Jay Monahan, complicated return to business

• golf

PGA Tour general commissioner Jay Monahan is scheduled to return from sick leave next week. He will have to show diplomacy to restore the confidence of his players, totally excluded from the secret negotiations on a possible merger between the PGA Tour and the alternative circuit LIV Golf, desired by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF).

Jay Monahan, situation

Most of the conversation on Wednesday before the Genesis Scottish Open kicked off at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick revolved around the US Senate hearing on Capitol Hill on the possible future partnership between the PGA Tour and the Trust Fund.

public investment (PIF) of Saudi Arabia. This PIF who had poached at exorbitant prices, last year, some of his best players. And the ears of Jay Monahan, the boss of the PGA Tour, must have been whistling, several thousand kilometers from Scotland.

A few days before his return to the office, on July 17. Rory McIlroy, the fiercest opponent of LIV Golf, was careful not to speak, especially after the revelation, Tuesday in Washington, that he had had a very courteous and constructive meeting, at the end of 2022, with Yasir Al-Rumayyan , the governor of the PIF, to discuss the future and a possible rapprochement between the two rival circuits.

Long before the crazy idea of the Saudis, at the end of April, to make him the owner-player of a LIV Golf team. On the other hand, Xander Schauffele, the 6th world player and Olympic golf champion, did not take gloves: “We can say that this is one of the most difficult periods crossed by the PGA Tour.

This guy (Jay Monahan) was supposed to be there for us. But he was not. Obviously, he had health problems. I'm glad he feels much better. But yes, he will have to answer a lot of difficult questions when he returns. I don't trust people easily.

He had my confidence, he has it much less today and I am not the only one to say it. Totally excluded from the months-long negotiations between a handful of influential men, at golf games and secret meetings in London, Venice and San Francisco, the players of the PGA Tour are, for the most part, very annoyed to have learned in the press, on television and on social networks, that a framework agreement had been signed for a possible merger of the two rival circuits.

Without being informed at all by Jay Monahan, even before the announcement of the agreement, on June 6. “We saw reports, heard things, then saw other reports, and some things changed, and then some things changed. There are disagreements on certain points, and if this is the case there will be no lasting agreement, it will not be able to work, “said Jordan Spieth, questioned on the same subject.

"Honestly, we don't know much. And I don't sit on the board, nor do I sit on the PAC (the PGA Tour Players' Advisory Council),” recalled the American, winner of three career Majors, to sum up the general sentiment. . "From conversations I've had with players, Jay (Monahan) is going to have to deal with trust issues all over the place.

I think he is aware of that. I am sure he is preparing a plan to try to restore this confidence, ”added Spieth, who has just invested with Justin Thomas in Leeds United, the English football club freshly relegated to the English 2nd division.

Another expected reaction, Wednesday in Scotland, after the Washington hearing, that of the world number one, Scottie Scheffler: “We did not really learn much, again. When we're on tour, we don't always know very well what's going on and that's a bit worrying.

They keep saying it's a player-run organization, but we don't really have the information we need. I watched part of the audition and learned nothing. So I don't know what to say. No player was involved in the discussions that led to the framework agreement (announced on June 6). So we don't really know what it is, ”concluded the winner of the 2022 Masters.