PGA Tour chief Jay Monahan mentioned Tuesday talks with the Saudi Arabian backers of LIV Golf have been “accelerating” however was tight-lipped on how the proposed three way partnership between the 2 our bodies would work.
Chatting with reporters forward of this week’s Gamers Championship, Monahan, in his first public deal with since August, mentioned negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund (PIF) have been progressing.
Nevertheless Monahan mentioned a number of “key points” remained to be resolved and that hammering out a deal would “take time”.
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“As I’ve mentioned on various events, you may’t negotiate a deal like this in public, so I will probably be transient,” Monahan mentioned.
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“I just lately met with the governor of the PIF, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, and our negotiations are accelerating as we spend time collectively.
“Whereas we’ve got a number of key points that we nonetheless have to work via, we’ve got a shared imaginative and prescient to quiet the noise and unlock golf’s worldwide potential.”
The emergence of the Saudi-funded LIV Golf, which has lured prime PGA Tour gamers with large signing on charges and profitable restricted area tournaments, plunged golf right into a bitter civil struggle.
Monahan nonetheless shocked the sporting world final June by asserting that the PGA Tour had agreed a tie-up with LIV’s backers, the PIF, in a surprising U-turn that adopted secret negotiations.
The exact element of how the brand new enterprise between the PGA Tour and PIF will work stays shrouded in thriller. An preliminary December 2023 deadline to agree a deal got here and went as negotiations proceed.
Since then extra gamers have left the PGA Tour to hitch LIV, most notably Spanish star Jon Rahm, the reigning Masters champion who opted to hitch the upstart circuit in December.
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– ‘Actual progress’ made –
Monahan, who has confronted criticism for his dealing with of the disaster, declined to touch upon the query of whether or not gamers who left for LIV can be welcomed again to the PGA Tour.
“Like I mentioned, we’ve made and proceed to make actual progress in our negotiations and our discussions with the PIF,” Monahan mentioned. “I recognise that that is irritating for all of you, however it really isn’t in the most effective curiosity of the PGA Tour and our membership and for PIF for me to be speaking about the place we’re with particular components of our discussions.
“I might simply stress the truth that we’re engaged, we’re making progress, however I’m actually not at liberty to share any of the main points on that entrance.”
Monahan added nonetheless that the eventual objective was to unify the game in order that the entire world’s greatest gamers have been collaborating on one circuit.
“As a board and as an organisation, we’re dedicated to making an attempt to get to a spot the place there’s unification,” Monahan mentioned.
Monahan additionally declined to say whether or not the brand new joint PGA Tour-PIF enterprise would function LIV’s crew golf idea.
“There are lots of issues that we’re speaking about, crew golf being one in all them, however I’m not at liberty to speak in regards to the specifics,” Monahan mentioned. “I simply don’t assume that’s useful for what we’re making an attempt to perform collectively.”
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Monahan urged rank-and-file PGA Tour members against permitting LIV gamers again on to the circuit to be versatile, however acknowledged that any eventual settlement was unlikely to be universally common.
“If you’re in a negotiation like this and also you’re in a time like this, it requires open-mindedness, it requires flexibility, and it requires a long-term view and a long-term imaginative and prescient,” Monahan mentioned.
“However nonetheless we find yourself, I feel that we’re not going to have the ability to fulfill everybody, and that goes for each side.
“However what we’re making an attempt to do is to get to the absolute best final result once more for the Tour and for the sport, and I do assume that that’s achievable.”