Monahan: the Saudis saw the PGA TOUR as a feeder tour

Jay Monahan says LIV Golf’s Saudi backers regarded the PGA TOUR as a feeder for their own league before it was launched. The outgoing commissioner was the first guest on Eamon Lynch Has Questions, Golf Channel’s new interview programme, on Thursday night. Earlier that day LIV’s lawyers had told the bankruptcy court in New Jersey that the league would wind down.

Lynch put to him the argument that much of the split could have been avoided had he taken a call from the Saudis at the start. Monahan said he was not aware of any such call. Whenever it came, he said, the Saudis had already been at tour events with their lawyers, recruiting players and meeting agents. “And they saw us – they were saying this to others – as a feeder tour,” he said. He said any meeting would have meant either agreeing to become a feeder tour or backing the tour’s own model.

The tour’s framework agreement with the Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, was announced live on CNBC on 6 June 2023. Monahan called the rollout his biggest regret: “I should have started with the players, and I should have found a better way to communicate it.” He stepped away four days after the announcement to look after his mental health and returned that summer.

Talks with the PIF went on until February 2025, when Monahan met President Donald Trump at the White House with the PIF governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan. Tiger Woods and Adam Scott were also involved, Monahan said. Asked when he knew no deal would come, Monahan said: “Probably when we left the White House last year.”

His term ends on 31 December, and Brian Rolapp, the tour’s chief executive, becomes its fifth commissioner on 1 January.

Former LIV players will wait at least until then to learn whether they can come back. Gabby Herzig of The Athletic reports that the tour wants LIV’s bankruptcy finished before it decides, and that it puts its long-term health ahead of a quick financial lift from re-signing stars. Brooks Koepka is the only former LIV player to have returned so far, on terms that Jon Rahm now says he would probably accept. LIV is next in court on 24 November.

Sources

• PGA TOUR: Monahan reflects on tenure as PGA Tour commissioner, opens up about Framework Agreement, legacy
• Golfweek via Yahoo Sports: Jay Monahan on LIV Golf, the Saudi deal and his biggest regret
• GOLF.com via Yahoo Sports: Jay Monahan opens up on controversial pre-LIV ‘feeder tour’ decision
• theScore: PGA Tour won’t decide on LIV players’ status until at least January