Jay Monahan Will Meet With Yasir Al-Rumayyan Next Week to Continue PGA Tour-LIV Golf Negotiations
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan confirmed he is meeting next week with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, to continue negotiations on an agreement between the parties.
While speaking at The New York Times DealBook Summit in New York City on Wednesday, Monahan said he was meeting with Al-Rumayyan in advance of the Dec. 31 deadline outlined in the framework agreement earlier this year between the PGA Tour and PIF, which he said remains a target.
“Were having conversations with multiple parties,” Monahan said. “The deadline for our conversations with PIF, as you know, is a firm target. I'll be with Yasir next week. And we continue to advance our conversations. And I think it's pretty well known that there's a large number of other interested parties that we're also pushing to think about.”
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan addressed the framework agreement and his mental health Wednesday in an appearance in New York.
John David Mercer/USA TODAY Sports
Those other parties reportedly include Fenway Sports Group and KKR & Co. investment firm co-founder Henry Kravis, with others in the wings.
Monahan went on to say that the PGA Tour is working towards a combined deal that not only includes PIF but another co-investor to make the PGA Tour more competitive in the sports landscape.
“When this gets finalized, the PGA Tour is going to be in a position that I talked about earlier, where again, the athletes are owners in their sport, and you've got not only the PIF, but you've likely got another co-investor, with significant experience in business, in sport and brand that's going to help take the PGA Tour to another level and help us take share from other sports and even be more competitive,” he said.
The framework agreement, which was jointly announced June 6 by Monahan and Al-Rumayyan on CNBC, was negotiated by a small group on the PGA Tour side led by Monahan. He admitted he was not in the best frame of mind at the time, which eventually led him to seek mental health assistance.
“I think what's happening to me in my head around that timeframe was not too dissimilar to what was happening to me in my head in the months prior to it,” Monahan said. “This had been an extended conflict. It had affected me, my mental and my physical health.”
Monahan confirmed he was not sleeping and not capable of doing anything other than think about work for more than 10 minutes, and not eating right.
It wouldn’t be until June 11 that Monahan took a long walk and returned home to tell his wife for the first time that he was in a bad place.
"I knew I'm the first person to run into a fight,” Monahan said. “Anybody that knows me will tell you that. And I knew the perception was that I was running away from a fight. And that was excruciating. That hurt me to my core.”
Receiving treatment put Monahan in a different state of mind and restored self-belief that he is the best leader for the PGA Tour.
As part of his recovery, Monahan said he is now focused on daily journaling, spending time on his faith, hitting the gym, eating properly and using breathing techniques.
“You'll hear people talk a lot about 'I focus on the things I can control.' I wasn't doing a good job of that," Monahan said. “I was confusing that. I am fully focused on the things I control. And so, you have to realize that it's part of life, it's part of who I am, it's my truth. And I am a work in progress. And I'm just every single day trying to improve.”
Monahan believes his decisions before and after June 6 have been the right ones.
He acknowledges that the rollout of the framework agreement could have been better, but said the intent of the agreement and what it can be worth to the PGA Tour and its players made it the correct call.
“People have made far more consequential decisions than the one that I've made and ultimately, the one that we're going to make,” Monahan said. “You have to look out over the horizon, you have to believe in your heart of hearts that what you're committing to is the right decision. And you have to be willing to take all the criticism, and there has been a lot of it, and it will continue to be more.”