PGA Tour-LIV Golf blockbuster leaves surprise and anger in its wake

No one saw this coming.

In one of the most shocking events in the history of professional golf, the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, the controversial Saudi-backed tour, on Tuesday announced they are merging as partners.

The tours, in a joint announcement aired over CNBC, called the development “a landmark agreement … on a global basis.”

“There’s been a lot of tension in our sport over the last couple years,” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said as he sat beside Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) that oversees LIV Golf. “What we’re talking about today is coming together to unify the game of golf, and to do so under one umbrella. We’ve recognized that together, we can have a far greater impact on this game than we can working apart. The game of golf is better for what we’ve done here today.”

The level of shock that this announcement created is difficult to properly put into perspective because of the heightened amount of acrimony that LIV Golf created when it began, viewed as a threat from the start by the well-established PGA Tour as the Saudi tour poached some of its biggest stars with guaranteed contracts that reached nine figures.

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Phil Mickelson was paid a reported $200 million to join, with Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau believed to have received more than $100 million.

The most fascinating element to this stunning development was the fact that Monahan, who constantly preaches how the PGA Tour is an organization run by its players, kept his players completely in the dark about the goings on. Players — including PGA Tour stalwarts Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy — found out about the news on social media.

That, understandably, left players livid and their sentiments were heard in a 90-minute meeting with Monahan late Tuesday afternoon in Canada, where the Canadian Open is being played this week.

Former PGA Tour player Johnson Wagner, who now works for the Golf Channel, reported that players in the meeting called for Monahan’s resignation.

Wagner said there was a “standing ovation’’ when one player called for new PGA Tour leadership.

Monahan, on a Zoom call with reporters right after the contentious player meeting, conceded the affair was “intense’’ and “certainly heated.’’

“This is an awful lot to ask them to digest, and this is a significant change for us in the direction that we were going down,’’ he said.

After the announcement was made, players weighed in on social media, many of whom expressed a sentiment that they’d been “betrayed’’ by Monahan and the PGA Tour.

A number of top PGA Tour players — at the head of the list was McIlroy, who’s been an unofficial spokesperson for Monahan — had been offered huge money to join LIV and opted to stay loyal to the PGA Tour. And, in exchange, they got what happened on Tuesday — totally blindsided by Monahan and the tour.

A number of players, including veteran Geoff Ogilvy, speculated the PGA Tour rushed this announcement for fear someone was going to leak the story, because the players were given very little information by Monahan, who seemed ill-prepared in the meeting.

Players such as McIlroy and Hideki Matsuyama were offered well into nine figures to join LIV and opted not to go.

Rickie Fowler was offered a reported $75 million to join and didn’t.

Now they’ll all watch as Mickelson, Johnson, Koepka, DeChambeau and others who went to LIV get their tens of millions and will get to rejoin the PGA Tour.

Here are details of the agreement, which Monahan called merely in a the “framework agreement’’ stage:

— The PGA Tour and the PIF (LIV Golf) will combine commercial operations with a new, collectively owned entity with its name to be determined.

— The PIF will make a capital investment into the new entity to facilitate its growth.

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— The PGA Tour will remain a 501(c)(6) tax-exempt organization and will retain administrative oversight of the PGA Tour, including sanctioning of events.

— This merger will mutually end all pending litigation between the two once-bickering sides.

—  And there will be a yet-to-be-determined way for players who’ve been banned from the PGA Tour to reapply for PGA Tour or DP World Tour membership after the 2023 season.

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A year ago this week, at the Canadian Open, Monahan denounced LIV Golf in a TV interview with CBS reacting to a story in The Post about the families of 9/11 protesting the Saudi tour.

“You’d have to be living under a rock to not know there are significant implications as it relates to the families of 9/11,’’ Monahan said that day. “I would ask any player that has left [for LIV] or would consider leaving, have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?’’

On Tuesday, Monahan copped to criticism coming his way about being a hypocrite.

“I recognize that people are going to call me a hypocrite,’’ he said. “I accept those criticisms. But circumstances do change. I think that in looking at the big picture and looking at it this way, that’s what got us to this point.’’

The perception — and it’s a fair one — is that the PGA Tour caved and sold out to the Saudis.