After a couple of years of tension, LIV and PGA will merge to 'unify the sport' and expand its reach.
👉 Background: The PGA Tour, is the OG professional golf tour that was founded in 1929. Think: Tiger Woods, Rory Mcilroy and Vijay Singh. Meanwhile, LIV Golf was launched in 2022 with the plan to rival the PGA Tour and knick some of its leading players.
👉 What happened: At the time, the PGA Tour Commissioner warned that all defecting players would be suspended from competing in the PGA. But now, after a couple of years of tension, LIV and PGA will merge to 'unify the sport' and expand its reach.
👉 What else: LIV has been heavily criticised for sports-washing, because of their human rights record. But despite the outrage, the deal landed.
💡 Sports washing is the practice of countries or companies using sports sponsorships or partnerships to improve their public image.
💡By linking themselves to a sporting team event, countries or companies hope to improve their reputation - or at the very least, distract attention from unethical conduct:
💡But, as we've seen in previous cases, it's clear that money and sports funding often overrides moral concerns in the sporting world.
Sign up for Flux and join 100,000 members of the Flux family
