PGA Tour’s £1.1bn deal to counter threat from LIV

PGA TOUR players will benefit from equity of more than £1.1billion after the US-based golf circuit announced an investment deal with Strategic Sports Group.

Player directors Tiger Woods, Patrick Cantlay, Peter Malnati, Jordan Spieth, Adam Scott and Webb Simpson voted unanimously in favour of the deal with SSG, a consortium which includes Liverpool owner John W Henry. Payouts will be made to players who are loyal to the tour, in a bid to counter the threat of Saudi-backed rival LIV Golf tour. The deal allows for future ‘co-investment’ from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, as talks between LIV, the PGA Tour and the European DP World Tour continue. ‘This not only further strengthens the tour from a business perspective but encourages players to be fully invested in continuing to deliver,’ the six players said.

● LAURA KENNY’S hopes of cycling again at the Olympics are fading after she was left out of this weekend’s Track Nations Cup in Adelaide. Britain’s most successful female Olympian, 31, announced last year that she wanted to compete at her fourth Games, despite giving birth to her second son, Monty, only last July.

But with less than six months to go before Paris 2024, Kenny is yet to return to action and faces a race against time to even earn the required qualifying points, regardless of if she is picked. And it appears increasingly unlikely that she will be able to force her way into a GB squad who won the world team pursuit title last summer.

● THERE will be no 11th team on the Formula One grid in 2025 or 2026 after Andretti’s application was rejected — for now. The FIA approved the American entry last year, but commercial rights holders Formula One Management yesterday blackballed the idea. They have left the door ajar for Andretti’s inclusion from 2028. FOM decided Andretti’s timescale for building a car was not feasible, saying: ‘We do not believe the applicant would be a competitive participant or add value.’