Six months ago, things were different. At least they felt different. Jay Monahan was the PGA Tour leader and working through negotiations with the Saudi Public Investment Fund for a potential investment of at least $ 1.5 billion.
Monahan, in mid -March, was not yet ready to hand over his role as a tournament, and instead left with his state of the Union’s press conference in the player championship. He sat in front of the media collected in Tpc saw and offered many words that achieved very little. He refused to add any depth to the negotiations – which took place in the White House and did not end friendly. Among his many non-answers, I squeezed into a question that was not so much for PGA Tour, but rather the company he was trying to attract.
As a tour of the tournament, I started, You make some annual press conferences, but as the Governor of PIF (Saudi), Yasir (Al-Rumayyan) does not. As someone who has had numerous meetings with him you call very true, can you help us understand what most requires in a possible investment?
Monahan’s response was one of the respectable defense: “Listen, it’s no surprise to you, I’m a hundred percent focused on PGA Tour and focused on everything I control. I think it’s a question for (Yasir) to answer, not to answer.”
He was not wrong. But he was also just not realistic. Because Al-Rumayyan rarely speaks in the record, he probably does not perform press conferences, and has mainly reached a shade figure in the sport.
In the months since the player championship, Monahan has faded against the background of the tournament and has been replaced by Brian RollappThe new general manager, who may or may not have a duty to revive those negotiations – which hit an aggressive attack. When asked about Liv at his only press conference last month, Rolapp spoke as generally as Monahan.
“I will also say that to the extent we can do everything that will further strengthen the PGA Tour, we will do it,” Rollapp said. “I am interested in exploring anything that strengthens PGA Tour.”
My original question remains, in part because it never answered in the first place. But also because of how little Al-Rumayyan speaks publicly. (He will sit on stage at an event here and there for mainly softball questions.) He likes to play Liv Golf Pro-AMS and get to Newcastle United football matches. But the questions rarely, if they ever lobbied him without being informed of them. (And this is most likely to continue.)
However-and this can be one of the weakest-al-Rumayyan did something different this week. Liv Golf’s financial supporter spent Monday in Washington DC-Since spent the weekend in New York, with President Trump, taking in the US Open-making a 48-minute interview, in the record, in the economic club, on various investment topics. Liv Golf was among them, along with the Saudi investment strategy, the 2034 World Cup, the Middle East tourism and more. And even if golf questions – made from David rubensteinThe founder of the private capital firm, Carlyle Group – were quite simple, maybe that’s a good thing. Because one of them eventually responded partially to what I asked Monahan.
What follows is a summary of Al-Rumayyan’s thoughts, abbreviated for golf-focused analyzes.
Does what does ‘liv’ actually require?
Often this question is answered by the simple explanation that liv tours are played over 54 holes, and Liv is the Roman number for 54. While the connection is correct, the meaning of liv – perhaps its existential meaning – is different.
Liv is really 54, but not necessarily the amount of holes – on the contrary, follow -up.
“That is why we say we want to get golf at the next level, which is 54 strokes,” Al-Rumayyan said, insisting that Liv can deceive the sport closer to his ceiling. What does this look like?
Golf fans can remember how Al-Rumayyan triumphantly promised during the first Liv event that any golf player who fired 54 in a round would receive a $ 54 million control. Well, he doubled in that message again on Monday, even more mental than When did it first say in June 2022.
“It will be one of my happiest days if we reach it,” Al-Rumayyan said, saying he hopes this will happen. “Because I will return to my insurance company and ask them to pay for it.”
Will Saudi Agreement PIF with PGA Tour?
Kudos at Rubenstein for the justice of this question. When there was no direct answer, well, this is an answer in itself.
On the contrary, Al-Rumayyan’s response turned around the trend of golf fans-TV observers, ticket buyers, etc.-to be the players themselves. Few sports worldwide use a larger link between professional ranks and recreational hobbies.
“What I want is to bring golf to non-players,” Al-Rumayyan said. “Like football, just like tennis, or Formula 1. How many people have driven a Formula 1 car? But at the same time, you have millions of people watching Formula 1. I want to have the same for golf.”
