Latest news with #PGATour-PIF
USA Today
26-04-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Lynch: Shocking! LIV consultant encourages Saudis to keep shoveling cash in the furnace
Lynch: Shocking! LIV consultant encourages Saudis to keep shoveling cash in the furnace A year ago, Michael Klein was one of several sports industry rainmakers who refused to discuss their work on LIV Golf for Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund before a U.S. Senate committee, citing the threat of a 20-year prison term for violating the Kingdom's confidentiality laws. He was less taciturn at this week's CAA World Congress of Sports conference in Nashville, where no oaths were administered. Klein insisted the Saudis wanted partnership rather than competition with the PGA Tour, a calculable revisionism that ignores LIV's goal of having the best players on every tour funneled its way. He then bemoaned 'badly advised complexities' that hampered the league's development, a delightful sideswipe that was surely noticed at the agency formerly known as Performance54, which has profited handsomely from driving LIV since its inception. (He didn't specify which complexities were badly advised, presumably out of respect for the attention span of his audience.) 'They'll continue to invest in LIV as a separate entity or as a partner with PGA, either way,' Klein said of his PIF client. 'They've made a substantial investment believing in the growth in golf, which I happen to think is smart, and the growth in team golf, which is smart, and the long-term viability of a constructive relationship with the PGA.' 'I believe there will be a constructive relationship,' he added. On that point, Klein might be right. Sure, it's almost impossible to find anyone optimistic that a PGA Tour-PIF deal will be consummated, but cold cash has a way of thawing even the deepest chill. Still, Klein's claim that team golf is a smart bet seems audacious when LIV's own figures show it's more than $5 billion in the red with little to show for it beyond sponsorship by Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers (that being the commercial highlight announced during LIV's season debut in the U.S. earlier this month). If PIF chief Yasir Al-Rumayyan heeds the counsel of his consultants, he'll continue to torch money while ignoring the reality that his pet project is more of a smoking ruin than a shining city on a hill. No one in Al-Rumayyan's circle is willing to tell the emperor — or in this case, His Excellency — that he's wearing no clothes, that his presumption of fan and financial support for team golf has proven fanciful. As one golf executive involved in the process pithily put it via text message: 'No one has the balls.' Nor, a cynic might note, the incentive. Not as long as the fees keep flowing. Outside of the Ryder Cup, team golf is nothing more than a palate cleanser in the men's professional game. Take this week's Zurich Classic of New Orleans, the PGA Tour's only team event. The format features foursomes and fourball action, which resembles actual team play more than anything offered by LIV, which merely collects individual scores and presents them as team totals. But even there, the focus isn't really on the competitive merits of two-man teams. 'It's just a fun different experience this week.' — Luke Donald. 'It'll be a little kind of family-friendly week.' — Camilo Villegas. 'A fun week for us.' — Taylor Moore. 'Everyone probably says the same thing, but it's really the funnest week probably for any of us the whole year… It's nice to switch things up and be a little more lighthearted.' — Wyndham Clark. The winners get a nice check and FedEx Cup points, but that's how they talk about the member-guest at home. Even commissioner Jay Monahan didn't attempt to present the tournament as anything more than it is. 'To be able to play in a different format for that one week and to do so in a highly competitive but a fun atmosphere I think has just differentiated this event,' he said. That's what team golf amounts to at the elite level — a crafty move by an imaginative sponsor to distinguish its stop from all the others and a chill interlude for players at the right time in the schedule, but certainly not a template other sponsors have sought to copy nor one the players have encouraged. Thus, it happens one week a year and TGL is early-week entertainment in winter. Team golf is a diversion, not a core component, and certainly not something to be shoehorned into the schedule to assuage the pride of Al-Rumayyan and his well-compensated hangers-on. LIV wagered everything on gimmickry and lost, and the caterwauling of its online incels won't change that reality. If the product had any appeal other than cash, there'd be a credible advocate for its continued existence who doesn't collect payment for his backing. But it doesn't, so there isn't.
