PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan is “overflowing with confidence” that a potential deal to unify men’s professional golf is “accelerating in the right direction” following a meeting with President Donald Trump last week, according to Adam Schupak of GOLFWEEK. Monahan said the meeting “ultimately gets us one step closer to a deal being done, but there’s a lot more work to do.” Monahan confirmed that the Tour initiated the meeting with President Trump and “termed it ‘an important step for us.’” Monahan said they had “a really productive conversation.” He added that there is no next meeting with Trump on the books yet, but he “expects there to be future meetings with him.” The PGA Tour’s transaction committee has been “meeting daily and is in regular contact with the board.” Two one-hour meetings were held this week -- one with the competition committee, one with tournament sponsor and fan committee -- and another will be held Wednesday evening with the business committee. Speaking on LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil, Monahan mentioned that O’Neil “called him on his first day on the job.” Monahan noted that he has met with PIF Gov. Yasir Al-Rumayyan close to a “dozen times in the last year,” and he has “gotten to know him and believes they have a shared vision for the future of the game” (GOLFWEEK, 2/12).
ALL TOGETHER NOW: SI’s Bob Harig noted the one disclosure that was “certainly interesting and not clarified” came when Monahan mentioned the goal was for the “game of golf operating under one tour with all the top players playing on that one tour.” LIV Golf has “showed no signs of going away.” O’Neil had a news conference on Wednesday and “praised the possible PIF investment in PGA Tour Enterprises,” mentioning that he “believes it will be good for LIV Golf.” 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” (SI, 2/12).
ISSUE AT HAND: GOLF DIGEST’s Joel Beall wrote Monahan’s comments “were noteworthy,” as there has been belief in golf circles that -- should the tour and LIV’s financial backer ultimately finalize a peace treaty -- the entities “would remain separate in some capacity in order to appease” U.S. government antitrust regulations. While that may still come to pass, Monahan’s “repeated insistence on Wednesday of a singular, unified tour could not be ignored.” If unity meant that LIV members would be returning to the PGA Tour, Monahan said, “If we respond to what our fans are telling us, we put together the best, the strongest possible schedule and product, to me all that will resolve itself” (GOLF DIGEST, 2/12).
LOOKING FORWARD: While the golf world waits to see if the two tours will come together, O’Neil said that he was “enthusiastic about the potential for a deal” (GOLF DIGEST, 2/11). GOLFWEEK’s Cameron Jourdan wrote O’Neil “doesn’t see the league going away anytime soon.” It is “part of the reason he decided to join, to help strengthen the league and grow it to have sustainable future around the globe” (GOLFWEEK, 2/12).
