PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan Says Negotiations With LIV Golf's Backer Are ‘Accelerating’

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Negotiations with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia are “accelerating” and PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said there is a “shared vision to quiet the noise and unlock golf’s worldwide potential.”

But Monahan also said Tuesday at TPC Sawgrass that the negotiations are complicated and will “take time,” that it is sensitive and that he sees a “positive outcome.”

For just the third time since Monahan’s shocking announcement last June that the Tour had reached a “framework agreement” with the DP World Tour and the PIF—which backs the LIV Golf League—Monahan met formally with the media, this time in advance of the Players Championship.

Monahan noted that fans are “tired of conflict and who is getting what” and that they “want to watch the world’s best golfers compete with history and at venues that they recognize and love.”

He noted a deal such as this “can’t be negotiated in public,” but offered that he and members of the PGA Tour Policy Board went to Saudi Arabia in January to meet with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the PIF and the director of LIV Golf.

This came after the Tour announced a private equity deal that will see nearly $3 billion invested into PGA Tour Enterprises, the new for-profit entity that is separate from the PGA Tour. That money is coming from the Strategic Sports Group, which is comprised of various sports owners and was viewed in some ways as an avenue to avoid PIF investment.