CROMWELL, Conn. — No one knows when. PGA TOUR An agreement will be reached with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), the beneficiary of LIV Golf, but one thing is certain: the deal will not be finalized during this week’s Travelers Championship.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan gave reporters at TPC River Highlands an update on the negotiations without revealing anything beyond what the golf world already knows, and also denied rumors of a pending deal.
“There has been a lot of news about ongoing discussions with PIF,” Monahan said.
“I am not going to negotiate in public, [everyone is] I want to know more, but I want to go back to a meeting I had in New York two weeks ago on Friday. The entire trade committee was there, including Tiger Woods and Adam Scott, and Rory [McIlroy] I met with PIF Governor Yasir Al Rumayyan and other representatives of PIF via conference call from the Memorial Tournament. It was a very productive discussion. As I said, progress has been made and we will continue to engage on a regular basis. We had a conference call at 10 o’clock. [Wednesday] We have morning meetings with PIF several times a week.”
At the very least, discussions with PIF have taken place, but not before the Players Championship in March.
“I would like to say that many important points were discussed at that meeting. [in New York]”There is agreement on the key aspects of getting to a final agreement, and there are a number of areas that we have identified that we were not aware of and that we are focusing on and working on,” Monahan continued.
“So my outlook on these discussions remains very positive.”
Negotiations between the PGA Tour and PIF were further complicated in February by the addition of a new investor in the tour, Strategic Sports Group (SSG).
Before the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Monahan and the Tour announced that SSG, a consortium of sports owners from across the U.S., had agreed to invest $1.5 billion in the Tour, an investment that will provide the Tour with much-needed capital amid rising costs thanks in part to the growing profile of LIV Golf.
PIF, of course, has assets of over $700 billion and has reportedly invested over $1 billion in rival circuits to the PGA Tour.
Still, SSG helped the tour establish an equity program for its players, meaning top tour members would own significant shares in a newly formed entity, PGA Tour Enterprises.
“All I can say is we have people like John Henry, Arthur Blank, Sam Kennedy, Andy Cohen, Joe Gorder who are new to our sport but have a wealth of experience in the sports and corporate worlds, and I think it says a lot when they say this is one of the most complicated scenarios they’ve ever seen,” Monahan added.
“As for whether complexity is being underestimated, I think it’s fair to say that it’s unreasonable for anyone to think they can fully understand complexity unless they have the full context of everything that’s being discussed. There are a lot of different factors at play, but I don’t think anyone who’s having the conversation is unaware of the complexity and I think everyone accepts the fact that in a complex situation there are things and obstacles and things that have to be overcome. We have the right people around the table and so are they.”
Monahan offered reporters a long-winded litany of words that contained no juice or meat, but the commissioner said everyone involved was focused on getting the right outcome with the players and fans in mind.
No one knows when that outcome will occur.
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation Playing Through. Follow For more golf articles, follow us on Twitter Jack Mirko In the same way.
