SAN DIEGO – PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan mentioned his assembly with President Donald Trump moved the tour “one step nearer” to a cope with the Saudi-backers of rival LIV Golf. He mentioned Wednesday reunification is the highest precedence.
Monahan and former Masters champion Adam Scott, who serves on the PGA Tour board, met with Trump final Tuesday on the White Home on the tour’s request. The tour has been negotiating with the Public Funding Fund of Saudi Arabia turning into a minority investor.
However the final objective is reuniting the perfect gamers on this planet, a number of of whom took Saudi riches to hitch the breakaway league over the previous couple of years.
“The one factor that issues to followers and the sport is reunification,” Monahan mentioned.
Rory McIlroy, as soon as essentially the most outspoken critic of LIV among the many gamers, was on board with patching collectively a golf panorama that was been torn aside. He mentioned gamers who turned down massive cash to remain loyal to the tour ought to welcome a reunified sport.
“I believe everybody has simply obtained to recover from it and all of us need to say, ‘OK, that is the place to begin and we transfer ahead.’ We don’t look behind us, we don’t look to the previous,” McIlroy mentioned. “No matter has occurred has occurred, and it’s been unlucky. However reunification, how all of us come again collectively and transfer ahead, that’s the perfect factor for everybody.
“If persons are butt-hurt, or have their emotions damage as a result of guys went or no matter, like who cares? Let’s transfer ahead collectively and let’s simply attempt to get this factor going once more and do what’s finest for the sport.”
McIlroy mentioned LIV, whereas disruptive when PIF offered near $2 billion to launch the league, finally has benefited everybody. He cited the Genesis Invitational this week at Torrey Pines for instance. The purse is $20 million, with $4 million going to the winner.
It is considered one of eight such signature occasions on the PGA Tour schedule. The FedEx Cup champion now will get a $25 million bonus.
“That might have by no means occurred if LIV hadn’t have come round,” McIlroy mentioned.
Trump was behind LIV when it started, chiding PGA Tour gamers who stayed loyal that they’d remorse their choice. His programs have hosted LIV occasions.
Monahan performed golf with Trump 10 days after he was elected. Tiger Woods, who needed to miss the White Home assembly when his mom died, performed golf with the president on Sunday. McIlroy mentioned he performed golf with Trump a few month in the past.
“I believed we had a superb dialogue,” McIlroy mentioned. “I discovered that he’s not a fan of the LIV format. I used to be like, ‘However you’ve hosted their occasions.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, but it surely doesn’t imply that I prefer it.’ So I believe he’s on the tour’s facet.”
Monahan mentioned he believes he and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of PIF, “see issues the identical means.” Nonetheless to be decided is when a deal will get finalized — the unique framework settlement between the PGA Tour, European tour and PIF was introduced June 6, 2023 — and the method of this much-sought reunification.
“I do not suppose you are ever shut till you are finalized,” Monahan mentioned. “Every thing is transferring ahead with tempo. … There is a common enthusiasm for getting this completed.”
In the meanwhile, U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm solely compete with the likes of McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele on the 4 majors.
McIlroy, who left the tour board in November 2023 and now serves on a transaction subcommittee concerned in negotiations, was hopeful to see some motion as early as subsequent yr. He mentioned getting everybody again collectively additionally was a objective of Strategic Sports activities Group, the traders who already poured $1.5 billion into the business PGA Tour Enterprises.
“I completely suppose in ’26 you can get to a degree the place we play collectively extra usually,” McIlroy mentioned, including that the European tour needs to be a much bigger companion in operating a world schedule. “I believe there’s a possibility right here the place in ’26 — I don’t suppose it is going to get all the way in which there — however I believe you’ll begin to hopefully see a transfer in the direction of the place it might go.”
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