ATLANTA – Throughout a press convention that meandered for almost an hour on Wednesday on the Tour Championship, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan deflected each query concerning the ongoing negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund and makes an attempt to reunite the skilled recreation.
“I’m not going to barter particulars in public or disclose particulars or specifics,” Monahan repeated. “All I can say is that conversations proceed, they usually’re productive.”
The general public lack of progress within the negotiations to carry the sport’s finest gamers, from each LIV Golf and the Tour, again collectively and finish a bitter turf battle has added to the frustration felt by many, together with one of many Tour’s most high-profile and outspoken advocates.
“I feel anybody that cares about golf, I feel must be annoyed. I feel anybody that cares concerning the PGA Tour must be annoyed as a result of we we’re not placing ahead the best possible product that we are able to,” Rory McIlroy stated following the primary spherical on the Tour Championship. “I simply assume that it’s gone on lengthy sufficient. I feel everyone seems to be looking for an answer. It’s only a answer is difficult to get to.”
McIlroy continued: “I am going again to, despite the fact that I used to be on the mistaken aspect of issues, just like the U.S. Open with Bryson [DeChambeau], and also you’re solely actually going to get that 4 instances a yr at most. I feel the sport of golf deserves having these kind of issues occur extra than simply 4 instances a yr.”
McIlroy’s candid evaluation of the continuing talks, which started final June when the Tour and PIF introduced a framework settlement that ended pricey litigation and introduced each side to the negotiating desk, is noteworthy because the Northern Irishman is a member of the transaction subcommittee, which is tasked with negotiating a deal.
“I feel if it doesn’t occur quickly, then truthfully, I feel PIF and the Saudis are going to have to take a look at various choices, proper?” McIlroy stated. “I’d say that’s the subsequent step in all this if one thing doesn’t get carried out.”
Requested to expound, McIlroy added, “There are different excursions through which they might make investments … however then it retains the sport divided.”
