According to media reports on Saturday, golfers who remained loyal to the US PGA Tour but did not switch to LIV Golf would get equity shares in a new for-profit organization.

 

Jimmy Dunne

 

That would be a method to reward players who remained faithful to the PGA, said Jimmy Dunne, a member of the PGA Tour policy board who assisted in negotiating the stunning agreement between his organization and the Saudi sponsors of LIV Golf.

 

"The new (company) would grow, and the (current PGA) players would get a piece of equity that would enhance and increase in value as time went on," Dunne informed media.

 

“There would have to be some kind of formulaic decision on how to do that. It would be a process to determine what would be a fair mechanism that would be really beneficial to our players.”

 

Schlabach said that a number of PGA Tour players, including Jon Rahm and Hideki Matsuyama, declined "as much as $100 million" in guaranteed money from LIV Golf League.

 

Brooks Koepka (left) and Phil Mickelson

 

Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka, two former PGA Tour players who switched to LIV, are ineligible to get shares in the new company. As a result of PGA circuit Commissioner Jay Monahan suspending players who didn't voluntarily resign from the circuit, they will also need to go through a procedure to be restored.

 

"Players on the LIV [tour] that wanted to reinstate into the PGA Tour would go through a process [and] suspension," Dunne said to Schlabach. "Whatever the penalty was, they'd have to decide whether they wanted to do that or not, and then they could play.”

 

Dunne will be on the board of the new company and is a member of the Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters.Schlabach mentioned that he was crucial in facilitating the agreement between the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund, which provides funding for LIV Golf.

 

Schlabach claims that the planned merger puts an end to all legal disputes between the once at odds parties.

 

Players who moved for lucrative contracts with LIV would not be eligible for any equity investment, although they had already benefited from lucrative contracts with the fledgling series.