LA JOLLA, Calif. — After multiple meetings between President Donald Trump and members of the PGA Tour, there’s a growing sentiment from the tour that the former supports the latter and is in favor of unifying men’s professional golf as negotiations continue between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
Rory McIlroy said on Wednesday that Trump is “on the PGA Tour’s side,” while PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said he and Trump share a vision of where golf needs to go in terms of unifying the PGA Tour with LIV Golf, which the PIF owns.
In the past month, McIlroy played a round of golf with Trump. Monahan and PGA Tour star Adam Scott met with Trump in the Oval Office, and Tiger Woods played another round with Trump on Sunday.
McIlroy said Trump told him he’s not a fan of LIV golf’s 54-hole team stroke play format despite the fact LIV Golf has or will host seven events in its four-year history at Trump’s courses in New Jersey, Virginia and Miami, paying the Bedminster and Doral courses for the privilege. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has received a reported $2 billion investment into his private equity firm from the PIF.
“I was like, but you’ve hosted their events,” McIlroy said. “He was like, yeah, but it doesn’t mean that I like it. So I think he’s on the tour’s side.”
A large part of Trump’s involvement centers around the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust concerns about warring golf organizations potentially being in business together. As The Athletic reported before the election, there’s a large belief from legal experts that a Trump presidency could expedite approval due to his relationships in the Middle East and his passion for golf.
McIlroy went further, saying Trump’s influence could be felt in the negotiations themselves.
“The president, he can do a lot of things,” McIlroy said. “He has direct access to Yasir’s boss (Saudi Arabia Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud). Not many people have that. Not many people can say, ‘I want you to get this deal done, and by the way, I’m speaking to your boss. I’m going to tell him the same thing.’ ”
Scott, who sits on the PGA Tour policy board, said the goal of the Oval Office meeting was to convey to Trump how slowly the Department of Justice process has moved in reviewing antitrust concerns. Scott left the meeting confident Trump is a lover of golf.
“I feel like we have somebody who cares about the game in a very, very powerful position,” Scott said on Tuesday. “I really think he can probably be helpful in getting this all to a good place, for sure.”
PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan (left) and PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan. (Warren Little / Getty Images)
Monahan, speaking before the Genesis Invitational on Wednesday, mentioned unification and the best players all playing on one tour several times. When asked if unification means an end to LIV Golf, Monahan said: “What it means is the unification of the game, which is what we have been and are focused on. And candidly, that’s what fans want.”
This feeling may not be mutual. Earlier on Wednesday new LIV CEO Scott O’Neill spoke to reporters in Adelaide, Australia, site of this week’s event on that tour, and framed the potential deal as something else.
“PIF is a sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and they are likely to make an investment into PGA Tour Enterprises, a new structure that a collection of U.S. investors invested in. For us at LIV, we are hoping that that unlocks opportunity,” O’Neill said.
The PGA Tour used to host an annual event at Doral Country Club, which Trump bought in 2012 and renamed Trump Doral until the PGA Tour pulled its World Golf Championship in 2016 — while Trump was running for president — and moved it to Mexico City. It also canceled a 2015 Grand Slam of Golf exhibition at Trump Los Angeles. Then, days after the events of Jan. 6, 2021, the PGA of America — a different organization than the PGA Tour — moved the 2022 PGA Championship away from Trump Bedminster.
Monahan said he didn’t speak to Trump about bringing any of his courses back into the rotation, but he said he “could certainly see a day when we’re adding Trump venues to our schedule.
The challenge in negotiation conversations is there remains very little information on what unification would look like. In terms of a future schedule, Monahan said that would “resolve itself,” and he told Golf Channel they have come up with “so many different models” over the years. McIlroy said in his conversations with Strategic Sports Group investors — the consortium of high-profile American sports team owners who invested $1.5 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises in January 2024 — there’s a desire to own and operate more tournaments with the best players.
“I’d probably say they would like to see it transition more to like a Formula 1 global model a little bit more,” McIlroy said.
Monahan did clarify that the negotiations are not purely a financial transaction of the PIF investing into PGA Tour Enterprises, the for-profit organization the tour created to welcome outside investments like SSG’s. It is an all-encompassing negotiation involving potentially unifying the game.
“I think the only thing that really matters to fans of the game is ultimately reunification,” Monahan said. “I think everything else falls out of that.”
After years of distant feuding and lawsuits, Monahan and Al-Rumayyan have become friendly since the 2023 framework agreement. They have played golf together multiple times, and Monahan said they spoke as many as 12 times in 2024.
“I do think we see things the same way, but I certainly don’t want to speak for him,” Monahan said.
Monahan also added he has gotten to know O’Neill, who took over for longtime PGA Tour critic and initial LIV head Greg Norman last month.
But the primary question over the coming months is what Trump’s support means as negotiations continue.
“Number one, you look at his passion for the game, his knowledge and understanding of the game,” Monahan said. “He’s very familiar with the PGA Tour. He’s very familiar with the team at the Public Investment Fund.
“Like us, he has a very clear picture of what should happen, and he wants to help. The game means that much to him, and he’s the ultimate dealmaker. So having him in the mix is a great thing for the game.”
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(Top photo of Donald Trump: Stefani Reynolds / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
