Monahan spent more than an hour explaining to players at the Canadian Open why he changed his mind about taking Saudi funds in a surprise collaboration, saying it ultimately was for their benefit.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan spent more than an hour explaining to players Tuesday afternoon why he changed his mind about taking Saudi funds in a surprise collaboration, saying it ultimately was for their benefit.
Monahan described Tuesday’s meeting at the RBC Canadian Open in Toronto as “intense, certainly heated.”
“I’m not surprised,” he said. “This is an awful lot to ask them to digest. This is a significant change for us. As I’m trying to explain as we go forward, this ultimately was a decision in the best interests of all at the PGA Tour.”
Australian golfer Geoff Ogilvy told reporters that a player called Monahan a hypocrite during the meeting.
“It was mentioned, yeah, and he took it,” Ogilvy said. “He said, ‘Yeah.’ He took it, for sure.”
PGA Tour winner Johnson Wagner told Golf Channel that there was plenty of anger in the room.
“It was contentious,” he said. “There were many moments where certain players were calling for new leadership of the PGA Tour and even got a couple standing ovations.”
And to think it was nearly a year ago to the day that Saudi-funded LIV Golf teed off in its inaugural event as a rival and a threat, flush with defectors from golf’s top circuit.
Morals were questioned. Lawsuits were filed. Golfers doubled down on their affiliations.
A merger, it seemed, wasn’t in the cards. But on Tuesday, professionals from both tours were caught off guard by news that their worlds would collide – that the PGA Tour, European tour and LIV Golf were merging.
“As time went on, circumstances changed,” Monahan said in a conference call after the meeting.
