A lot of people have been hopeful for the coming together of the golf world through the $3 billion merger. The PIF-PGA Tour merger has been fraught with constant delays and numerous hindrances. However, they have other bad news in store for them. A few weeks ago, Jay Monahan shared the official PGA Tour 2025 season schedule.
While this raised a lot of questions, the Tour commissioner was asked if the release of the schedule meant ‘there’s not going to be anything with LIV, at least through next year or 2026, or 2027?’ He pretty much bluntly replied, “I think that’s fair.” With the disappearing hopes of the fans, the distance between the players of the leagues too seems to be increasing with each passing day.
Justin Thomas denies having a personal friendship with Phil Mickelson
A lot of members of the PGA Tour made a shift to the breakaway league upon its inception. which took a toll on a lot of friendships, be it what Tiger Woods and Bryson DeChambeau had or Jon Rahm’s friendship with Justin Thomas. Taking to this, at the preview presser of the BMW Championship, Justin Thomas was asked about the current relationship that he shares with some of the LIV Golfers, who were earlier known to be close to him when on Tour.
JT and all other PGA Tour players were known to have been good friends with Phil Mickelson, that is, before he made comments about the Tour and made the shift. Similarly, the 31-year-old stated that the relationship now is pretty much a ‘cordial friendship’, than it was earlier.
“We never were planning any trips together or having dinners together or anything like that. It was just we were peers that played with and against each other on TOUR,” said Justin Thomas. The last time he crossed paths with the LIV Golfers was back in July, during the last major of the season. As he went about mentioning how their interactions were short and simple, they would just greet each other with a ‘hey’ and go back to minding their own business.
Although Phil Mickelson was not very pleased with the PGA Tour in 2022, his primary reason was the limited media rights of the Tour pros. He was pretty much receptive to the idea of the merger when it was announced for the first time. Gradually, however, Lefty’s thought process changed.
Phil Mickelson has pretty much always been neutral about the merger. As the deal is still in talks, earlier this year Mickelson shared his thoughts about the same and said, “Is it necessary that there is a merger? Probably not.” However, the HyFlyers GC skipper also added, “But it would be a good thing if there was not any hostility.”
Nonetheless, according to the 54-year-old, the situation in the golf world will become much better even if there is no merger. “I need to let go of all of those experiences I have had in the past that were less than positive… of my hostilities, and we all do for the better of the game,” he stated, referring to the negative statements he had earlier made about the merger two years ago.