USA Today
11-03-2025
- Business
- USA Today
PGA Tour-PIF talks 'substantial' and being moved by Trump's involvement, says Jay Monahan
PGA Tour-PIF talks 'substantial' and being moved by Trump's involvement, says Jay Monahan Show Caption Hide Caption Jay Monahan says PGA Tour 'is fully committed to reunification' Jay Monahan said the PGA Tour believe there's room to integrate important aspects of LIV Golf as golf continues to move toward unification. PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan says talks to unify men's professional golf with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund are ongoing but provided no specifics. Monahan acknowledged hurdles remain, but a deal is possible that would see the PIF's LIV Golf integrated into the PGA Tour. Former President Donald Trump has participated in two meetings between the PGA Tour and PIF, acting as a facilitator to help broker a deal. Monahan repeatedly emphasized the Tour would not agree to any deal that compromises its current product. PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan updated the media on the status of negotiations with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund to unify men's professional golf during his opening remarks. In short, talks continue to drag on. Then he spent the rest of his annual State of the Tour press conference deflecting 16 questions pertaining to a potential deal and refusing to provide any specifics. 'The talks are real, they're substantial, and they're being driven at the top levels of both organizations. Those talks have been significantly bolstered by President Trump's willingness to serve as a facilitator. President Trump is a lifelong golf fan. He believes strongly in the game's power and potential, and he has been exceedingly generous with his time and influence to help bring a deal together,' Monahan said on Tuesday. 'He wants to see the game reunified. We want to see the game reunified. His involvement has made the prospect of reunification very real. 'We appreciate Yasir's innovative vision, and we can see a future where we welcome him on to our board and work together to move the global game forward. As part of our negotiations, we believe there's room to integrate important aspects of LIV Golf into the PGA Tour platform. We're doing everything that we can to bring the two sides together.' President Trump has participated in two meetings since he took office, the most recent of which took place on Feb. 20. It has been rumored that the last meeting didn't go swimmingly, otherwise it could've been a very different press conference. Monahan confirmed that a meeting to continue discussions isn't currently scheduled at this time. He noted hurdles still exist to a deal, and on multiple occasions pointed out that the Tour wouldn't make a deal that 'diminishes the strength of our platform or the very real momentum we have with our fans and our partners.' 'So while we've removed some hurdles, others remain. But like our fans, we still share the same sense of urgency to get to a resolution,' he said. 'Our team is fully committed to reunification. The only deal that we would regret is one that compromises the essence of what makes the game of golf and the PGA Tour so exceptional.' The Tour and PIF announced a framework agreement in June 2023 with a deadline to make a deal by the end of the year. Monahan stated that there is no deadline in place for a deal to get done. 'It's just not that simple,' Monahan said. 'When you're in the middle of these negotiations and they're as complex as they are, you know, the reason I say 'urgency' is that that's what we're operating with, but there isn't a concrete deadline that's been established.' Monahan also hinted that progress made during the initial meeting may have stalled when they reconvened in Washington D.C. 'When you're in the midst of complex negotiations, particularly when you may be near a breakthrough, there are ebbs and flows in the discussion. The most important thing is the mutual respect that we've built over the last couple of years,' he said. Monahan has changed his tune drastically from the days when he sat in the same room and said the Tour wouldn't give any consideration to LIV Golf. 'Over the last three years, it's undeniable that the PGA Tour has been pressure tested like never before. External forces created an environment where we had to speed up where we always needed and wanted to go,' he said. 'But it's the internal forces, and by that I'm talking about our players, that allowed us to take extraordinary steps to embrace the challenge and reimagine the future of the PGA Tour and the game. The level of commitment and engagement from our players, not just as part of the change but as developers and leaders of the change, has made all the difference. Bottom line, we're better for it. Disruption has generated momentum, growth and real action.' More than half of the 30 questions addressed the reunification negotiations and Monahan did his best at tap dancing around the fact that he had little meat he was willing or able to share. 'I think I've shared our position today. I've shared it in the past. I think at this point I don't have any additional information to share beyond,' he said. 'There will be a day when we can specifically talk about the end result and how that's been addressed hopefully, but right now I've given you exactly what our focus areas are.' When one media member took the questioning in another direction and asked Monahan about the five-year anniversary of COVID-19 shutting down the Players Championship, he replied, 'Listen, I shared our priorities – no, I'm just kidding.' Even Monahan cracked fun at how little he was willing to say.
