PGA Tour Commish: No meeting with PIF scheduled at this time. What's next?

USA Today

04-03-2025

PGA Tour Commish: No meeting with PIF scheduled at this time. What's next?
ORLANDO – Don't hold your breath for a PGA Tour-PIF deal to be announced in the next couple of weeks.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan paid a visit to the Doc Giffin Media Center on Tuesday and was asked to provide an update on negotiations to reunify men's professional golf.
'We don't have a next meeting set, but obviously we're in a really busy stretch here,' Monahan said. 'We've got Arnold Palmer Invitational, Players. They have got two events here the next two weeks. So it doesn't mean there won't be conversations, there's just not a physical meeting set up.'
Asked if he expected to announce a deal next week during the Players Championship, the Tour's flagship event, where Monahan usually delivers his state of the Tour, he said, 'I don't see that happening.'
But Monahan was quick to point at that his enthusiasm for a deal remained high following meetings with President Donald Trump and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.
'We had a recent meeting with the President, the Public Investment Fund, thought it was a constructive meeting. And we're thankful for the President for his leadership, extremely thankful for him, for his willingness to host us in the Oval Office, and to help us continue those conversations,' Monahan said. 'I feel like if you look at his commentary last week as ultimately seeing a deal happening and Yasir Al-Rumayyan's comments at the FII about the good meeting that we had, I think we'll just continue to move forward on those conversations.'
Monahan was joined in those meetings by Tour policy board directors Tiger Woods and Adam Scott. Monahan said that his confidence remains intact that a deal will get done despite rumors flying around PGA National last week that the meeting didn't go as swimmingly as the leadership of the two rival leagues have touted publicly.
'I think anything that I've said or we said, the three of us said is consistent with what should be said when you're in the middle of a complex discussion to try and reunify the game of golf,' Monahan said. 'It doesn't speak to my confidence level, it speaks to the moment. I view that meeting as a huge step and so I look at that very positively.' Monahan said the Tour's doing 'everything we can to reunify the game' because that's what fans are telling the Tour they want. He said the Tour's fan surveys indicate 70 percent look favorably upon reunification, and 32 percent look favorably upon an investment-only situation. 'That's a core foundation to why we're spending the amount of time and energy trying to accomplish that,' he said. And what about the constituency of Tour pros who may not be in favor of welcoming back those players who departed for LIV?'I think Adam Scott put it very well last week, when you're looking to reunify the game, not everybody is going to be happy,' Monahan said. 'I would say that with our player directors, with our board, we're highly conscious of reunification and focusing on that as a goal. And ultimately when we get to that position that's a question that we'll all answer. But I'm hopeful that when you look at what we're trying to accomplish, what that means for the PGA Tour, what that means for the game on a long-term basis, that we will solve for that in the most effective and prudent way we possibly can."