Now, by merging with the PGA Tour, it has gained a foothold that guarantees it outsize influence in the game’s future. The governor of the Saudi state entity bankrolling LIV, the Public Investment Fund, will become chairman of the new golf organization, which was created so quickly that it was announced before it even had a name.

The PIF also will have right of first refusal on new investments in the merged tour, according to the statement announcing the merger. “Going forward, PIF will have the exclusive right to further invest in the new entity, including a right of first refusal on any capital that may be invested in the new entity, including into the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and DP World Tour.” The PGA Tour will appoint a majority of the board, the statement said, and hold a majority voting interest in the combined entity.

The news of the merger was at once shocking — the sides had clashed for months in litigation that will now draw to a close — and almost inevitable: Many in golf believed this was a distinct possibility from the time LIV burst into the sport last year.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, the wealth fund and the PGA Tour said the former rivals would “implement a plan to grow these combined commercial businesses, drive greater fan engagement and accelerate growth initiatives already underway.”

In a statement, Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, said, “Going forward, fans can be confident that we will, collectively, deliver on the promise we’ve always made — to promote competition of the best in professional golf and that we are committed to securing and driving the game’s future.”

Under the terms of the tentative agreement, the Public Investment Fund will at first be the exclusive investor in the blended operation, along with the established tours, which includes the DP World Tour, and LIV. Monahan is expected to be the new group’s chief executive, with Yasir al-Rumayyan, the wealth fund’s governor, installed as its chairman.

In a memorandum to PGA Tour players on Tuesday, Monahan said the wealth fund would have a minority position in the new for-profit company that will control men’s golf. But al-Rumayyan’s ascension into the golf establishment’s boardrooms promises to concentrate immense power in Riyadh.

LIV charged into professional golf last year by luring some of the world’s most prominent players, including Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson, with guaranteed contracts sometimes said to be worth $100 million or more and tournament prize funds that were the richest in golf history. It presented itself as a vibrant improvement on a staid sport — “Golf but Louder” went one of its slogans.

In challenging the entrenched PGA by pitching a new path, and rich incomes, it found willing partners in some of the world’s top players.

“If Saudi Arabia want to use the game of golf as a way for them to get to where they want to be, and they have the resources to accelerate that experience,” one of the LIV signees, the former U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell, said, “I think we’re proud to help them on that journey.”

The PGA Tour, long the dominant force in professional golf, retaliated by barring any players who joined the new tour from its events. In sometimes caustic public statements and legal filings, the tour argued that the Saudi-backed league was compromising the sport’s integrity and acting as little more than a front for Saudi ambitions to repair the kingdom’s reputation.

As recently as last fall, Monahan was saying publicly that even the idea of a merger was out of the question. “It’s not in the cards,” he said at the time. “It hasn’t been in the cards and it’s not in the cards. I think we’ve been pretty consistent on that front.”

But by midday Tuesday, golf’s era of high-dollar brinkmanship had ended, with promises of “a fair and objective process for any players” looking to return to good standing with the PGA Tour or its European counterpart.