President-elect Donald Trump boasted throughout the marketing campaign he would wish about quarter-hour to get a deal accomplished between the PGA Tour and the Saudi traders of LIV Golf. That began with 4 hours on the golf course with PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan.
The Washington Submit reported Monahan accepted an invite from Trump to play golf final Friday at Trump Worldwide Golf Membership in West Palm Seashore, Florida.
The PGA Tour confirmed the outing in an announcement.
“President-Elect Trump has always been a champion of the game of golf and Commissioner Monahan was honored to accept his invitation to play at Trump International,” the assertion mentioned. “The President-Elect and the Commissioner share a love for the game and the Commissioner enjoyed their time together.”
The following day, Trump attended a UFC heavyweight championship in New York with Elon Musk and Yasir al-Rumayyan, the governor of Public Funding Fund of Saudi Arabia, the monetary assist of the rival LIV tour that has prompted the large rift within the recreation.
Monahan and al-Rumayyan performed golf collectively within the Dunhill Hyperlinks Championship in Scotland final month on the European tour.
The tour has not disclosed the character of these discussions, and Monahan has not shared particulars even with key gamers to maintain negotiations non-public.
The PGA Tour and PIF introduced an settlement on June 6, 2023, for the Saudi sovereign wealth fund to change into an investor in a brand new industrial enterprise by the PGA Tour. That shortly acquired the eye of the Justice Division, and whereas the settlement known as for a Dec. 31 deadline, negotiations are nonetheless going down.
The PGA Tour struck a deal with a consortium of sports activities house owners, Strategic Sports activities Group, for an preliminary $1.5 million funding in PGA Tour Enterprises that might develop to $3 billion.
In the meantime, golf stays deeply divided because the PGA Tour has banned LIV gamers — U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm amongst them — from competing in its tournaments.
All of golf’s finest gamers meet solely 4 instances a yr within the majors.
Trump joined the “Let’s Go!” podcast with Jim Grey and Invoice Belichick on the eve of the election and mentioned, “it would take me the better part of 15 minutes to get that deal done.”
“I’m really going to work on other things, to be honest with you,” Trump mentioned on the podcast. “I think we have much bigger problems than that. But I do think we should have one tour and they should have the best players in that tour.”
Trump’s golf programs hosted two LIV occasions within the inaugural 2022 season, three occasions in 2023 and one occasion this yr. Not one of the Trump programs — in Miami, New Jersey and the Washington space — is on the 2025 schedule, which nonetheless has not been accomplished.
Trump was bullish about LIV Golf when it began and predicted a merger was inevitable. He warned PGA Tour gamers on the Fact Social media platform in July 2022, “If you don’t take the money now, you will get nothing after the merger takes place, and only say how smart the original signees were.”
Trump additionally has had his fights with the PGA Tour earlier than he was elected the primary time, most notably when the tour took a World Golf Championships occasion from his Trump Doral in 2016 to Mexico Metropolis as a result of the event couldn’t discover a sponsor.
Amongst points to be sorted out past any funding by PIF is tips on how to deliver collectively gamers who stayed loyal to the PGA Tour by not taking huge signing bonuses from the Saudi league and people who defected to the rival league.
How the Justice Division views any deal is one other impediment within the negotiations.
Rory McIlroy mentioned after the election that having Trump in workplace couldn’t harm the completion of any deal.
“He might be able to,” McIlroy mentioned Nov. 6, the day after the election. “He’s got Elon Musk, who I think is the smartest man in the world, beside him. We might be able to do something if we can get Musk involved, too.”
McIlroy is simply unsure a few 15-minute resolution.
“I think from the outside looking in, it’s probably a little less complicated than it actually is,” mentioned McIlroy, who serves on a transaction committee concerned within the deal. “But obviously Trump has great relationship with Saudi Arabia. He’s got a great relationship with golf. He’s a lover of golf. So, maybe. Who knows?”
