PGA Tour Chief Jay Monahan talks about ‘accelerating’ with Saudi Arabia

Chief of the PGA Tour Jay Monahan said on Tuesday that discussions with LIV Golf’s Saudi Arabian sponsors were “accelerating,” but he remained silent on the specifics of the planned joint venture between the two organizations.

Prior to this week’s Players Championship, Monahan told reporters that talks were moving forward with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).

Nevertheless, Monahan said that a number of “important issues” needed to be addressed and that reaching a consensus would “take time.”

“I’ll be brief because, as I’ve said many times, you can’t negotiate a deal like this in public,” Monahan said.

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the PIF, and I just met, and the more time we spend together, the faster our conversations are moving forward.

“Even though we still need to address a few major issues, we have a common goal: to silence the critics and realize golf’s full potential on a global scale.”

Golf has entered a violent civil war as a result of the establishment of the Saudi-funded LIV Golf, which has attracted elite PGA Tour players with large signing bonuses and profitable small field events.

But in a dramatic U-turn that came after covert talks, Monahan rocked the sports world last June when he revealed that the PGA Tour had agreed to a tie-up with LIV’s sponsors, the PIF.

It’s still unclear exactly how the new partnership between PIF and the PGA Tour will operate. As talks go, the first deadline of December 2023 to reach a settlement has passed.

More players have already switched from the PGA Tour to LIV, the most notable being Spanish sensation Jon Rahm, the defending Masters winner, who decided to sign with the fledgling league in December.

“Real progress” was achieved.

Monahan, who has been under fire for how he handled the situation, did not respond when asked whether players who departed for LIV would be allowed to return to the PGA Tour.

According to Monahan, “we’ve made and are continuing to make real progress in our discussions and negotiations with the PIF.”

“But for me to be discussing where we are with particular aspects of our discussions is really not in the best interest of the PGA Tour, our membership, or PIF.”

However, Monahan clarified that the ultimate objective was to unite the sport so that the top players in the world competed on a single circuit.

“We’re committed as a board and as an organization to working toward unification,” said Monahan.

The top player in the world, Scottie Scheffler, said he had no intention of following the exodus to LIV Golf. Scheffler will try to attend his Players Championship this week.

Scheffler said, “I’m not going to sit here and tell guys not to take hundreds of millions of dollars.” “Go ahead and do it if that’s what they believe is best for their lives. However, I don’t really care about what they’re doing since this is where I want to be in the end.

Monahan also refrained from stating if LIV’s team golf idea would be included in the next PGA Tour-PIF joint venture.

“We’re talking about a lot of things, and team golf is one of them, but I can’t go into details right now,” Monahan said. “I simply don’t think that advances the goals we have in mind for ourselves.”

Although Monahan advised PGA Tour members who are not in favor of LIV players returning to the circuit to be accommodating, he also realized that any final deal was not going to be well-liked by everybody.

“You have to be open-minded, flexible, and have a long-term perspective and long-term vision when you’re in a negotiation like this and in a time like this,” Monahan said.

But in the end, I don’t believe we’ll be able to satisfy everyone, and that applies to all sides.

“However, our goal is to achieve the best result for the tour and the game once more, and I believe that’s possible.”