Justin Rose has LIV Golf doubts after Billy Horschel makes unification stance clear

Rose believes that the golfing schedule could become too bloated should the merger deal be completed (Image: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Justin Rose admits that he "can't quite see" the PGA Tour and LIV Golf uniting in the years to come, while Billy Horschel remains optimistic about the merger. Negotiations have continued into the merger deal between the two golfing organisations, alongside the DP World Tour as well, with the main focus on legal issues and the potential to allow LIV golfers into PGA Tour events.

Progress has been slow on achieving common ground, with DP World Tour athlete Rose doubtful about a successful merger due to the already busy golf schedules. The British golfer, known for his 11 PGA Tour victories, wasn't taken aback when LIV Golf emerged in 2021 - considering the increasing number of events players had to deal with.

Speaking ahead of last month's BMW PGA Championship, Rose said: "I think that's why we're in the predicament that we're in, because historically, or even if you looked at the PGA Tour a while back, I don't know how many tournaments, I'm going to say 45, but there were a lot of tournaments, and obviously the top players have seemed to only want to play 20 to 25 it times a year tops, 22 probably seems to be the magic number. Majors plus 18.

"I think that's why there was an opportunity for someone, a tour, a league to kind of have the concept, at least hypothetically, that the top players want to play X amount of times together, and that's why we are where we are."

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He added: "That's been a very hard thing to figure out, obviously, because we have different nationalities, different tours, how do you all kind of get into that position? That's why I can't quite see what the future is in terms of us coming back together because I think you're still limited to the fact that there's only a certain amount of weeks that the top players want to play.

"So you can create this league, that league, this tour, supplement with this, but if it accumulates to 30 tournaments, you're still going to get players choosing, no matter how much money you put up, not to play."

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However American golfer Horschel, who teed off at the Open de France in Paris alongside Rose, has expressed a change of heart regarding the potential merger. Horschel was initially critical at the Scottish Open in 2022, where he labelled defectors to the Saudi-backed tour as "hypocrites" and said they had "made their bed". But now, the American has admitted that despite his previous grudge, a deal might be on the horizon.

Horschel has changed his stance on LIV Golf (Image: Getty)

He stated: "Time allows things to dissipate. We've seen that through the history. I'm sure there's people that still hold grudges and everything. Personally I still hold a few grudges, I'm not going to lie. But I understand that for things to get better and heal, you have to get past that and move beyond that.

"Personally, I've moved on beyond that, but I know some guys, some players probably still hold grudges, but I think we do need to move beyond that to really come together.

"I do believe that there's been both goodwill on both sides to try to make a deal happen over the last 18 months, year, since the agreement. It may not move as quickly as people want. There's a lot of complicated things to figure out and there's a lot of things behind the scenes that the public just don't understand. That they can't comment on."

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He added: "Hopefully, the fans understand by this pairing [Monahan/Al Rumayyan], these groupings that things are moving in the right direction.

"I do believe now looking at the game of golf, which I could never imagine at that point [2022] sitting there and speaking how I spoke, that the divide that we've created in the game of golf would create such a disinterest in the fans. And that's really who has sort of been hurt by all this.

"I do believe the majority of players on the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour, the players that play on LIV, I think we want to figure out some way that we can all make this work."

Justin Rose has LIV Golf doubts after Billy Horschel makes unification stance clear

Justin Rose has LIV Golf doubts after Billy Horschel makes unification stance clear

Justin Rose has LIV Golf doubts after Billy Horschel makes unification stance clear

Justin Rose has LIV Golf doubts after Billy Horschel makes unification stance clear

Justin Rose has LIV Golf doubts after Billy Horschel makes unification stance clear