Jay Monahan Speaks but Doesn’t Say Much

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan delivered his annual State of the Tour address at the Players Championship on Tuesday. Per usual, his hour-long press conference was light on details and heavy on vague statements about the future of the sport.

When asked if there is danger in not doing a deal with the PIF, the beginning of Monahan’s answer included the line “…you always have to be open to not doing something while you’re trying to do something.” Write that one down, aspiring business moguls! Throughout the session, there were a lot of words. There wasn’t much substance. To be fair to Monahan, divulging the specifics of progress – or lack thereof – to reunify the game is not within the best interests of the PGA Tour while they’re still negotiating with the PIF. But for what it’s worth, he did say that he “believes negotiating a deal with PIF is the best outcome.” I’m not sure if he meant it, but he did say it.

Perhaps my biggest takeaway from the press conference is that Monahan seems more committed to improving the fan experience than in previous years. Throughout the presser, Monahan stressed that fans are the backbone of professional golf’s commercial success. He acknowledged some of the PGA Tour’s shortcomings, citing the Tour season being too long, pitting the product against football, having a Tour Championship format that makes no sense, and telecasts showing too few golf shots. The explicit acknowledgement of these issues inspires some confidence that solving these problems is a top priority, which is encouraging. I’ll believe it when I see it though. When pressed for details on how improving the product can generate a return for SSG, Monahan commented that “The more that we can do to increase fandom, to bring our product forward in a way that is consistent with the way fans want to consume the product and the more steps we can take to dimensionalize our great athletes, those are all steps that we can take to grow fandom.” Lot of words, not a ton of substance.

The most interesting quote of the day probably came from Xander Schauffele. When asked about his confidence in Monahan moving forward, Schauffele said that “Trust is something that’s pretty tender…and I would say in my book he’s got a long way to go…I’m sure he’s got the support of the board..but for me personally he’s got quite a ways to go.”

When asked if he believes Jay Monahan is the best person for the job moving forward, Patrick Cantlay didn’t exactly offer unbridled enthusiasm, either. He answered, “I think it’s very important that we’re all rowing in the same direction, and right now he’s definitely our leader…” Fair enough. It’s hard to argue with any part of that sentence. Right now Jay Monahan is definitely the leader.

This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.