In other words, it sounds like Al-Rumayyan wants to create an ecosystem within the game that transacts into the popularity of the recreational side of the sport while using its professional branches. And frankly, this seems to control with Livi’s actions, paying excessive funds for high talent to create a league of his own with a different formula, style of formula 1 (to say nothing about his extremely formula 1 transmission, fan villages, etc.)
“I’m waiting for the day to work with PGA Tour, Tour World DP,” continued al-Rumayyan. “We got to them from day 1 and unfortunately, things did not go well. But hopefully in the future we will be able to bring the Golf game together and that – I mean, what I am trying to do is not get caught by PGA or Tour World.
It would be good to hear those words, in a very public setting, about 2 or 2.5 years ago. Instead, golf fans have had to seek data and meaning on their own. Talks between PGA Tour and Saudi PIF came to a point where PIF would be considered an investor in tours along the strategic sports group lines, a collective of US sports leaders, who pledged at least $ 1.5 for the January 2024 tournament. SSG has been deeply involved in tour operations in the months since. However, Al-Rumayyan has continued to tend to his many responsibilities, giving golf fans the meaning that an investment may never happen.
His comments on Monday make him sound much more reliable than any of the silence of the last six months.
What about that round with Tiger Woods? And Donald Trump?
Al-Rumayyan admitted that he has played Golf with most of the best players on both sides of the Pro Golf Civil War, including Tiger Woods and his son Charlie. This round is likely to develop between Woods and Al-Rumayyan in April 2024 in the Bahamas. At one point in Levinity, Rubenstein asked if Woods is overestimated or “really quite good”. Al-Rumayyan took that stick, stopped and then withdrew, “Eh, he’s okay.”
Al-Rumayyan also admitted that he played it against President Trump. When Rubinstein asked whose game is the best, Al-Rumuyyan’s or Trump, Liv Golf’s head joked, “I think it’s a state secret.”
As someone who has seen both play close, the real answer is Trump, though Al-Rumayyan is of course Improvement.
Clearly not everything for financial return
Al-Rumayyan said the total value of PIs currently fluctuates between $ 925 and $ 930 billion, and the goal by the end of 2025 is $ 1.075 trillion. PIF portfolio includes businesses in 14 different sectors, of which “entertainment, leisure and sports” is the possible home for Liv Golf.
But what does Liv do as an investment for PIF?
It is not entirely clear, due to measurable metrics, the adolescent golf league is a considerable delay of money. The overall investment was projected to reach $ 5 billion by the end of 2025, whose figures will not be official until early 2026. The country has faced serious charges of using sports investment to distract or clean, its brutal human rights reputation. You can’t measure it on an Excel sheet, but it’s worth thinking after Al-Rumayyan responds to Rubenstein’s simple question:
“Is the rate of return the most important thing?”
“It’s a number of things,” Al-Rumayyan said. “Is a matrix. Returns are very important, but why are we making certain investments in a particular sector? Is there any GDP contribution? Does it have job creation? Is there any help in our local content, which is very important. How can we diversify from oil?”
He continued to discuss how Saudi GDP was extremely varied from oil addiction, which was as high as 90% of the economy a decade ago.
“Financial returns are coming with a high degree of security, but what is the impact?” asked aloud. “What is – are you an influential investor? This is part of our vision and mission within PIF, to be an influential investor. What is the definition of this?
Liv Golf would probably not be counted as an influential financial return investment. Can (and likely to be) something else. Another example: PIF has invested in ATP Tour (men’s tennis tournament), earning a fair name in the ATP ranking, which do not bring any financial return to the PIF. But PIF ATP ranking increases the recognition of the name for the country in the largest sports ecosystem.
Okha ok to Get it all… with a grain of salt
You can see the entire Al-Rumayyan interview below. It is worth noting for its rareness. He simply did not give many many record conversations of this length, in this American environment … period. His responses are pink and optimistic and, when discussing the depth of investment that Saudi Arabia is making in the SH.BA, all over the world and in any number of industries, it is easy to understand why golf may not always be at the top of its list. It is also easy to understand – when it Gloats incorrectly About the Saudi Football League Pro is one of the top four football leagues in the world – that his view of Saudi -funded leagues is detached from reality.
Watch the video below. Golf conversation begins at the 20-minute sign:
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