Now on the tee ... strange bedfellows
Dunhill brings together golf's rival factions; DL3 will lead Harbour Town restoration
PGA Tour commish Jay Monahan will play with PIF governor in Dunhill Links (David Cannon/Getty Images)
A year ago, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia’s governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, attempted to go incognito at the Dunhill Links Championship by being originally listed in the pro-am under the pseudonym “Andrew Waterman” as the partner to LIV Golf’s Peter Uihlein.
This year, no attempted subterfuge is required. Al-Rumayyan is listed right there on the first-round tee sheet in the same group as fellow amateur and PGA Tour commissioner, Jay Monahan.
It all seems to be part of the grand mission of Johann Rupert — the 74-year-old South African billionaire who oversees the Dunhill — to broker a deal between the established pro tours and LIV Golf to bring the men’s professional game back together.
“I think what Johann Rupert, the man who runs this event, is trying to do is just bring the golf world back together a little bit,” Rory McIlroy told told the BBC Northern Ireland on Wednesday. “If we need to be forced together in some way, he’s trying to do that. I think it will be good. It’s certainly a step in the right direction.”
Rupert — whose love for golf is well known through sponsorship of two big Dunhill tournaments on the DP World Tour — has made sure through invites and the tour’s regulations that 14 LIV Golf players are in the field for this week’s Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland.
Louis Oosthuizen, Dean Burmester watch Johann Rupert in practice round (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
The pro-am event held at the Old Course in St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns in Scotland will also see a couple of the big-name protagonists in golf’s civil war not only playing as amateurs in the tournament but competing alongside each other during the first round.
Commissioner Monahan — who is partnering with the PGA Tour’s Billy Horschel, recent winner of the BMW PGA Championship — will play the opening round at Carnoustie with Al-Rumayyan and LIV’s Dean Burmester. Al-Rumayyan oversees the PIF, which funds LIV Golf.
It part of a cozy carousel of pairings across the three venues that will feature all three principal parties spending a round with everyone else.
The McIlroys — Rory and his father, Gerry — will play at Carnoustie on Thursday in the group behind Monahan and Al-Rumayyan alongside LIV’s former Open champion Oosthuizen and Rupert, who has called for peace in the game. On Friday, Horschel and Monahan will play with the McIlroys at Kingsbarns while on Saturday, the McIlroys will tee it up at the Old Course with Burmester and Al-Rumayyan.
“There’s no better place than the home of golf to try and get everyone together and talking. I think it’s a great thing and good sign that Jay and Yasir are going to play together.”
— Rory McIlroy
Al-Rumayyan and Burmester will play with Rupert and Oosthuizen on Friday at Kingsbarns.
So over the course of three days, the PGA Tour commissioner will play golf with the head of the PIF, the richest man in South Africa (who is also an honorary vice president of the DP World Tour) and the PGA Tour’s leading peace proponent, McIlroy.
“There’s no better place than the home of golf to try and get everyone together and talking,” McIlroy said Wednesday. “I think it’s a great thing and good sign that Jay and Yasir are going to play together. And obviously you’ve got quite a big contingent over from LIV that are playing in this event.”
This is a not-so-subtle breaking of the ice, although it is unclear what, ultimately, it will mean.
DP World Tour CEO Guy Kinnings is also participating in Scotland, and two weeks ago he attended meetings between all the parties in New York. There are clearly talks taking place and it doesn’t hurt to have some time together on the golf course.
But how close any deal is to being consummated remains a subject of conjecture. Recent rumblings suggest the sides remain far apart on some of the most basic aspects of an agreement related to how players would be allowed to cross over and compete on the other tours.