Inside Trump’s crunch talks to save golf: Details from White House meeting between PGA Tour and LIV revealed

As golf’s civil war continues to rage on, details about a meeting between President Donald Trump and leaders of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf have been revealed.

On Thursday, Trump met with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, Saudi PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, and PGA Tour players Tiger Woods and Adam Scott.

The PGA Tour, in a statement, revealed that the purpose of the meeting was to initiate ‘a discussion about the reunification of golf,’ according to SI’s Bob Harig.

‘We are committed to moving as quickly as possible and will share additional details as appropriate.

‘We share a passion for the game and the importance of reunification. Most importantly, we want the best players in the world playing together more often and are committed to do all we can to deliver that outcome for our fans.’

Monahan and Trump met by themselves back on February 4 in an attempt to speed up negotiations between the two parties – with the idea being that the American federal government could try and intervene with the Department of Justice to approve a deal. 

But among the hurdles in front of the deal include dealing with regulators – an issue that both sides have had trouble with ever since their initial ‘framework agreement’ was announced on June 6, 2023.

Since that announcement, the PGA Tour formed a for-profit business called PGA Tour Enterprises – which they were looking to join forces with the PIF and the DP World Tour. 

In January 2024, the PGA Tour entered into an agreement with Strategic Sports Group – a pool of American sports owners and business men who looked to give the Tour $1.5billion in private equity.

After that was agreed, the Tour announced a player equity program to pay out $930m to over 180 players over the course of eight years.

That deal put the talks with the PIF on ice until last March, when the PGA Tour Policy Board – including player directors – met with Al-Rumayyan in the Bahamas. Monahan and Al-Rumayyan later played together in the pro-am at Scotland’s Dunhill Links Championship.

All that led up to this month – within the first 100 days of Trump’s second term as president.

Woods was set to attend the meeting on the fourth with Monahan, but had to back out following the passing of his mother, Kultida, at age 80.

‘It was a very productive visit,’ Monahan said last week in advance of the Genesis Invitational. ‘I think you all have been around him enough to know how passionate he is about the game of golf.

‘For [Trump] to respond to our request to sit down and talk about how we achieve what he stated publicly as a goal, which is the game of golf operating under one tour with all the top players playing on that one tour, was a great opportunity. We had a really productive conversation.’

Monahan later added: ‘I think the meeting ultimately gets us one step closer to a deal being done, but there’s a lot more work to do. Hopefully you sense my enthusiasm as I talk about it today.’

Woods also offered his thoughts – stopping at the CBS broadcast booth during the final round of the Genesis Invitational last Sunday.

‘We’re in a very positive place right now,’ Woods said. ‘We had a meeting with the President. Unfortunately, I had some other circumstances that came up, but Jay and Adam, they did great during the meeting, and we have another subsequent meeting coming up.

‘I think that things are going to heal quickly. We’re going to get this game going in the right direction. It’s been heading in the wrong direction for a number of years and the fans want all of us to play together, all the top players playing together and we’re going to make that happen.’