13 June 2023 , 22:04
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PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan insists the deal with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) is not a merger with LIV Golf.
Monahan is facing calls to resign after the PGA Tour and DP World Tour agreed a controversial deal with PIF. The decision was not expected, as the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour have spent the previous year in a bitter dispute with PIF's LIV Golf circuit.
Masters champion Jon Rahm insists players who remained loyal to the PGA Tour "feel betrayal" from the organisation's management in the wake of the deal. Yet Monahan insists the PGA Tour had little choice but to strike an agreement and end golf's civil war.
PIF's governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan will serve as chairman of the new commercial entity, yet Monahan insists the PGA Tour would "at all times hold the majority of board seats and be in control of this new entity, regardless of the size of PIF's investment".
Monahan, who will serve as the new entity's chief executive, also claims the PGA Tour was left isolated by the United States Congress. The tour have spent a fortune to stop more players from quitting for LIV Golf after some of the game's biggest stars jumped ship.
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The likes of Phil Mickleson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Sergio Garcia and Patrick Reed have all joined LIV Golf. It's claimed the PGA Tour have used $100million (£79.4m) of its reserves to inflate prize funds and stop more players from leaving.
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The PGA Tour has also stumped up nearly $50m in legal fees, while the DP Tour spent close to £10m on their legal battle. In a letter viewed by The Times, Monahan claims the new entity will end the "heated divisiveness in the sport".
He added: "While we are grateful for the written declarations of support we received from certain members, we were largely left on our own to fend off the attacks, ostensibly due to the United States' complex geopolitical alliance with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
"This left the very real prospect of another decade of expensive and distracting litigation and the PGA Tour’s long-term existence under threat."
Monahan also noted: "Let me be clear that despite numerous reports, this arrangement is not a merger between the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and the PIF. The PIF will be a minority investor." The phrases "not a merger" and "minority investor" were underlined.
Monahan added: "Rather than a foreign funded entity taking over an American sport, the end result is that the PIF has agreed to work within the existing golf ecosystem as a minority investor with the PGA Tour in full control. The PGA Tour is, and will remain, an American institution."
Despite Monahan's explanation, some of golf's biggest stars are not impressed. Rahm said ahead of this weekend's US Open: "You want to have faith in management, and I want to have faith that this is the best thing for all of us, but it's clear that that's not the consensus. The general feeling is that a lot of people feel a bit of betrayal from management."