New York Times
11-03-2025
- Business
- New York Times
PGA Tour willing to adopt elements of LIV Golf to get a deal with the PIF done
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Has LIV Golf pushed the PGA Tour to get better? For the first time since the onset of the disruptor league, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan acknowledged that its rival tour has inspired a surge of internal growth. As negotiations drag on with the Saudi Public Investment Fund, Monahan conceded on Tuesday there are aspects of LIV Golf that could be worked into the PGA Tour if a deal were to be agreed upon with LIV's backer to reunite the professional game. Advertisement 'As part of our negotiations, we believe there's room to integrate important aspects of LIV Golf into the PGA Tour platform. We're doing everything that we can to bring the two sides together,' Monahan said Tuesday at the Players Championship. 'That said, we will not do so in a way that diminishes the strength of our platform or the very real momentum we have with our fans and our partners. So while we've removed some hurdles, others remain. But like our fans, we still share the same sense of urgency to get to a resolution.' Monahan's remarks come after two recent meetings in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump, the latest including PGA Tour player directors Tiger Woods and Adam Scott, and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the PIF. The PGA Tour has publicly requested Trump's assistance in reuniting the game — a Department of Justice antitrust review of the proposed PGA Tour-PIF deal was long considered a deterrent to its completion, but is not expected to be a problem under the Trump administration. 'He wants to see the game reunified, we want to see the game reunified,' Monahan said. 'His involvement has made the prospect of reunification very real.' For months the tour's top leadership had been tight-lipped about proclaiming their goal was to create 'one tour,' so as not to raise concerns of monopolistic behavior within the Justice Department. With Trump in the Oval Office, that hesitancy has dissipated. Monahan told reporters at the Genesis Invitational that the ultimate goal of the negotiations is 'the game of golf operating under one tour with all the top players playing on that one tour.' But on Tuesday, Monahan did not use the same language, instead stating that the focus is on the 'best players in the world playing together more often.' Trump added to the 'one tour' narrative, telling White House reporters: 'I just think golf — it's very much an individual sport, and you want to see the best players playing against each other and not playing in two different locations.' It's difficult to imagine how that vision would unfold, with each party holding different — if not directly opposing — values for what should be prioritized in the structure of a professional golf league. LIV plays a 14-event global schedule, its format structured around team golf and 54 players playing in a shotgun start format. The PGA Tour is largely based in the United States, with even its smaller-field signature events featuring more than 70 pros. Only one event, the Zurich Classic, is a team competition. Advertisement The most powerful individuals in the sport, a group that now includes Trump, are focused on bringing these products together. Rory McIlroy has said that Trump is not personally in favor of LIV's 54-hole team golf format. But Monahan would not go into specifics about which aspects of the disruptor league he could see being integrated into the PGA Tour, nor did he divulge whether LIV Golf's first-year CEO, Scott O'Neill has been part of those discussions. Monahan said that he could see a future in which the PGA Tour board welcomes Al-Rumayyan, giving him a seat at the table, as the 'framework agreement' between the PGA Tour, PIF and DP World Tour stated when it was signed in June 2023. But he also emphasized the the ethos of the PGA Tour rests in its 72-hole, stroke play format. 'These tournaments are 72-hole stroke play tournaments at historic, iconic venues, with moments like we had last Sunday with Russell Henley and his family. That's who we are as an organization, and that's who we'll always be as an organization,' he said. 'So that's at the center of the way that we think about what our fans want and what our players want, and that's obviously a very important consideration in our discussions, which is why I've mentioned that today.' This type of disconnect, and many others that have percolated over the past three years of this saga, are what resulted in the uncertain outcome of last month's White House meeting. Rumblings of a PGA Tour-PIF 'deal in principle' being announced by Trump following the four-hour long session were prevalent, but the meeting produced nothing of the sort. On Tuesday, Monahan attributed the lack of developments to the ebbs and flows of a high-level negotiation. 'The most important thing is the mutual respect that we've built over the last couple of years,' Monahan said. McIlroy, who sits on the PGA Tour's transaction subcommittee to communicate with the PIF directly, also stated last week that the tour does not 'need a deal' with the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, given the $1.5 billion investment from Strategic Sports Group. Monahan added to that idea in his press conference by stressing that the PGA Tour is in a position of strength and power — TV ratings are up year-over-year, sponsors are committing to long-term partnerships, and TGL is proving to be an additive product, to name a few from his long list of PGA Tour's self-proclaimed brownie points. Media regulations have been relaxed and a new, potentially bracket-style Tour Championship format is in the works, perhaps for 2025. Advertisement Improvements to the tour's pace of play policies are being explored more closely than ever before. Monahan announced that data surrounding speed of play will be released later this year — the use of rangefinders during PGA Tour events will also begin to be tested at the six PGA Tour events between the Masters and PGA Championship.
NBC Sports
05-03-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
McIlroy: PGA Tour-PIF deal would be ideal for golf
Todd Lewis joins Golf Today to analyze Rory McIlroy's comments about a potential PGA Tour-PIF deal, discussing the "momentum" between the two sides.
USA Today
04-03-2025
- Business
- USA Today
PGA Tour Commish: No meeting with PIF scheduled at this time. What's next?
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."
