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Mark Schlabach
While PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, Tiger Woods and others have expressed optimism about getting a deal done with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to reunify men’s professional golf, Rory McIlroy doesn’t sound so convinced.
During a news conference Wednesday ahead of this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Florida, McIlroy said he didn’t think the PGA Tour was any closer to reaching an agreement after recent meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan at the White House.
“I don’t think it’s ever felt that close, but I don’t, it doesn’t feel like it’s any closer,” McIlroy said.
Monahan and PGA Tour player directors Adam Scott and Woods met with Al-Rumayyan and Trump for about four hours in Washington on Feb. 20. That session didn’t lead to an agreement with the PIF, which has financed the rival LIV Golf League the past four years.
Sources have told ESPN that the future of the LIV Golf League and team golf’s place in the sport’s future ecosystem remain sticking points with the Saudis.
“Look, I think it takes two to tango,” McIlroy said. “So if one party is willing and ready and the other isn’t, it sort of makes it tough.”
On Tuesday, Monahan told reporters in Orlando that his optimism about finalizing an investment from the PIF hasn’t changed.
“I think anything that the three of us [Monahan, Trump, Al-Rumayyan] have said is consistent with what should be said when you’re in the middle of a complex discussion to try and unify the game of golf,” Monahan said. “It doesn’t speak to my confidence level; it speaks to the goal. I view that meeting as a huge step. And so, I look at that very positively.”
Monahan said another meeting at the White House hadn’t been scheduled. Monahan and Scott also met with Trump on Feb. 4 in an attempt to speed up the federal government’s approval of a potential agreement.
“The dynamic he brings is he’s the leader of the free world and he has an active interest in reunifying the game,” Monahan said. “He’s in an incredibly strong position to do so, and his willingness to do so obviously changes the dynamic. I don’t think we would have the cadence and we’d be in the position we’re in to get a deal done but for the president.”
McIlroy said while it would be nice to have the best golfers in the world competing in tournaments outside of the four major championships each season, he isn’t convinced the PGA Tour has to get a deal done.
“I think the narrative around golf would welcome a deal in terms of just having all the best players together again,” McIlroy said. “But I don’t think the PGA Tour needs a deal. I think the momentum is pretty strong. As you say, TV’s been good, TGL’s been hopefully pretty additive to the overall situation. I think it would still be the ideal scenario for golf as a whole. But from a pure PGA Tour perspective, I don’t think it necessarily needs it.”
On Wednesday, LIV Golf captain Bryson DeChambeau, the reigning U.S. Open champion, sounded confident that his circuit was going to survive, whether the PGA Tour gets a deal done with the PIF or not.
“I continue to see LIV Golf growing,” DeChambeau said during a news conference in Hong Kong. “It’s going to grow at an exponentiating pace for years to come, and we aren’t going anywhere.”
