SAN DIEGO – Jay Monahan projected an optimistic tone, perhaps more so than at any time in the past two years about the state of men’s professional golf and the possibility of a PGA Tour deal with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.
Speaking to reporters at Torrey Pines, the PGA Tour commissioner on Wednesday explained that he and the Tour reached out to President Trump for a meeting that he attended last week with player director Adam Scott.
And he expressed confidence that a deal is now that much closer.
“It was a very productive visit,” Monahan said in advance of the Genesis Invitational. “I think you all have been around him enough to know how passionate he is about the game of golf.
“For him to respond to our request to sit down and talk about how we achieve what he stated publicly as a goal, which is the game of golf operating under one tour with all the top players playing on that one tour, was a great opportunity. We had a really productive conversation.”
Monahan latter added: “I think the meeting ultimately gets us one step closer to a deal being done, but there's a lot more work to do. Hopefully you sense my enthusiasm as I talk about it today.”
The “one tour’’ disclosure was certainly interesting and not clarified.
LIV Golf, which is funded by the PIF and now in its fourth year, has showed no signs of going away. New CEO Scott O'Neil had a news conference on Wednesday in Adelaide, Australia – site of this week’s LIV Golf event – where he praised the possible PIF investment in PGA Tour Enterprises and discussed on how he believes it will be good for LIV Golf.
O’Neil is among several new hires the league has made in the past year, along with expanding office facilities and locations.
“PIF, they're the investor and creator of LIV,” O'Neil said. “PIF is a sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and they are likely to make an investment into PGA Tour Enterprises, a new structure that a collection of U.S. investors invested in.
“For us at LIV, we are hoping that that unlocks opportunity. That may unlock opportunity with markets, with courses, with marketing partners, with television networks, with growing the game, with competition opportunities, with new formats.”
He added: “I think that right now we are going to the moon and back, and I hope that'll help as an accelerant, but I'm very confident in where we are in this business and the interest we have currently.”
In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated after officially becoming CEO, O’Neil noted without prompting that he had a prior relationship with Monahan. His comments have suggested a more cooperative tone than the one of his predecessor, Greg Norman.
O’Neil previously had several high-level jobs, including front office positions in both the NBA and NHL.
“Scott's had a really strong career in the sports industry,” Monahan said “I think you see his pedigree. I've gotten to know him. I'd say a lot of the people that I have a lot of respect for that are in this industry think very highly of Scott. I've gotten to know him through the years. He reached out to me the first day that he took on his role and I think if you just look at his success in the past, I think he's nothing but additive and is going to be an important part of this as we go forward.”
When Monahan was asked to clarify his remarks about one tour, he said: “What it means is the reunification of the game, which is what we have been and are focused on. Candidly, that's what fans want. So when you talk about reunification, that's all the best players in the world competing with each other and against each other.”
How that is achieved remains the subject of much conjecture. A deal with the PIF has been languishing for months and the U.S. Department of Justice is said to be part of the issue as the sides strive to try and comply.
The inference is that Trump — who said prior to being elected he could get a deal done “in 15 minutes” — would have some sway in getting the DOJ to sign off.
“Well, number one, you look at his passion for the game, his knowledge and understanding of the game, he's very — he's very familiar with the PGA Tour, he's very familiar with the team at the Public Investment Fund,” Monahan said. “Like us, he has a very clear picture of what should happen and he wants to help. The game means that much to him. And he's the ultimate dealmaker, so having him in the mix is a great thing for the game.”
It’s an interesting twist from where things were two years ago, in the first year of LIV Golf’s launch.
Trump spoke to reporters in late 2022 at LIV’s team event, which was played at his Doral course in Florida, and criticized the PGA Tour for having “mishandled it so badly. The people at the top. . .something should happen with them.”
Then he accused Tour officials of taking money from the player pension fund in order to subsidize increased purses for what are now the signature events.
“And now they’ve punched into the pension fund in order to lift up prize money,” he said in October of 2022. “And the players are not happy with that, the pension fund. So it’s going to be very interesting.”
The Tour said then and now that funds for increased prize money and bonuses were met via reserves and sponsors.
But Monahan is clearly taking the view that Trump wants to see a deal that works out well for the PGA Tour. Rory McIlroy even disclosed earlier that in a round of golf with Trump last month, the then-president-elect said he wasn’t a fan of LIV Golf’s 54-hole team format.
“I thought we had a good discussion,” McIlroy said. “I learned that he's not a fan of the LIV format. I was like, “but you've hosted their events.” He was like, “yeah, but it doesn't mean that I like it”. So I think he's on the Tour's side.
What that exactly means is unclear. McIlroy noted that Trump has access to Mohamad bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and the “boss” of Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the PIF.
Al-Rumayyan has been a firm supporter of LIV. Was McIlroy implying that Trump might go over him?
“Not many people have that,” McIlroy said. “Not many people can say, I want you to get this deal done and by the way, I'm speaking to your boss, I'm going to tell him the same thing.”
Said Monahan: “Listen, if you think about what the fans want, the fans want reunification. That's what we're focused on. We've operated in a world where there's more than one and the PGA TOUR has performed very well.
“But in the long run, is that the best thing for fans? Is that the best thing for the game? We're trying to solve it so everybody benefits.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Jay Monahan Is Confident That With Donald Trump's Help, a LIV Golf Deal Is Approaching.
