Jay Monahan Shows His Hand

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan tap-danced his way around plenty of direct questions during his annual address ahead of the Players Championship. But, if you watched and listened closely, there were a few key takeaways.

In his opening remarks, Monahan mentioned the PGA Tour discussions with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund right out of the gate (after thanking the Tour’s proud partners). He kissed President Trump’s ring and praised PIF and LIV Golf chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan’s “innovative vision.” He then noted there are “important aspects” of LIV Golf he could see integrated into the PGA Tour platform, as long as they don’t diminish “the strength of our platform or the very real momentum we have with our fans and our partners.”

When specifically asked what could diminish the product or halt momentum, Monahan may have shown his hand.

“These tournaments are 72-hole stroke play tournaments at historic, iconic venues, with moments like we had last Sunday with Russell Henley and his family. That’s who we are as an organization, and that’s who we’ll always be as an organization,” said Monahan. “So that’s at the center of the way that we think about what our fans want and what our players want, and that’s obviously a very important consideration in our discussions.”

Monahan admitted hurdles have been removed in the discussions, but others still remain. He said there’s urgency to get a deal done, yet there’s no deadline or future meeting with President Trump or Al-Rumayyan on the books. Al-Rumayyan loves LIV Golf, especially its team element and international reach. Reading between the lines here, the commissioner will take the chairman’s investment, but he doesn’t appear to have any interest in LIV.

Another major talking point was pace of play. Monahan said speed-of-play-related statistics would be released later this season, and that a new policy where players are assessed penalty strokes for slow play would be tested on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Americas beginning on April 14. Range finders will also be tested at six Tour events between the Masters and PGA Championship.

While he avoided a question on what data will be published and if slow players will be named – Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas want them to be – it’s at the very least a step in the right direction. The first step in solving a problem is recognizing there is one. Better late than never.