President Trump met with PGA Tour Commissioner this week, and the tour on Thursday said the Justice Department would consider whether to approve a venture between the US golf circuit and those supported by the Saudi Arabian Sovereign Wealth Fund. said.
The White House meeting on Tuesday was a rare foray into global sports diplomacy, but narrowed down to his decades-long ambitions to act as a sports power broker. It was also the latest expression of intimacy with Saudi tour Liv Golf.
In addition to PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, Trump hosted Adam Scott. Adam Scott won the Masters Tournament in 2013 and took part in the PGA Tour board.
During the oval office meeting, Trump spoke on the phone with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi wealth funds and one of Saudi Arabia's most influential figures. Explain private consultations.
“We asked the president to be involved for the interests of the game, the interests of the nation, and all the countries involved,” said Monaghan, Scott and Tiger Woods, a joint Thursday afternoon after New York. It was stated in a statement. The Times asked about the meeting Wednesday night. “We are grateful that his leadership has brought us closer to a final contract and paved the way for unifying male professional golf.”
Woods, the most famous player of his generation and another member of the Tour board, was scheduled to attend, but did not attend due to his mother's death.
Woods' agents did not respond to requests for comment. The Wealth Fund did not comment.
Since Liv thundered the professional golf scene three years ago, Trump has been stabbed by professional golf facilities distancing himself from him after entering politics, one of his most unstable supporters. He is a person and one of the most important vendors.
His company held LIV tournaments on courses up and down the East Coast. The circuit is set to return to Trump National Doral near Miami in April – Trump was a regular presence. When he played in Liv's professional amateur competitions, he routinely denigrated the PGA Tour and praised its rivals and anyone who listened to its Saudi Arabian patrons.
Now, Trump has been a mediator for the prestigious American Tour and Saudi startups, rejecting the Neissiah legion and becoming a force in the sport. On Wednesday, US Open organizers announced a smoother route for LIV players, one of the sport's four major tournaments, to take part in the event.
Just two years ago, such a detente looked unlikely. The PGA Tour and LIV spent the first few months of 2022 and 2023 on bitters possibilities. Liv encouraged the Department of Justice to investigate the PGA tour for potential violations of the antitrust law, and the tour spent months blaming Liv and its Saudi investors.
However, in June 2023, after about two months of secret speeches from San Francisco to Venice, Tour and LIV suddenly announced plans to combine the business. The interim agreement led to a kind of ceasefire in their conflict with power, money and morality in global sports.
However, neither party has yet to close its final transaction. Federal antitrust officials are reviewing term sheets requesting wealth funds to put $1.5 billion in commercial sector created by the PGA Tour and the top American investor group.
Department of Justice officials are particularly adapted to whether LIV and Tournamant are direct rivals due to their different formats and lengths, and whether they could potentially curb competition in the US.
In December, Woods said the talks were “very fluid,” but he also said it was “constructive.”
Avid golfer, Trump has spent years predicting some sort of deal between the PGA Tour and LIV. But even as he enjoyed the rounds with top players, Trump has developed complicated relationships with the American golf elite in recent years.
The PGA Tour, which hosted events on Trump's property in Doral, Florida, ended its relationship with Trump's company during the 2016 campaign. Tim Finchem, the tour commissioner at the time, said the move was “essentially a matter of sponsorship” rather than a “political exercise.”
Trump has also stepped out of PGA of America in particular, pulling out the men's championship tournament from the Trump course after rioting at Capitol since January 6, 2021. The Trump organization and groups, which differ from the PGA Tour, later reached a settlement.
Soon after the November election, Trump showed his continued interest in the fate of professional golf negotiations. In the presidential election, Trump hosted Monaghan in a golf round at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The next day he saw Mr. Arlemayan at an event in New York.
In November, he was asked if Trump could destroy Rory McIlroy, perhaps one of the world's top players. “He might be able to do it,” he replied.
“Obviously, Trump has a big relationship with Saudi Arabia,” added McIlroy, a former PGA Tour board member who played with Trump in 2017. “He has a great relationship with golf. He is a golf lover. So, maybe. who knows? But again, as president of the United States, I think he should focus on something bigger than golf. ”
But Trump was firmly focused on golf, at least for the short time on Tuesday, the day he publicly came to the public about Gaza's American takeover.
