PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – In the land of geopolitics and billion-dollar business, the secret sauce is always in subtlety.
It’s rarely what is said that matters. Instead, it’s what is not said. For example, when PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan began his traditional press conference Tuesday at The Players Championship with 14 minutes of opening remarks there was a notable moment.
“Those talks [with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund] have been significantly bolstered by President Trump’s willingness to serve as a facilitator,” Monahan said.
“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.
“He wants to see the game reunified. We want to see the game reunified. His involvement has made the prospect of reunification very real.”
For those reading between the lines, that scripted remark was missing a pivotal third member of that group that met in the White House last month — the governor of the Public Investment Fund.
Even the most casual observer will have noticed that the tone coming from the Tour, which is the only side of this equation that has spoken publicly, has pivoted between the first meeting in the Oval Office, which didn’t include PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, and the second. The narrative has drifted from “moving at pace,” “listening to fans,” and “reunification” to “I don’t think the PGA Tour needs a deal.”
That was Rory McIlroy’s take last week at Bay Hill when asked about the ongoing negotiations between the Tour and PIF that began in June 2023 with the announcement of the framework agreement. On this front it’s clear, the Northern Irishman is a bellwether of how the negotiations are going.
In Tuesday’s address, Monahan was impressively forthright, if not understandably vague, when he addressed the negotiations.
“We’re doing everything that we can to bring the two sides together,” Monahan said. “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.”
There is precious little ambiguity in Monahan’s comments when taken in context. “We believe there’s room to integrate important aspects of LIV Golf into the PGA Tour platform,” he added. But the void between “integrate important aspects” and whatever Al-Rumayyan envisions has never seemed greater.
There are two essential components that remain ambiguous – leverage and the future of professional golf. On both fronts, Monahan projected strength in his annual State of the Tour address, walking the media through the Fan Forward initiatives that promise to reinvent the circuit.
As for the future of pro golf, it is becoming increasingly clear that team golf, in all its forms, is at the heart of the impasse. Al-Rumayyan believes that the future is LIV while the Tour seems to view the league, which is funded by PIF, as additive to the historic core which is 72 holes of stroke-play tournaments played at traditional venues with the best players.
All negotiations are emotional and it is increasingly clear the emotions of the moment are not as strong that there will be reunification. Monahan was careful — he must be as the sole spokesperson for the negotiations — but between the lines, the pivot is clear — there is a world where there is no deal.
The Tour certainly has the heft to move forward without a deal, with $1.5 billion in investment from Strategic Sports Group that has spent the last year sitting in an account collecting interest and no small amount of momentum — but is that best for the game?
Monahan referenced the Fan Forward initiative multiple times Tuesday but he didn’t mention that the feedback from over 50,000 fans included a mandate with about 70%, a supermajority, of those polled wanting reunification.
There are two sides to every negotiation and the current stalemate — there are currently no meetings scheduled between the Tour, PIF and President Donald Trump — does not appear to be of the circuit’s making.
The Tour can’t be expected to turn away from decades of history based on the unproven belief that team golf is the only path forward, but there is a nagging reminder as the circuit — flush with investment and emboldened by a fan-friendly initiative — contemplates a future without a deal. The Tour underestimated PIF once, are they comfortable doing it again?