Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), will join top PGA Tour officials, including commissioner Jay Monahan, Tiger Woods and Adam Scott, in a meeting with President Donald Trump in the White House on Thursday afternoon, sources briefed on the plan confirmed. The meeting agenda is to continue to work toward reunifying men’s professional golf.
The White House involvement stems from the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust review of the proposed deal between the PGA Tour and the PIF, which bankrolls LIV Golf. The investigation has significantly stalled the completion of a transaction that would see $1.5 billion from the PIF injected into the PGA Tour. Woods and Monahan have said a completed deal would not only provide the tour with significant financial support but also facilitate bringing the PGA Tour and LIV Golf back together. The two tours have been divided since LIV launched in 2022.
The first meeting between tour representatives and Trump took place in the Oval Office on Feb. 4. Al-Rumayyan, who is LIV’s chairman, phoned in, according to The New York Times. Monahan, Scott and Woods released a statement following the meeting, stating that they had asked Trump “to get involved for the good of the game, the good of the country, and for all the countries involved.” Woods and Scott are involved in negotiations in their capacity as PGA Tour player directors.
Woods spoke about the meeting on CBS’s broadcast of the Genesis Invitational on Sunday. He could not attend the initial meeting in the Oval Office due to the death of his mother, Kultida Woods, earlier that morning.
“I think we’re in a very positive place right now. … I think that things are going to heal quickly. We’re going to get this game going in the right direction. It’s been heading the wrong direction for a number of years. The fans want all of the top players playing together, and we’re going to make that happen,” Woods said.
Monahan shared similar sentiments, explaining that the ultimate goal of talks with the president is “the game of golf operating under one tour with all the top players playing on that one tour.”
In October, multiple legal experts told The Athletic that the Trump administration could help usher the deal through the Department of Justice’s regulatory review process, due to his ties to the golf industry and the Saudi PIF. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has received a reported $2 billion investment into his private equity firm from the PIF. LIV Golf has also hosted six events in its three-year history at Trump’s golf course properties, and is set to hold a seventh in April at Trump National Doral Miami.
It remains unclear what reunification would mean for pathways back to the PGA Tour for the golfers who left for LIV, including Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson, or what the future of LIV Golf is. The circuit announced last week a contract to return to Adelaide, Australia, yearly through 2031. Adelaide has proven to be LIV’s biggest event, drawing hundreds of thousands locally.
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