PGA Tour Confirms Talks With Strategic Sports Group As PIF Merger Deadline Nears

On Sunday evening, following the conclusion of the Grant Thornton Invitational, the PGA Tour released a statement revealing that its Policy Board has agreed to advance negotiations with Strategic Sports Group as well as continuing PIF negotiations.

In the statement, it reads: "We've just concluded a series of PGA Tour Policy Board meetings and would like to provide you with a significant update.

"Over the past several days, we have met to thoroughly review, discuss and debate the extremely strong proposals submitted by a final set of outside investors. Yesterday, we unanimously agreed to further negotiate with Strategic Sports Group (SSG), a consortium of U.S.-based professional sports team investors led by Fenway Sports Group. Below is a full list of the investors involved in this potential partnership with PGA Tour Enterprises.

"We also anticipate advancing our negotiations with PIF in the weeks to come. Further, the DP World Tour will continue to be an important part of the process as we build toward PGA Tour Enterprises. Please know that while we can't get into more details at this time, we are very confident in an eventual, positive outcome for all players and the PGA Tour as a whole."

For reference, the investors who comprise Strategic Sports Group are listed below:

• Mark Attanasio
• Arthur Blank
• Gerry Cardinale
• Cohen Private Ventures
• Fenway Sports Group 
• Mike Gordon 
• Wyc Grousbeck
• John Henry 
• HighPost Capital 
• Marc Lasry 
• Tom Ricketts 
• Tom Werner

According to the Strategic Sports Group's site, the company "specializes in helping sports teams, and those seeking to do business with those organizations, achieve maximum revenue."

What's more, the news of the negotiations falls just days after Jon Rahm left to join the LIV Golf League for, reportedly, over $350 million. Such is the impact of the move, Golf Channel analyst, Brandel Chamblee, who has been heavily negative about LIV Golf, claimed that "I hope the LIV deal goes through now" on The Dan Patrick Show.

He went on to add: "It's obviously the best thing for the PGA Tour. If it goes through it remains to be seen whether LIV lives or not. If it doesn’t, it looks like Rahm was the strategic play that LIV needed to make to bring this merger together because each side has something the other side wants.”

Following the news of Rahm moving, other players have been linked to joining the LIV Golf League with one of those being Tony Finau. According to The Telegraph, Finau has already begun discussions about becoming the second member of Rahm's, as-yet-unnamed, LIV Golf team, with a few other highbrow names also linked to the circuit following the two-time Major winners move.

Just recently, it was reported by The Times that the PGA Tour had received four proposals from US-based investors, one of which includes Fenway Sports Group who own Liverpool Football Club and the Boston Red Sox.

Currently, the PGA Tour has a self-imposed deadline of December 31 to try and complete the deal with the PIF, but that now appears unlikely to be met. However, at the New York Time DealBook Summit at the end of November, PGA Tour Commissioner, Jay Monahan, stated that he will meet with Yasir Al-Rumayyan to try and hammer out a final deal with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), with Monahan claiming that "multiple parties" remain in the conversation.

Along with the memo, Jordan Spieth recently replaced Rory McIlroy on the PGA Tour Policy Board, with reports from Sports Illustrated claiming that fellow player, Patrick Cantlay, was driving negotiations and had formed an alliance with Spieth and Tiger Woods, who both recently became board members. However, speaking to The Associated Press, Spieth has looked to dispel such talk.