US President-elect Donald Trump met with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and Saudi Public Investment Fund boss Yasir Al-Rumayyan, with leaders of both sides deadlocked in negotiations over reducing the gap in men’s golf.
The Washington Post reported Sunday that Trump, who has hosted the Saudi-backed PGA Tour and LIV Golf at his courses, played golf with Monahan on Friday at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The newspaper also reported that Trump later sat next to the head of the Saudi fund at Saturday’s UFC event at Madison Square Garden in New York.
A master merger agreement was announced in June 2023 between Monahan and Al-Rumayyan, which caused great controversy given that the negotiations were conducted in secret and Monahan had ridiculed LIV for months to players to avoid that more stars join the upstart series launching in 2022.
Talks passed a deadline last December and have continued with little progress since then, leaving men’s golf’s elite struggling to plan for a future with top talent split between the PGA and LIV.
A PGA Tour spokesperson confirmed the Trump-Monahan session, the Post reported. “President-elect Trump has always been a champion of golf and Commissioner Monahan was honored to accept his invitation to play at Trump International,” the spokesperson told the newspaper in a statement.
“The President-elect and the Commissioner share a love for the game and the Commissioner enjoyed their time together,” he added.
Trump Courts has hosted five LIV events since the Saudi-backed series began. PGA events have been held at other Trump-owned courses.
PGA Tour dealmakers include 15-time major winner Tiger Woods.
Trump said earlier this month that he could help broker a deal between the two sides, saying on a podcast: “I would say it would take me close to 15 minutes to get that deal done.”
“I’m definitely going to work on other things, to be honest with you. I think we have much bigger problems than that. But I think we should have a tour and they should have the best players in this tour.”
Rory McIlroy, who won the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai on Sunday, told reporters that Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, who sat on the other side of Trump in New York, could help broker a deal.
“He might be able to do it,” McIlroy said. “He has Elon Musk on his side, who, in my opinion, is the smartest man in the world. We might be able to do something if we can get Musk involved as well.
“Obviously, Trump has a great relationship with Saudi Arabia. He has a great relationship with golf. He’s a lover of golf. So, maybe. Who knows? But I think in As president of the United States, he probably has bigger things to focus on than golf.
Among the issues surrounding a PGA-LIV deal are the U.S. Department of Justice’s concerns about Saudi investments and antitrust regulations.
LIV and the PGA Tour have already announced their plans for the 2025 season.
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