For the past several years, men’s professional golf has experienced a civil war for talent between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, which is bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Huge paychecks dispersed to renegade golfers, harsh rhetoric from principals, multiple lawsuits from both sides and government investigations dominated the news and relegated coverage of the actual sport to the background. Then in June, the PGA and LIV announced a surprise truce. While the details of the merger have yet to be worked out, there has been widespread speculation as to why the PGA, after two years of total war, would suddenly embrace its enemy.

One idea that quickly emerged is the PGA simply could not continue the fight for economic reasons. According to news reports, the PGA Tour’s reserves of approximately $100 million were eaten into by two factors: inflated purses to keep its tournaments competitive and unsustainable legal expenses required to continue the fight.