LIV Golf faced a potential setback Tuesday after the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Asian Tour announced a new strategic alliance that could reshape the Asian Tour's relationship with the Saudi-backed circuit.
The agreement, which takes effect immediately and runs through 2029, will see the PGA Tour and DP World Tour collaborate with the Asian Tour to expand commercial opportunities, create additional playing pathways and provide Asian Tour members with a clearer route to compete on the DP World Tour.
The PGA Tour and DP World Tour already have a separate strategic alliance, although that agreement has yet to be renewed.
It currently allows the top 10 players in the DP World Tour's season-long standings to earn PGA Tour cards.
Officials from both tours met during last week's British Open, and the new partnership with the Asian Tour, along with the PGA Tour's growing involvement in the Australian Open, is widely viewed as a step toward a broader renewed agreement.
The announcement was a blow to LIV Golf, which has had a relationship with the Asian Tour since before the rival league launched in 2022.
LIV invested $300 million in the Asian Tour to create the International Series, featuring purses of up to $2 million. The events have been won by LIV players such as Peter Uihlein, Carlos Ortiz and David Puig.
The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, the financial backer of LIV Golf, has said it will no longer fund the league after this season.
LIV Golf CEO Scott O'Neil has been trying to find investors to keep the league operating in 2027 and beyond.
The DP World Tour had an alliance with the Asian Tour from 2016 through 2021. It stopped co-sanctioning Asian Tour events in 2022.
Now that relationship is back under the new alliance, which is expected to include at least two co-sanctioned Asian Tour events in each of the next three years.
Other details, including Asian Tour players gaining access to DP World Tour and HotelPlanner Tour events, are still being finalized.
"We feel the time is now right to collaborate with the DP World Tour and PGA Tour to enhance the Asian Tour for our members, fans and partners," said Cho Minn Thant, commissioner and CEO of the Asian Tour. "Bringing the three tours together under one partnership will increase the bandwidth of the professional game in Asia.
"Not only will co-sanctioning events see our members competing regularly on the global stage, but we are excited to welcome players from the other tours to our pinnacle events."
The announcement came one day after reports that Canada-based Mobii Systems Group sued LIV Golf in U.S. District Court in Miami, alleging the league failed to pay $925,100 in fees to the company that supplies its "Any Shot, Any Time" technology used during LIV broadcasts.
Mobii Systems also is seeking $209,531 in lost revenue for the remaining six events in 2026.
ESPN reported that Nick Connor, LIV Golf's senior vice president of technology, wrote in a May 25 email to Mobii Systems that LIV would no longer use the technology after the South Korea event that ended May 31 or for the remaining events on the schedule as it evaluates its business model.
The PGA Tour recently announced a commercial partnership with the DP World Tour involving the Australian Open as golf pushes to elevate more national opens. The Masters this year expanded its invitation criteria to include the winners of six national opens.
Christian Hardy, the PGA Tour's senior vice president of international, said the three-tour alliance reflects collaboration among tours "with a shared vision for the future of professional golf."
"Through our strategic alliance with the DP World Tour, we have worked to build a more connected global golf ecosystem, and we are excited to welcome the Asian Tour into that effort," Hardy said. "Together, we are creating new opportunities for players, enhancing key national opens around the world and continuing to evolve and strengthen pathways to identify and develop the next generation of elite talent."
