In a memo sent Monday to PGA Tour players, commissioner Jay Monahan confirmed a widely reported meeting in the Bahamas between Tour Policy Board player directors and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF) and chairman of LIV Golf.
Monahan did not offer many details but called the meeting “constructive” and part of a continuing process.
“The conversation throughout was constructive and represents an important part of our due diligence process in selecting potential investors for PGA Tour Enterprises," Monahan wrote. “This mirrors the approach we employed earlier this year as we evaluated an investment offer from the Strategic Sports Group. During the session, Yasir had a chance to introduce himself to our player directors and talk through his vision, priorities and motivations for investing in professional golf.”
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Golfweek first reported Friday that a meeting would occur between Al-Rumayyan and the Tour board and that its six player directors were “strongly encouraged” to attend. Patrick Cantlay confirmed the meeting Sunday, which was originally expected to be held in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., the day after the Players Championship ended.
But the meeting ended up in the Bahamas, as Tiger Woods’s plane and yacht plus planes owned by the PGA Tour and the PIF were tracked to Albany, Bahamas, and the Albany Resort where Woods hosts his annual Hero World Challenge.
In addition to Woods and Cantlay, the other player directors on the board are Peter Malnati, Adam Scott, Webb Simpson and Jordan Spieth.
Rory McIlroy, who resigned from the board in November, said Sunday that he welcomed the meeting and that it should have occurred “months ago.”
“Fundamentally he wants to do the right thing,” McIlroy said of Al-Rumayyan, adding that “the people that have represented him in LIV I think have done him a disservice ... so (Greg) Norman and those guys.”
The PGA Tour and the PIF entered a “framework agreement” on June 6, with Monahan and Al-Rumayyan famously appearing together on CNBC, but the months that followed did not see any significant movement toward unifying the divided pro game.
The Tour signed a deal worth up to $3 billion with the Strategic Sports Group in January, creating a for-profit corporation called PGA Tour Enterprises. With that, Spieth and other players suggested an alliance with the PIF was no longer needed, but Monahan said in a press conference prior to the Players that he had met with Al-Rumayyan in January talks were “accelerating.”
Monahan offered few specifics then and Monday in his memo.
"As we continue these discussions with the PIF, we will keep you updated as much as possible, but please understand that we need to maintain our position of not conducting negotiations in public," he wrote. "To that end, we will provide no further comments to the media at this time."
