Exploring why the PGA Tour's rivalry with LIV seems to have cooled

A timeline of LIV Golf, the PGA Tour's primary rival

In 2021, the rival professional league LIV Golf Investments was unveiled. It was a move that reshaped men's professional golf. This Sports Illustrated Timeline dives into the twists and turns occurring since the announcement. Learn what star players left the PGA for LIV. Also, get details about the mutual agreement outlined in 2023, which has yet to come to fruition.

The story behind the PGA's civil war

In the 1960s, there was a war brewing within the PGA between the golf pros and the touring pros. Eventually, tensions boiled over into courtrooms, leading to the creation of a new league. This Golf.com article provides a deep history of the war, with in-depth interviews with key players in the negotiations.

Examining golf's problems with race

In 1961, the PGA removed the "Caucasian-only" membership clause, marking the last major professional sports organization to desegregate. But unlike other sports, golf didn't see an influx of Black players following the change. This article from The Ringer's Lex Pryor examines golf's complicated history with race and gender, showing both the progress made and the challenges that remain.

Why LIV Golf athletes are allowed to play in the Masters

The Masters isn't operated by the PGA Tour, so its ban on LIV golfers doesn't apply to the tournament. This explainer unpacks all the thorny particulars of that strange arrangement.

Analyzing the PGA Tour's leaderboard

In 2007, the PGA Tour introduced the FedEx Cup, marking the first time men's pro golf had a playoff system. This PGA Tour interactive shows the Cup standings year-to-date, along with video and news updates. Click on a player's name and get a detailed page about their career, including total wins, scorecards from recent matches, and what clubs are in their bag.

Greg Norman, before LIV Golf

In 1994, Greg Norman was enjoying success as a pro golfer. But the Australian wanted to see more opportunities for global players like himself, leading him to found the World Golf Tour. Read this Sports Illustrated deep dive on Norman's failed golf league and the lesson he learned that would help him launch and become CEO of LIV Golf in 2021.

A Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund divested from LIV Golf after pumping more than $6B into the PGA's controversial rival

The Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund was the primary backer of LIV Golf, and at one point held more than 90% of the league's ownership stake. Famous golfers, like the three-time Masters' champion Phil Mickelson, criticized the league for "sportswashing" Saudi Arabia's questionable human rights record.

How tax breaks power the PGA Tour, a nonprofit organization

When the PGA was formed in 1916, its primary objective was to grow the game of golf, so it was established as a nonprofit. When the PGA Tour split off in 1968, that nonprofit status stayed. But as revenue jumped past $1B, questions began to arise. This "Outside the Lines" investigation from 2013 dives into their tax records and details how much the PGA actually gives to charity.

Breaking down the golf world's 4 'major' tournaments

The PGA Tour features over 30 tournaments per year, but none are as important as the four majors: the Masters, the PGA Championship, the US Open, and the Open Championship. This Golf Monthly article dives into each major and the courses it is played on, including the traditions each weekend brings to the Tour.

Tennis' global evolution

In the 1970s and 1980s, American men and women dominated the top 100 rankings on both tours. But as each tour expanded its global reach, the American dominance declined. This Bleacher Report analysis breaks down the national make-up of the top 100 players for each decade. View maps that show which country gained and lost rankings through each decade and see who is the top country now.

Pickleball's popularity has created a power struggle

The sport's sudden rise has led to a tumultuous landscape with battles over governance, court space, and player rights. This Sports Illustrated deep dive examines the competing billionaires vying for control, the conflicts over court usage and noise disputes, and how a second proposed Hall of Fame is dividing the sport.

How musical guests disappeared from late night TV

The late-night landscape has changed dramatically in the past five years, with the most visible difference being a severe lack of music. This writer set out to learn why that is—and what it means for audiences and artists alike.

A Netflix docuseries turned the sport into a national obsession

Throughout much of its history, Formula 1 racing was a European sport that failed to ever find a major audience in the US. That changed with the “Drive to Survive,” the Netflix docuseries that premiered in 2019. This analysis from two communications professors unpacks how the series has successfully presented the sport for an American audience and cultivated a dedicated fanbase in the process.

