Gary Player advocates compensation for PGA Tour loyalty amid Golf's 'civil war'

Talks between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) – which bankrolls the breakaway LIV Golf League – remain ongoing after a shock "framework agreement" between them was signed in June last year.

"Any time in any business whatsoever, not only in the golf business, there's confrontation, it's unhealthy," three-time Masters champion Player said after joining Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson as honorary starters at Augusta National.

"You've got to get together and come to a solution. If you cannot, it's not good. The public don't like it and we as professionals don't like it either.

"But it's a big problem because they paid all these guys to join the LIV Tour fortunes, I mean, beyond one's comprehension.

"Now (if) these guys come back and play, I really believe the players that were loyal should be compensated in some way or another, otherwise there's going to be dissension."

Nicklaus said he had been told by PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan that negotiations were "doing fine".

"The best outcome is the best players play against each other all the time. That's what I feel about it," Nicklaus said.

"If Jay thinks we're doing fine, we'll get there, I think we'll get there. And I certainly hope that happens, the sooner the better."

Whether that is the case remains to be seen, with Watson revealing that his comments on the subject at Tuesday's Champions Dinner failed to elicit the desired response.

"I'm looking around the room and I'm seeing just a wonderful experience everybody is having," Watson said.

"They are jovial. They are having a great time. They are laughing. I said, "Ain't it good to be together again?" And there was kind of a pall from the joviality, and it quieted down, and then Ray Floyd got up and it was time to leave.

"And in a sense, I hope that the players themselves took that to say, you know, we have to do something. We have to do something."