By Frank Dalleres
PGA Tour chief Jay Monahan has played down concerns over the progress of its deal to unite with LIV Golf and Europe’s DP World Tour, insisting negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund continue to advance with “intensity and urgency”.
Eleven weeks after all parties made the shock announcement that they had agreed a framework for joining forces to create a new entity to own and manage men’s elite golf, no further details have been forthcoming.
Monahan, who took time off with an anxiety-related illness following a backlash to the PGA Tour’s U-turn over Saudi investment, also denied that the agreement had been struck to stem the crippling cost of litigation with LIV Golf and its backers.
“I would say that we operate in good faith and I see that on both sides,” he said in his annual press conference ahead of the season-ending Tour Championship in Atlanta.
“If you were to see the amount of conversation and the amount of time the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF are spending working forward from a framework to a definitive [agreement], I think you’d see the sincerity of the efforts there.
“There are frequent talks. We’re probably right where I would expect that we would be. There’s an intensity and there’s an urgency and there’s a lot of work, good work, that’s being done.”
The PGA Tour’s framework agreement with PIF promises to repair the fragmented men’s game, which has seen players forced to choose between staying loyal to traditional circuits or joining the lucrative LIV Golf tour.
It led to surprise and criticism among players who had rejected LIV’s advances, such as Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm, and has prompted calls for Monahan – previously a critic of Saudi money – and other high-ranking officials to resign.
Others, such as world No1 Scottie Scheffler, have questioned the lack of clarity over the sport’s future, with issues such as future Ryder Cup eligibility and the prospect of LIV Golf’s continued existence yet to be reconciled.
“I think if I were to succinctly put it, and this is the way Jack Nicklaus put it to me, the proof is in the pudding,” Monahan said.
“So I think players are now saying, OK, I understand what we’re trying to accomplish and why we’ve taken this step. I understand the confidential nature of what we’re dealing with and how you plan to handle that within the governance.”
Monahan added that a positive outcome would be “the PGA Tour partnering with PIF, having PIF be a minority investor in NewCo with the PGA Tour, with full-board governance and operational control of the Tour and ultimately the men’s professional game moving forward.”
