ATLANTA — As soon as once more, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan didn’t present any concrete updates relating to the PGA Tour’s ongoing negotiations with the Saudi Public Funding Fund (PIF)—the sovereign wealth fund that bankrolls LIV Golf.
However Monahan insists that the 2 sides are on the desk and actively engaged with one another. He added that he’s hopeful in regards to the final result—a sentiment that has rang true because the two sides shocked the world on Jun. 6, 2023, the day they unveiled their unison.
“Now we have the proper folks on the desk with the proper mindset. I see that in all of those conversations, and that’s each side. That creates optimism in regards to the future and our capacity to come back collectively. However on the identical time, these conversations are complicated. They’re going to take time. They’ve taken time, and they’re going to proceed to take time,” Monahan mentioned on Tuesday in Atlanta forward of the Tour Championship.
“As I sit right here immediately, I feel an important factor for us and our obligations to our followers, our gamers, and our companions is to give attention to what we management, which we’re doing. However I’m not going to barter particulars in public or disclose particulars or specifics. All I can say is that conversations proceed, and so they’re productive.”
What number of instances have you ever heard that over the previous 14 months?
“We’re not going to barter in public.”
The tour putting a cope with a overseas authorities, one which has had a controversial historical past, to place it flippantly, is an unprecedented and sophisticated subject.
However the commissioner couldn’t even ship a timeframe for when skilled golf will re-unite once more—a stark departure from the authentic “deadline” of Dec. 31, 2023, the date the unique framework settlement set on that bombshell Tuesday in June.
“I don’t suppose we wish to prohibit ourselves that approach,” Monahan mentioned.
“We wish to obtain the very best and proper final result on the proper time.”
Have you ever ever seen the cult traditional Groundhog Day? The 1993 movie that options actor Invoice Murray? That’s what Monahan’s feedback in regards to the Saudi PIF have begun to really feel like. He delivers the identical rhetoric over and again and again.
“The precedence [of striking a deal] has been enhanced. It’s stronger. That’s a direct results of dialogue and dialog and beginning to discuss in regards to the future, future product imaginative and prescient, and the place we are able to take our sport,” Monahan added.
“I feel while you get into productive conversations, that enhances the chance of constructive outcomes, and that enhances the spirit of these very conversations. I feel that’s the place issues stand.”
What does that imply?
Regardless, solely a handful of individuals know the place issues genuinely stand. So, it’s anybody’s finest guess when {the golfing} world will be taught of golf’s nice schism coming to a much-needed finish.
Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By way of. Make sure to try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You possibly can comply with him on Twitter @jack_milko as properly.
