Players express feelings of shock and betrayal after PGA Tour’s LIV Golf merger

Six-time Major winner Phil Mickelson, one of the players who joined LIV Golf, described the merger as “awesome news”.

Mackenzie Hughes expressed his surprise at the news the PGA Tour had merged its commercial operations with LIV Golf (Richard Sellers/PA)

Players expressed shock, surprise and a sense of betrayal at the news the PGA and DP World Tours were merging their commercial operations with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf series.

More than a year of contention and litigation between LIV and the established Tours and the players who joined the new competition ended in the most astonishing and abrupt fashion on Tuesday with the announcement that the three bodies had set up a new commercial entity to “unify golf”.