02/06/25 04:37:00
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02/06 16:35 CST Trump and Jay Monahan meet at White House as PGA Tour deal with
Saudis gets closer
Trump and Jay Monahan meet at White House as PGA Tour deal with Saudis gets
closer
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said he met with President Donald Trump at
the White House this week as the tour moves closer to finalizing a long-sought
investment deal with the Saudi Arabian backers of rival LIV Golf.
Monahan said Thursday in a statement he and Adam Scott, one of the player
directors on the PGA Tour board, met with Trump and asked him to get involved
in the negotiations "for the good of the game, the good of the country, and for
all the countries involved."
"We are grateful that his leadership has brought us closer to a final deal,
paving the way for reunification of men's professional golf," Monahan said.
The statement was signed by Monahan, Scott and Tiger Woods, who is vice
chairman of the commercial PGA Tour Enterprises and the only one of six player
directors who has a term without limits. Woods, heavily involved in
negotiations, was not at the meeting Tuesday. That was the day his mother,
Kultida, died in Florida.
A flight tracker on social media noted Woods' plane arrived in Washington on
Monday evening and left for Florida shortly after midnight.
The PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia first agreed to a
deal in June 2023, which ended the antitrust lawsuits between them. But that
framework agreement drew the attention of the Justice Department, and the year
ended without a deal in place.
The tour and PIF have been meeting for nearly a year. Trump, just 10 days after
he was elected, invited Monahan to play golf at Trump International in West
Palm Beach, Florida, on Nov. 15.
Trump said on the "Let's Go!" podcast on the eve of the election that "it would
take me the better part of 15 minutes to get that deal done."
"I'm really going to work on other things, to be honest with you," Trump said
on the podcast. "I think we have much bigger problems than that. But I do think
we should have one tour and they should have the best players in that tour."
The tour has been keeping the Justice Department informed of its negotiations
for the last several months as it makes progress on an investment deal with PIF.
After the deadline for the original framework agreement with PIF expired at the
end of 2023, the tour signed with Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of North
American sports owners spearheaded by Fenway Sports Group, for a $1.5 billion
investment in PGA Tour Enterprises with the potential for that to double.
PGA Tour Enterprises is separate from the tax-exempt PGA Tour that deals with
competition.
The latest negotiations are for PIF to become a minority investor in the
commercial arm. Still unclear is how that would patch up the fractured golf
landscape.
LIV Golf began its fourth year on Thursday in Saudi Arabia, equipped with a
network deal (Fox) and a new CEO (Scott O'Neil), and with several of its 12
four-man teams getting additional corporate sponsorship deals.
PIF and its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, are the financial muscle behind LIV
Golf. The breakaway spent some $2 billion to recruit top players, who then were
suspended by the PGA Tour. That group included Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson,
Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm. They have combined to win 17
majors, and three have been No. 1 in the world.
They only time all the world's best compete together now are the four majors.
The USGA this week was the first of the majors to publish a qualifying category
for a LIV golfer not already eligible for the U.S. Open.
Rory McIlroy, who serves on a transaction subcommittee for tour negotiations,
said last week at Pebble Beach he felt a new administration was "going to be a
bit more deal friendly."
"I think from an investment standpoint, that deal should and will be done,"
McIlroy said. "But it doesn't solve the problem of what the landscape of golf
looks like going forward. I'd say the biggest impediment is maybe the differing
visions of what golf should look like in the future."
Trump's involvement in golf goes back more than two decades when he began
building a portfolio of high-end golf courses, and buying the renowned
Turnberry Golf Club in Scotland.
He also bought Doral Resort outside Miami, a venerable PGA Tour stop that had
hosted a World Golf Championship until moving it in 2016 to Mexico City when it
became difficult to find a title sponsor with Trump and his ubiquitous presence.
Three of Trump's courses have hosted LIV events, including one this year at
Doral.
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