PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and player director Adam Scott met with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday in an effort to speed up the federal government's approval of the tour's deal with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which would be a significant step in reunifying men's professional golf.
In a statement on Thursday, Monahan, Scott and player director Tiger Woods, who was not at the White House meeting, said Trump's efforts have brought them closer to finalizing a deal with the PIF, which is prepared to invest $1.5 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises.
"We know golf fans are eagerly anticipating a resolution to negotiations with the Public Investment Fund and want to thank President Trump for his interest and long-time support of the game of golf," the statement said. "We asked the President to get involved for the good of the game, the good of the country, and for all the countries involved. We are grateful that his leadership has brought us closer to a final deal, paving the way for reunification of men's professional golf."
Sources have previously told ESPN that the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust division is reviewing the potential PIF investment into PGA Tour Enterprises, the circuit's for-profit entity.
The PGA Tour's framework agreement with the PIF and the DP World Tour expired Dec. 31, 2023. The sides have continued to work on a potential deal, and sources have said that there are remaining roadblocks, including how or if golfers who left for LIV Golf would be disciplined if they return to competition on the PGA Tour.
The potential inclusion of team golf in the annual schedule is another significant issue that remains unresolved, sources have told ESPN.
The proposed alliance between the PGA Tour and the PIF drew the scrutiny of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which held hearings on Capitol Hill in July 2023.
In a podcast with former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick and journalist Jim Gray on Nov. 4, Trump said he could solve golf's great divide if he were elected president.
"I'm going to really work on other things, to be honest with you," Trump said. "You know, I think we have much bigger problems than that. But I do think, you know, we should have one tour, and they should have the best players.
"But I think it will come together. Yeah, I could certainly help it. I could probably get it done. I would say it would take me the better part of 15 minutes to get that deal done."
Trump is an avid golfer, and his companies own more than a dozen golf courses around the world. His golf club in Miami, Trump National Doral Golf Course, will host a LIV Golf tournament April 4-6. His golf courses in Gainesville, Virginia, and Bedminster, New Jersey, hosted LIV events in the past.
Trump was criticized by survivors and family members of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks for hosting LIV Golf tournaments at his clubs in the past because of the circuit's ties to Saudi Arabia. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers in the terrorist attacks were Saudi nationals.
The Saudi government has denied having any role in the 9/11 attacks.
"I've known these people for a long time in Saudi Arabia, and they've been friends of mine for a long time," Trump told reporters in July 2022. "Many American companies, they own big percentages of many American companies, and frankly what they're doing for golf is so great."
Monahan played golf with Trump at his club in West Palm Beach, Florida, in November, according to The Washington Post. Trump attended a UFC fight in New York with PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan and Elon Musk the next day.
At last week's Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Rory McIlroy said he believed a deal between the PGA Tour and the PIF "should and will be done."
"But it doesn't solve the problem of what the landscape of golf looks like going forward," McIlroy said. "I'd say the biggest impediment is maybe the differing visions of what golf should look like in the future."