PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said a “constructive” meeting took place on Monday between the bigwigs of global golf — including Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of LIV Golf's backer, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), and Tiger Woods.
Over the weekend, as the PGA Tour reveled in a glorious Players Championship, reports surfaced — later confirmed by policy board members Jordan Spieth and Patrick Cantlay — of a Monday meeting that would include representatives from the PGA Tour, PIF, and the Strategic Sports Group (SSG). Social media sleuths began tracking Tiger's megayacht and private jets from expected attendees.
On Tuesday, Monahan shared limited details of the meeting, via a text message to media outlets.
“The conversation throughout was constructive and represents an important part of our due diligence process in selecting potential investors for PGA Tour Enterprises. This mirrors the approach we employed earlier this year as we evaluated an investment offer from the Strategic Sports Group.
“During the session, Yasir had a chance to introduce himself to our player directors and talk through his vision, priorities and motivations for investing in professional golf.
“As we continue these discussions with the PIF, we will keep you updated as much as possible, but please understand that we need to maintain our position of not conducting negotiations in public. To that end, we will provide no further comments to the media at this time.”
Tiger Woods, a vice president of the SSG-funded commercial branch, PGA Tour Enterprises, was set to meet with Al-Rumayyan over a round of golf.
“I think it should have happened months ago, so I am glad that it’s happening,” Rory McIlroy, who resigned from the policy board in late 2023, said Friday about the meeting. “Hopefully that progresses conversations and gets us closer to a solution.”
Last June, the PGA Tour and PIF announced a framework agreement that has yet to be hashed out.
In February, Tiger said the PGA Tour remained optimistic about a partnership with PIF to unify global golf, but was no longer in need of financing thanks to SSG. Monahan and McIlroy have since echoed those sentiments. At his press conference before the Players, Monahan said negotiations with PIF were “accelerating” but a deal would “take time.”
“Fundamentally he wants to do the right thing,” McIlroy said at TPC Sawgrass. “I think I’ve said this before, I have spent time with Yasir, and the people that have represented him in LIV I think have done him a disservice — Norman and those guys. I think you got PIF over here and LIV are sort of over here doing their own thing.”
“They’re a sovereign wealth fund. They want to park money for decades and not worry about it. They want to invest in smart and secure businesses, and the PGA Tour is definitely one of those, especially if they’re looking to invest in sport in some way.”
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