PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan responded to a lot of questions but didn’t provide many concrete answers in his annual address ahead of the 2024 Players Championship this week at TPC Sawgrass.
One point that stood out was his belief that he’s still the man to lead the Tour forward despite the blowback from his backroom dealings with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund last summer.
“I can’t generalize as it relates to players, but clearly given the responsibility I’ve been given by both boards, I have the support of our board, and I am the right person to lead us forward,” said Monahan on Tuesday. “I know that. I believe that in my heart, and I’m determined to do exactly that.”
Rory McIlroy agrees. While the world No. 2 said the reaction to the June 6 framework agreement announcement was warranted, he also thinks it’s time to move on and bring the game back together.
“You look at what Jay has done since he took over,” McIlroy said Wednesday morning. “The media rights deal, navigating us through COVID, the strategic alliance with the DP World Tour. I would say creating PGA Tour Enterprises, we were just able to accept a billion and a half dollars in the business, people can nit-pick and say he didn’t do this right or didn’t do that right, but if you actually step back and look at the bigger picture, I think the PGA Tour is in a far stronger position than when Jay took over.”
Back in January, Monahan announced the Strategic Sports Group (SSG), an outside investment group headlined by Fenway Sports Group and comprised of several high-level U.S.-based sports owners, had partnered with the Tour to create PGA Tour Enterprises. The SSG will invest up to $3 billion in the new for-profit entity, with an initial investment of $1.5 billion.
Monahan gave few details on the current status of the discussions with the Saudi PIF but said talks were “accelerating.”
Over the last two years, the Northern Irishman has been outspoken against the PIF and LIV Golf. But since he resigned from the PGA Tour policy board in November, McIlroy has admitted to being too harsh on the players who left and has said he wishes LIV players would be involved in the Ryder Cup. He has even “accepted reality” the PIF could be involved in PGA Tour Enterprises, which was originally supposed to comprise the Tour and PIF before the Tour partnered with the SSG.
Like the fans, McIlroy is tired of the uncertainty and said he wants “the train to speed up so we can get this thing over and done with.” He also talked about his time on the policy board and mentioned he would be interested in returning to another leadership position.
“I feel grateful that I was on the PGA Tour board at the point in time when I was. I feel like it will stand to me down the line if I ever want to get deeper into the business side of things, whether that’s in golf or in other domains,” he explained. “It just got to the point — it’s different now, though. You’ve got two boards on Tour. One is really a business board, and sort of that priority is growing the growth of the business of the PGA Tour, and then the policy board, which I was on, was about making rules and slow play and whatever else.”
“The business board to me would be something — if an opportunity came along in the future and I felt like it was the right time, would maybe be something that I would like to get involved in again.”