PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan conducted his annual state-of-the-game press conference on Tuesday in advance of this week’s Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass and he didn’t offer a lot of answers to the questions most followers of the game continue to have.
As Monahan waxed on about how strong the PGA Tour and the state of the game is at the moment, the elephant in the room was how LIV Golf has divided the sport with some of the best players in the world now on the Saudi-backed tour.
Monahan revealed that he made a January trip to Saudi Arabia to meet with the governor of the PIF, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, about coming to a “deal’’ with it to, in essence, merge the PGA Tour and LIV to bring the game’s best players back on the same playing field.
“You can’t negotiate a deal like this in public, so I will be brief,’’ Monahan said. “Our negotiations are accelerating as we spend time together. While we have several key issues that we still need to work through, we have a shared vision to quiet the noise and unlock golf’s worldwide potential.
“It’s going to take time, but … I see a positive outcome for the PGA Tour and the sport as a whole. Most importantly, I see a positive outcome for our great fans. Despite the distractions over the last two years, fans, sponsors and communities continue to value and engage with the PGA Tour, and I am more confident than ever in the fundamental strength of our organization.’’
Tuesday marked just the third time Monahan has spoken to the media since he made that stunning announcement last June 6 that the Tour had reached a “framework agreement’ with the DP World Tour and the PIF, without informing any of his PGA Tour players,
He acknowledged that fans are “tired of conflict and who is getting what” and that they “want to watch the world’s best golfers compete with history and at venues that they recognize and love.”
“We offer a schedule and a competitive structure that showcases the world’s best players,’’ Monahan said, conveniently omitting the fact that some of the game’s biggest stars, including Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Cam Smith and Phil Mickelson are playing for LIV and banned from playing on the PGA Tour.
When Monahan was asked what the path back to the PGA Tour is for those who went to LIV, he said, “We’ve made and continue to make real progress in our negotiations and our discussions with the PIF. I recognize that this is frustrating for all of you, but it really is not in the best interest of the PGA Tour and our membership and for PIF for me to be talking about where we are with specific elements of our discussions.
“I would just stress the fact that we’re engaged, we’re making progress, but I’m really not at liberty to share any of the details on that front.’’
Monahan, clearly uncomfortable addressing anything that had to do with PIF ad LIV Golf, repeatedly tried to say he was focusing only on this week’s Players Championship.
When The Post asked Monahan how it is possible that the PGA Tour and the sport of golf can be at its strongest when some of the best players in the world are playing on another tour and banned from playing in PGA Tour events, Monahan delivered his most impassioned response.
“The PGA Tour in terms of our strength — we are here at the week of Players and you’ve got 144 players competing in this championship and they’re the greatest players in the world and this is the greatest tour in the world,” Monahan said. “This is the place where you want to play. It’s the highest expression of individual achievement in our game. There’s been disruption in our sport, but that is a constant.
“Strength comes from a number of different factors. It comes from the strength of your membership and the fact that you have (recent winners) Nick Dunlap and Mathew Pavon and Jake Knapp, we consistently as an organization regenerate talent and create stars.
“Jason Gore (a former PGA Tour player who now serves as a player advisor to Monahan) talks about the fact that a star on the PGA Tour can be born in three weeks. And that’s what we do, and that’s the strength of our product, and that’s the durability of our product. We continue to do more good than any other organization in sport through our tournaments, through impacting lives.’’