf's backers - the Saudi Arabian PIF - could be anywhere between 'impending' and 'never going to happen' in terms of timescale.

In Paul McGinley's mind, at least, those hoping to see all of the world's best male players competing against each other more than four times a year will probably have to wait at least a few more years yet.

A recent meeting in The Bahamas between PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, the six player directors on the PGA Tour board, and PIF chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan relating to the future of the men's pro game was claimed to have been "constructive."

Yet, since the shock June 6 agreement around 10 months ago, it could be argued that the only notable move by either party has been a selfish one. The PGA Tour welcomed the Strategic Sports Group as part of a $3 billion investment while LIV successfully reeled in a basket of big fish from their rival tour.

As a result of the in-fighting at the top of the men's game, fans are quite literally turning off when it comes to golf. Recent statistics involving the PGA Tour have seen significant drops in viewership throughout the US-based circuit's 2024 events.

Speaking to RTÉ Sport's Greg Allen on Radio 1's Saturday Sport, McGinley is greatly concerned for golf's immediate future and does not believe a resolution is close to being found.

Asked if a deal between the PGA Tour and PIF is on the horizon, McGinley said: "Don't hold your breath. I think both parties are still wide away from each other in terms of where the common ground is.

"There's a lot of resolve on the PGA Tour side to say, 'we're OK, we've got this investment in from the Strategic Sports Group, let's batten down the hatches and go'.

"And LIV are the same: 'If you're doing that, well we'll batten down the hatches too and we'll go.

"And I'm in the middle thinking, 'well that's not going to be good for golf.' I hope that doesn't happen. But we could have to be resigned to that.

"It could be a few more years before we see any kind of daylight, unfortunately. And I don't think golf is going to thrive in that period of time."

Ahead of The Masters in less than a fortnight's time, where the majority of the world's best will face off for the first time since The Open last July, McGinley is excited to watch a truly stacked field once more while equally remaining sober to the fact that it will be a short-lived dream.

He continued: "It's (the Masters) the first time since the Open that we're going to see all the best players in the world back together again in terms of playing an event. Obviously, it's a divided and diluted product at the moment.

"When Jon Rahm went [to LIV], everybody said 'oh, there has to be a deal now, he's No.2 player in the world'. And here we are, four months down the road from Jon going, and really, there's no sign of a deal."

LIV Golfer Graeme McDowell was equally hopeful to see a deal completed soon and believes the sport has gone "through a lot of the pain" caused by the initial fracture, going on to say it will come out of the other side "in great shape."

Speaking to LIV's Fairway To Heaven podcast recently, the Smash GC player said: "I hate where the game kind of is right now and that's obviously not necessarily on me, that's just with the powers that be within the game of golf. I think, ultimately, we're going to come out the other side of this with the game of golf in great shape.

"I think in any business there's always disruption, inevitably there's going to be disruption. I think LIV has been a very healthy disruptor to a sport that the business model was slightly wrong and things needed to change. Unfortunately, change can be painful, but I think we're through a lot of the pain.”