Ponte Vedra Seaside, Florida, USA; PGA commissioner Jay Monahan talks with Justin Thomas through the 2021 trophy presentation after Thomas received The Gamers Championship golf event at TPC Sawgrass – Stadium Course. Necessary Credit score: Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Pictures If there’s tangible progress in talks between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, Justin Thomas did not find out about it as he vented frustration over the lagging negotiations and restricted data out there to his friends.
Whereas PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan cited “substantial progress,” Thomas mentioned he is preserving his head down and taking part in golf as a result of he is undecided what else to do because the merger mission approaches its second anniversary.
“I believe we’re type of previous the extent of exhaustion,” Thomas, 31, mentioned Tuesday in Ponte Vedra Seaside, Fla., web site of The Gamers Championship this week.
“There’s simply so many people, actually on either side, each us on tour and I believe the LIV gamers, that we do not actually know what is going on on and we’re simply taking part in golf and hoping for the most effective and since there’s quite a bit that we do not know and that we won’t management.”
Thomas received The Gamers in 2021 earlier than Cameron Smith received in 2022 and Scottie Scheffler rattled off consecutive victories at TPC Sawgrass. One week after Rory McIlroy solid doubt concerning the immediacy of a possible union between LIV and the PGA Tour, Thomas mentioned he understands it won’t matter the place gamers stand on what they think about a drained matter.
“It isn’t such as you or anyone can say, ‘All proper, that is what we will do,'” Thomas mentioned. “I believe clearly everyone must be on the identical web page, and I believe when it will get to that stage, I do not know if the federal government’s getting concerned. There’s simply so many issues above my pay grade which are concerned that I do not find out about, that I in all probability should not or cannot converse to.”
Monahan acknowledged the place and leverage held by LIV seemingly has modified because the framework settlement between the circuits was signed in June 2023.
Thomas mentioned he is aware of the PGA Tour has been a beneficiary of the breakaway LIV Golf circuit, particularly with elevated event purses and different alternatives that did not exist earlier than the golf panorama started to shift. He nonetheless would not agree with a few of the maneuvers made to get so far.
“There is a couple guys like a Phil [Mickelson] or a Bryson [DeChambeau] that how they went about it possibly is not precisely how I might have, however they did say some issues that had some worth to them or had some reality,” the 15-time tour winner mentioned.
“It is laborious to say, has it made the sport of golf higher? Yeah, possibly executed some issues on tour which have improved the tour, however the recreation of golf as an entire, if it is separated in numerous [tours] and creating some animosity, then that is not essentially higher.”
–Area Stage Media
