PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said he had met President Donald Trump at the White House this week while the tour is closer to the finalization of an investment agreement for a long time with the Saudi donors rival golf liv.
Monahan said Thursday in a declaration He and Adam Scott, one of the directors of the PGA Tour Board players, met 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 management has brought us closer to a final agreement, opening the way to the reunification of male professional golf,” said Monahan.
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The declaration was signed by Monahan, Scott and Tiger Woods, vice-president of the Enterprises PGA Tour Commercial. He did not say that Woods was in Reunion, and he was not clear who asked for the meeting.
The PGA Tour and the public investment fund of Saudi Arabia first accepted an agreement In June 2023, which ended the antitrust proceedings between them. But this framework agreement drew the attention of the Ministry of JusticeAnd the year ended without an agreement in place.
The tour and the PIF have gathered for almost a year. Trump, only 10 days after his elected official, Monahan guest to play golf In Trump International in West Palm Beach, Florida, November 15.
Trump said on the “Come on!” Podcast on the eve of the elections according to which “it would take the best part of 15 minutes to conclude this agreement”.
“I’m really going to work on other things, to be honest with you,” Trump said on the podcast. “I think we have much more important problems than that. But I think we should have a tour and they should have the best players on this tour. »»
The tour has held the Ministry of Justice informed of its negotiations in recent months, because it has increased in an investment agreement with Pif.
After the deadline for the original framework agreement with Pif expired at the end of 2023, the Tour signed with Strategic Sports GroupA consortium of North American sports owners led by Fenway Sports Group, for an investment of $ 1.5 billion in PGA Tour Enterprises with the potential to double.
PGA Enterprises is distinct from the PGA Tour exempt from tax which deals with competition.
The latest negotiations are for the PIF to become a minority investor in the commercial arm. Always unclear, this would distribute the fractured golf landscape.
Pif and his governor, Yasir al-Rumayyan, are the financial muscle behind Liv Golf. The breakaway spent some $ 2 billion to recruit the best players, who were then suspended by the PGA Tour. This group included Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Bryson Dechambeau and Jon Rahm. They combined to win 17 majors, and three were n ° 1 in the world.
They are only the time all the best of the whole world are now the four majors.
Rory McILroy, who sits on a sub-top in transactions for tour negotiations, said last week in Pebble Beach, he thought that a new administration “was going to be a little more suitable for an agreement”.
“I think that from an investment point of view, this agreement should and will be done,” said McILroy. “But that does not solve the problem with what the golf landscape looks like in the future. I would say that the biggest obstacle may be the different visions of what golf should look like in the future. »»
Trump’s involvement in golf dates back more than two decades when he started to build a wallet of high -end golf courses and buy the famous Turnberry Golf Club in Scotland.
He also bought Doral Resort outside Miami, a venerable stop of the PGA Tour which had welcomed a world golf championship until its move in 2016 in Mexico when it became difficult to find a title sponsor with Trump and his omnipresent presence.
Three Trump’s lessons hosted VIV events, including one this year at Doral.
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AP Golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