​​Some allege the NFL has shifted gameplay toward fantasy

Recent rule changes in the league have increased passing and point-scoring, which critics argue is motivated by a desire to appeal to fantasy-loving viewers who might be frustrated by slower, lower-scoring games.

How the American takeover of world football failed.

What happened behind the scenes at Europe’s top clubs as their Super League plans were pitched and ripped apart in a matter of days

How Guinness World Records has pivoted to a publicity business

Now that Guinness World Records gets paid to host record-breaking events, is there a conflict of interest? Here's a look at the worldwide record keeping business's pivot toward publicity.

A visual guide to the athletic events the Olympics left behind

The series of competitions in today's version of the Olympic Games are the survivors of years of experimentation. This illustrated guide details some of the sports and creative competitions that didn't make the cut. Some sports were dropped due to their lack of visual appeal, while others were simply too specific, like the swim limited to sailors of the Royal Greek Navy.

Talese’s story on Joe DiMaggio examined the sports star’s life post-retirement

The profile, written in the aftermath of his popular “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” similarly offered a close look at an American icon after their prime. In DiMaggio’s story, however, the Yankees player seeks to vanish into obscurity and live a quiet life, golfing and mourning his ex-wife Marilyn Monroe.

Renewed competition between great powers is straining multilateral institutions

This analysis argues that the increasing US-China rivalry is fostering a more contested international environment—where shared rules and institutions are being challenged rather than reinforced.

Peloton's success is partly due to users' relationships with instructors

Despite Peloton's online model, most users feel a deep connection with the instructors and have created community groups around their shared identities (like being a mom or a lawyer). The relationship users have with their instructors has fueled consistent engagement and paved the way for instructors to take on personal brand deals. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Find out how airlines quietly became banks

Some experts suggest airlines lose money on every flight. This video dives into how airlines have leveraged their loyalty programs to make billions of dollars, effectively evolving into banks.

Some institutional investors are growing wary of private equity, as certain investments underperform traditional market indices

Private equity often attracts investors who can afford to tie up capital for long periods of time in exchange for higher returns than traditional investments. For many years, private equity at least tracked with the S&P 500 in terms of returns to investors, but in 2024 and 2025, it underperformed and posted declining returns.

How one Portland dive bar helped drive Pabst Blue Ribbon's comeback

In 2004, the Washington Post reported on the resurgence of Pabst Blue Ribbon, recast as a hip alternative to bigger-label brews, and said its comeback was thanks to Lutz Tavern in Portland, Oregon, which sold the beer for $1 a can.

Winning Pulitzers doesn't attract readers to newspapers

A 2014 study by Nate Silver found that newspapers that win the awards rarely see a change in circulation. While plenty has changed in the media landscape since the article was published in 2014, it's still a fascinating peek into how prestigious awards affect (or, more accurately, don't affect) readership.

In 1996, 'The Curtain Call' changed fans' understanding of wrestling

Maintaining kayfabe, or the fiction of the professional wrestling universe, was a long-held tradition in the industry. That changed in 1996, when four WWE wrestlers broke character after a match at Madison Square Garden in an event later dubbed "The Curtain Call." This podcast breaks down the historical aftershocks.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses are historically hard to sell because they're old, subject to local landmark commissions, and often unfashionable

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

An investigation suggests a Scottish island became awash in forever chemicals via seafoam and seaspray—raising questions about what that means for the safety of other coastal areas.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

Human-to-human transmission of hantavirus remains extremely rare, so the 2026 hantavirus cruise ship outbreak doesn't mean we're facing a COVID-style pandemic risk.

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

'Silent' fireworks have gained more interest in recent years as a quieter celebratory option.

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

See how each of the more than two million known species relates to each other—and to common ancestors—in this zoomable tree of life.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

The power and influence of the American presidency have expanded significantly over time—far beyond what the founders envisioned.

Volcanoes 'die' when their supply of magma runs out, if they are shifted away from their underlying magma reservoir, or if they get clogged by collapsing or their magma cooling back into rock.

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.