Donald Trump has met in recent days with key figures in the ongoing negotiations between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
The Washington Post was first to report that Trump, who was elected to his second term as president earlier this month, played a round of golf with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan on Friday at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The round, which reportedly was initiated by Trump, was confirmed to the Post by a PGA Tour spokesperson, who offered the following statement: “President-elect Trump has always been a champion of the game of golf, and Commissioner Monahan was honored to accept his invitation to play at Trump International. The president-elect and the commissioner share a love for the game and the commissioner enjoyed their time together.”
Then on Saturday night, Trump attended UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden in New York City with several recent cabinet appointees, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, plus musician Kid Rock, billionaire Elon Musk and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who sat ringside directly to Trump’s right and was seen several times chatting with Trump during the television broadcast.
The Post stated that “the exact nature and details from the meetings are uncertain.”
The PGA Tour and PIF have been working toward a deal since a framework agreement was announced in June 2023. The initial deadline came and went last Dec. 31, and details have been scant on the progress both sides have made. Monahan made his most recent trip to Saudi Arabia for the FII Institute’s annual conference in late October. That came after Monahan and Al-Rumayyan were in the same group for a round at the DP World Tour’s Dunhill Links Championship.
As the U.S. Department of Justice remains one of the main obstacles of a deal, according to Rory McIlroy, a member of the Tour’s transaction subcommittee, Trump proclaimed earlier this month on the “Let’s Go!” podcast with Jim Gray and Bill Belichick that it would take him “the better part of 15 minutes to get that deal done.”
“I’m really going to work on other things, to be honest with you,” Trump added. “I think we have much bigger problems than that. But I do think we should have one tour, and they should have the best players in that tour.”
McIlroy said two weeks ago in Abu Dhabi that Trump’s recent victory over Vice President Kamala Harris “clears the way a little bit” for a deal to get done.
“He might be able to,” McIlroy said. “He’s got Elon Musk, who I think is the smartest man in the world, beside him. We might be able to do something if we can get Musk involved, too.”
McIlroy then added: “I think from the outside looking in, it’s probably a little less complicated than it actually is. But obviously Trump has a great relationship with Saudi Arabia. He’s got a great relationship with golf. He’s a lover of golf. So, maybe. Who knows? But I think as the President of the United States again, he’s probably got bigger things to focus on than golf.”
