The PGA Tour and LIV remain in a hotly contested battle to attract the best golfers in the world. PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan is not helping his cause with a recent Wall Street Journal article exposing his use of a private jet for business and pleasure that is not disclosed in the Tour's annual tax filings.
Jay Monahan has been a pioneer for the PGA Tour in recent months, as competition has arose from the start-up LIV Golf tour. In late August, Monahan implemented changes for the Tour in order to retain the best golfers in the world. This included higher purses, elevated events, and a higher paid out Player Impact Program.
The main reason for players' departures from the PGA Tour for LIV Golf is because of money. LIV is offering far more money to golfers with record high purses and the PGA Tour simply cannot compete with the Saudi-funded money. With recent news of Monahan's private jet adventures, Tour players will not be happy.
The report showed that the plan was mainly used for business travel to airports near Tour events, but Monahan also allegedly traveled to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Missoula, Montana, Nantucket, Massachusetts, and Turks and Caicos.
The Tour did say that Monahan “is required by its Policy Board, which includes players, to use the corporate plane for all air travel—business and personal—because it provides the ‘necessary level of efficiency, privacy, and security.’”
Other expenditures of the Tour that the article detailed were the new $81 million headquarters, Monahan's 2020 earnings of $14.2 million (more than any golfer besides Dustin Johnson) and retired executives were paid $8 million in severance and $32 million in other compensation from 2017 to 2020.
The Tour projects that 55% of its $1.52 billion in projected revenue would go to the players. But is that enough to compete with LIV? Monahan's use of a private jet will not make PGA Tour members happy, and only sways the pendulum towards LIV.
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