The PGA Tour and the PIF shared a framework agreement on June 6, 2023, with a goal of combining commercial operations under a new for-profit entity later dubbed PGA Tour Enterprises. The parties initially stated a deadline of Dec. 31, 2023, to finalize the agreement, but that window has long since expired without a completed deal.

While South Africa’s veteran campaigner Darren Fichardt set a scintillating pace at Kingsbarns with an 11-under 61, another South African, the Dunhill Links supremo Johann Rupert, was just as enthused by the genial scene involving two of global golf’s most powerful figures.

LIV Golf boss Yasir Al-Rumayyan is playing alongside PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, but may have fallen foul of a local rule