PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan made an appearance at the recent New York Times DealBook Summit, where he expressed confidence that the merger with LIV Golf is still looking at an end-of-the-year deadline.
“We’re having conversations with multiple parties. The deadline for our conversations with PIF, as you know, is a firm target,” Monahan told reporters.
The multiple parties referred to include several private equity partners with a serious interest in PGA Tour’s agreement with DP World Tour and the Saudi PIF-backed LIV Golf, with Monahan suggesting that the deal could be finalised with at least one co-investor becoming a part of it.
He added: “When this gets finalised, 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.
“What’s most important to our players is that they go from the model of being independent contractors to being owners.”
The 53-year-old Commissioner further revealed that this will all be discussed in an upcoming meeting with the Public Investment Fund (PIF) Governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan.
Monahan concluded: “I’ll be with Yasir next week, and we will 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.”
