Jay Monahan players’ reunification comments raise 1 pressing questions

Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. – You will not necessarily call Jay Monahan Morning annual press conference in the morning In the player championship a training in transparency.

On topics that were most important on Tuesday morning to the players, Monahan’s performance in his annual state could be best characterized by his evasiveness. He will not negotiate in public with the terms of an agreement that will end the prolonged golf war and reunite the sport. He is not ready to provide quality statements about his negotiating counterparts – except for President Trump, whom Monahan described as an ally – or their potential interests and climbing points. And he is Of course It will not speculate if a stalemate between the tournament and the Saudi PIF can extend in the third year, further testing the fan and sponsorship sponsorship.

Eight times during the segment of the questions and answers of the press conference, the Commissioner diverted a question about Liv’s talks by repeating the “advantages” previously stated by the tour-repeating himself as often as the commissioner jokingly with an unrelated question with the same language.

These were difficult inspirational words for golf fans hoping to see the other side of the bitter conflict of sport, and yet their subtext was discovering. For one of the first times since it appeared in Bloomberg again in Breakfast of 6 June 2023Monahan addressed Yasir al-Rumayyan, the Governor of Pif Saudi, by name (“We appreciate Yasir’s innovative vision”), confirmed the tournament to see the reunited golf, and stated that his belief that negotiations would eventually come to the conclusion of golf fans (“The Perspective of the Golf” real. “). He addressed reports that have been shaken in recent days – stemming from a story from Golf Digest ‘s Joel Beall -The negotiations were blocked after an initial White House meeting between Al-Rumayyan and a delegation from PGA Tour, admitting that there were “EBBS and Flows” in discussions between the two sides. And he used the success of recent TV ratings and sponsorship agreements to postpone against a narrative that suggested that the tournament needed a deal with PIF more than the ready-made Sovereign wealth fund needed a deal with the tournament.

“We are doing everything we can to unite both sides,” Monahan said. “That said, we will not do this in a way that reduces the strength of our platform or the very true moment we have with our fans and partners.”

In itself, the roundabout, practiced some way, these words reached a confession: PGA Tour is ready to make a deal. Which raises a pressing question: Who is not?

Perhaps even more than a date of the June 6 union agreement, there seems to be consensus from most of the Golf world. The tournament is on board, the president is on board, the most important Liv players are on board. Could it be that supporters of the Pro Golf Renegades, Saudi Pif, aren’t they? And if not, why not?

It is often said that the best negotiations are the ones where both sides leave to feel like they are giving more than they are taking – but it is often forgotten that those words apply to as financial emotions. For the tournament, the emotional number of this process is nearly three years of wet criticism and existential fear, while the financial number can mean a tour that looks different: a more global schedule that represents fewer events, larger stars and as Monahan, “some elements” of Liv. For PIF, the financial parts (a multi-billion dollar investment in PGA Tour and a place on board for al-Rumayyan) are clear, but emotional stimuli are not. How do you see PIF League Sports Crown Jewel Sports? Almost nothing exists in public data. What is the PIF’s appetite for more expenses after three years and about $ 5 billion is marking the League a negligible American television audience?

It takes two in tango. Tournament requirements can be unreasonable. Its perceived upper hand can be imagined. (Does the runway survive another multi-million-dollar wave of liv defects? And if that wave comes, can the trade advantages of the tournament, along with competitive ones, but with $ 1.5 billion in the bank from the strategic group of sports, TV ratings returning and sponsors are not bothering. sound.

It could be difficult to hear by Jay Monahan on Tuesday morning, but three years after the “inheritance, not the lever”, it is clear that the conversation has changed.

Just not loudly.