MEMPHIS — Meeting Wednesday with members of the media on the eve of the opening round of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan provided an update on the ongoing negotiations with LIV Golf and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. Essentially, there isn’t an update.
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Monahan preferred to focus on the success of the revamped PGA Tour schedule featuring its series of limited-field signature event and to trumpet the creation of PGA Tour Enterprises and closing of the $1.5 billion investment deal with Strategic Sports Group in late January. The tour released its 2025 FedEx Cup schedule earlier in the day indicating that a deal that would include the LIV Golf League wasn’t imminent—at least not in time to integrate into its scheduling model.
“They're very complicated discussions,” said Monahan, who met personally with the PIF and its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, in New York during the week of the Memorial Tournament in June. “There are a lot of elements to them, but when you have the level of interaction, when you've got … you're continuing to meet and move forward and discuss and debate, you can't be anything other than hopeful. And as it relates to times and timeframes and where we are, I just say that we're in a good place with the conversations, and that's the most important thing.”
Perhaps indicative of the slow nature of the negotiations, Rory McIlroy, a member of the tour’s transaction subcommittee, said he hasn’t participated in any conference calls related to PIF negotiations since June.
Monahan’s appearance at TPC Southwind marked the one-year anniversary of his return to work after taking a month-long leave of absence to address mental and physical health concerns brought on by anxiety. He responded to a question about his well-being by saying he “never felt better,” but he segued quickly to extolling the progress the tour has made since the start of the year.
“I feel great, and I feel great because what I just talked about to be here on the eve of the FedEx Cup playoffs and to have the momentum that we have behind the PGA Tour and to have accomplished so much alongside our players and my teammates; that has been very inspiring,” he said. “It's been something that has been awesome to see and be a part of and that's what my focus is on.
“And as for me, I'm doing very well. I am completely … I love the spot we're in. I love the opportunities in front of us. And again, if you had told me a year ago that I'd be sitting here talking to all of you and we'd have a partner in SSG with the amount of experience in the sport and business world with capital behind them now integrating into our business to having that level of alignment with our players.”
When pressed on the status of his health, he smiled. “I couldn’t be better, and I’m not just saying that.”
No commissioner has been under more pressure to maintain the tour’s position as the strongest in professional golf after the LIV Golf League launched in 2022. LIV has recruited a number of the game’s top players who built their résumés first on the PGA Tour, but Monahan has made several moves to stanch the outflow of talent. With the infusion of capital from SSG, the tour is in a much stronger position in its negotiations with PIF to reunify men’s professional golf—or, more importantly, to simply strike a deal in which PIF also invests in PGA Tour Enterprises.
Monahan was more interested in discussing what has been accomplished this year rather than what might occur down the road, while allowing that negotiations with PIF are “an important part” of the tour’s potential growth.
“You look at where we were at the beginning of the year to have announced a billion-and-a-half-dollar investment from SSG, which allows for the PGA Tour to … create a corporate structure and PGA Tour enterprises, that really is a structure for innovation,” he said. “I mentioned the competitive model, the competitive framework working exceedingly well. … You think about where we are engagement amongst our players, our partners, our fans, our investors, I think is really, really high and really strong. There's tremendous momentum. I think that's reflected in the energy you see coming into the playoffs [and] the 2025 schedule.”
