Price and another senior tour executive, Tyler Dennis, have been in charge of day-to-day operations for the tour since June 13, when Monahan and the board released a brief statement saying the commissioner was “recovering from in a medical situation.” In the weeks since, tour officials have repeatedly refused to describe Monahan’s condition or the events that led to his stepping down in one of professional golf’s most tumultuous moments.
By the time Monahan left, however, he had drawn days of harsh criticism over the deal with the wealth fund, whose tour money had previously been scorned as tainted, an about-face he acknowledged would- will prompt accusations of hypocrisy.
Final details of the alliance have yet to be negotiated, but the outlines of the tentative agreement call for the PGA Tour, the wealth fund and the DP World Tour, formerly known as the European Tour, to bring their golf businesses together. to a new one, for profit. company. Tour executives argued that the deal, if it closes, would allow the Florida-based circuit to retain control of the sport because Monahan would be chief executive of the new company and the tour would control most of the board seats. .
But al-Rumayyan will be the chairman of the new company. Moreover, the wealth fund is expected to have extensive investment rights in the new company, promising significant Saudi influence.
Before June 6, when the deal involving the tour and the wealth fund was announced, Monahan was among the staunch critics of Saudi Arabia’s entry into professional golf.
“The PGA Tour, an American institution, cannot compete with a foreign monarchy that is spending billions of dollars trying to buy the game of golf,” Monahan said in June 2022. “We welcome good, healthy competition. The LIV Saudi golf league is not like that. It is an irrational threat; one unconcerned with return on investment or real growth of the game.”
Last month, hours after he sat down next to al-Rumayyan for a television interview, he adopted a decidedly different tone, in part because the tour’s leaders had effectively decided their fight over the funding of wealth does not remain.
