There has been no shortage of conversation about the agreement between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the main financial backer of the LIV Golf League.
On Thursday, the New York Times reported a key piece of that agreement has been dropped.
The PGA Tour nor LIV Golf would be able to recruit players from the other circuit, but that clause is no more, according to the Times report.
The U.S. Department of Justice reviewed the framework agreement, and concerns over the antitrust implications, and the potential for the DOJ to use it as reason to block a deal caused the PGA Tour and PIF to remove the framework.
William E. Kovacic, a former Federal Trade Commission chairman, was quoted in the story saying the language appeared “to be right in the field of vision that the Department of Justice has staked out for its no-poaching enforcement program.”
The PGA Tour informed its policy board members of the decision on Thursday, the report states.
On Tuesday, a Senate subcommittee hearing questioned Ron Price and Jimmy Dunne from the PGA Tour for three hours about the proposed merger and implications of it. Dunne reiterated numerous times during the hearing it was only a framework agreement.