Golf’s peace deal is no closer – is it time for PGA Tour to end talks with LIV?

An opening address from Jay Monahan at the Arnold Palmer Invitational here involved almost 1,500 words. A mere 108 of them referred to the Saudi Arabian elephant in the room. Or more specifically, the status of unification talks between the PGA Tour, which Monahan leads, and the Saudi‑fronted LIV circuit.

Monahan was very keen to speak about innovation, about corporate partners, about fan engagement. Fluff. A blunt reality is that any excitement created by the announcement of a framework agreement between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has long since dissipated. No wonder: that shock press release landed on 6 June 2023.

When taking questions, Monahan was only marginally more expansive on the outlook for his sport. He contested the suggestion of low-key mood music after a White House meeting in late February. Not for the first time, it was left to Rory McIlroy to articulate what anyone paying even light attention here would have picked up: a peace deal is no closer.

Some have privately portrayed the White House discussion as disastrous. Donald Trump is an ally in the sense that he can stage meetings and tell the US Department of Justice to look the other way. Recent days have, however, emphasised Trump has other things with which to occupy himself beyond a sport at odds with itself.

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, PIF’s governor, is known to have been less than impressed with what he heard in Washington DC. Rumayyan believes he has not been afforded sufficient respect for the effect – or disruption, depending on your standpoint – created by LIV. For Rumayyan, LIV has immense personal value. The notion he will move it aside into scheduling windows that suit the PGA Tour is fanciful.

So, too, is the idea PIF will toss money into the new PGA Tour Enterprises and let American sporting executives decide how to spend it. Every negotiation has a to and fro, good days and bad days, but this is another crossroads. Does Monahan try to placate the Saudis or do his own thing, confident the PGA Tour can ultimately prevail against a rebel organisation that still has little traction in the minds of the public? His choices are largely dependent on the true depth of Rumayyan’s disquiet.

This week the schism will be unavoidable. The PGA Tour takes immense pride in the Players Championship, its marquee event. The trouble is, this will again take place minus big names. Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith and Brooks Koepka will be in Singapore playing under an LIV banner. Loss of profile is not restricted to the PGA Tour: umpteen players converted to LIV and have vanished in terms of public consciousness. One-time headline names are afterthoughts.

Jay Monahan has a choice to make: placate the Saudis or step away and back the PGA Tour to ultimately prevail against the rebel organisation. Photograph: Erik S Lesser/EPA

Monahan was unwilling to stipulate what his response would be should an LIV player previously of PGA Tour status express a desire to return. Monahan clearly regards this as a matter of leverage. It would seem to be a potential win for him, a snatching back of power, if someone were to acknowledge the grass was not greener after all.

Yet without Rumayyan’s blessing – or another messy legal affair – such a scenario cannot play out. LIV has its golfers under contract. The options available when those deals run out is a point of intrigue but we are not yet at that juncture. Monahan will also be perfectly aware of the playing cohort within his organisation who would not take kindly to the return of LIV golfers. The greater good does not tend to resonate with golfers; like all individual sportspeople, they are selfish by design.

Lost in this melee is where on earth the European Tour Group is supposed to feature. Speculation that Saudi Arabia would look to conclude a deal in Europe, becoming a partner of the DP World Tour, has never really gone away. This feels an obvious pivot should differences of opinion from the White House prove too difficult to resolve.

For now it is unsatisfactory that Europe’s main tour finds itself in a holding pattern until something completely out of its control is resolved one way or another.

Monahan will address the media again before the Players. An inherently decent individual, the PGA Tour’s commissioner is unimpressive when cameras are turned on and questions flow. A further, fundamental problem is there is, at this stage, little he can offer in respect of a bright tomorrow. Golf will continue on separate paths for some time yet.