At last month’s Tour Championship, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said the priority to reach a deal with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has “been enhanced” by months of negotiations, and on Tuesday in New York City those talks will intensify, according to various reports.
First reported by ESPN.com, officials from the Tour are scheduled to meet with members of the PIF on Tuesday in New York to continue negotiations toward a possible deal that would reunite the professional game and make the PIF a minority shareholder in PGA Tour Enterprises, the for-profit entity created this year.
According to the flight-tracking account @radaratlas2 on X, planes owned by Tiger Woods, the Saudi oil and natural gas company Aramco, and the Tour arrived in the New York area Monday.
The two sides, along with the DP World Tour, have been attempting to negotiate a deal since a framework agreement was announced in June 2023, and despite a Dec. 31 deadline the negotiations are ongoing.
“I would say that the priority – it’s been enhanced. It’s stronger,” Monahan said at East Lake. “That’s a direct result of dialogue and conversation and really starting to talk about the future, future product vision and where we can take our sport. I think when you get into productive conversations, that enhances the likelihood of positive outcomes, and that enhances the spirit of those very conversations.”
The timing of the meeting, Sept. 11, has drawn criticism from the 9/11 Justice group.
“Tomorrow, we commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy, yet here we are today, in New York City, down the street from Ground Zero, and the PGA Tour and Tiger Woods are negotiating with them,” the group’s president Brett Eagleson said in a statement. “As has been confirmed in the last few weeks by CBS reporting, the Saudi Arabian government played a role in the horrific attacks of 9/11. It is disgusting, unacceptable, and incredibly painful that the Tour and Woods would do this – especially now.”
In June, the Tour confirmed the transaction subcommittee (which includes Woods, Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott), Monahan, PGA Tour Enterprises chairman Joe Gorder, and John Henry, the manager of Strategic Sports Group (which invested an initial $1.5 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises), “engaged in direct negotiations” with PIF. Joe Ogilvie, a former Tour winner and liaison director on the Enterprises board, also attended the June meeting and, according to various sources, he is in New York City this week.
“I haven’t been on a transaction committee call since June maybe, the Memorial,” McIlroy said at last month’s FedEx St. Jude Championship. (Mcilroy also is playing the Irish Open this week at Royal County Down.) “The players aren’t expected to hop on those Monday, Wednesday, Friday calls. I actually haven’t been on one. It’s been wonderful. It’s been great.”
