Is deal getting closer, as report suggests?
U.K. tabloid report says 'Civil War is over,' but negotiations seems to just be heating up
Yasir Al-Rumayyan and Jay Monahan played last month in St. Andrews and reportedly were together again last week in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Warren Little/Getty Images)
As we inch toward a year on from when a deal between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia was supposed to be finalized, getting any definitive information has proved to be an immense challenge.
The powers that be are not providing much in the way of information. There have been virtually no updates since PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan twisted himself in knots at the Tour Championship in August to basically not say anything.
Players such as Rory McIlroy say what they can, offering a frank assessment that he believes a deal is necessary to end the rift in the men’s professional game. But McIlroy also points out the inherent struggles involved, such as the U.S. Department of Justice as well as the very complicated and controversial views on how LIV Golf players might return to the PGA Tour, among many other things.
With that as the backdrop, the U.K. tabloid The Sun published a story over the weekend saying a deal is done. It has no sources and has yet to be corroborated anywhere.
“Golf’s Civil War OVER as Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods help negotiate £1BILLION peace deal between PGA Tour and LIV Golf,’’ screamed the headline on a story bylined by veteran Welsh journalist David Facey.
The story goes on to say that the deal still has to be approved by the PGA Tour players. So that suggests it is not actually done. And the original story said that LIV Golf would fall under the purview of the PGA Tour, but subsequent updates online removed that language.
Meanwhile, Bunkered.co.uk first reported and Golf Digest confirmed that PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and other PGA Tour “team members” were in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, last week ahead of the Aramco Team Series event attending the Future Investment Initiative (FII), an annual conference run by the PIF.
And any deal is not with LIV Golf, but rather with the PIF — the nearly $1 trillion Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund which backs LIV Golf. That’s obviously is a big distinction, some of which leads to skepticism.
Still, there are a few things in the story that make you wonder if some info really did leak out that has some credibility.