Can Jay Monahan fix the PGA Tour?
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Can Jay Monahan actually bring the PGA Tour back together?
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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Jay Monahan says he’s listening. He says he understands just how frustrated you are. But does he realize how close to the edge of the cliff he has led the PGA Tour? How the tour can see the jagged rocks from here?
We are two years past Monahan dismissing the LIV Golf threat. We’re a year removed from the ultimately misguided notion that the other side’s interest was waning, and nine months have passed since the bombshell framework agreement between the PGA Tour and PIF, the Saudia Arabia royal investment fund behind LIV. It remains just as difficult as ever to find a moment where Monahan’s actions have proved to be correct, and he continues to project the image of an excellent peacetime leader Captain Sobel-ing his way through an ordeal that will not end.
“(Monahan) could be the guy, but in my book, he’s got a long way to go to gain the trust of the membership,” Xander Schauffele, one of the biggest stars on the PGA Tour, said Wednesday.
Patrick Cantlay has emerged as maybe the most powerful voice among current tour players, and from his spot on the various boards said it’s important that “we’re all rowing in the same direction.” So is he sure Monahan is the guy? “Right now he’s definitely our leader.”
Woof.
There’s still no deal to unite men’s professional golf, just Monahan’s assertion that talks have “accelerated” with PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, and boastful language about what the other billion-dollar deal, this one with a consortium of American businessmen, means for the future of PGA Tour. It’ll “fundamentally transform” the business, Monahan said. It has “unleashed our potential for future growth,” he continued.
Translation: The money pipe flows uninterrupted to PGA Tour headquarters, and it has never been a more financially beneficial decision to swing a 7-iron for a living. As is often the case when money begins floating about, everyone seems only concerned about how this will affect them and has lost sight of the greater good. Why fret about the future of golf when there’s a bigger boat to buy?
Jay Monahan was just asked if the policy board has ever asked him to resign. He did not say no. He essentially just said there's been a lot of active discussion in those board meetings.
But he said he believes he has support.
"I am the right person to lead this board."
— Brody Miller (@BrodyAMiller) March 12, 2024
Professional golf has a unique problem, though — the future of the sport does not necessarily have to include it.
This is a boom time, in fact, for recreational golf. Four years after the pandemic created an environment that spurred interest in this beautiful game, it continues unabated. Anyone reading this column in one tab while searching for an available weekend tee time is nodding along. More people are playing, and the sport is becoming more inclusive and creating different pathways to continue this upward trajectory.
But how many of them are dying to watch The Players Championship this weekend? Seriously, how many of you are building your weekend around the NBC broadcast? Audience has been down year over year for the PGA Tour, and again a major storyline at a tentpole tournament will be who is not here — no Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Bryson Dechambeau or the rest of the LIV players. Will they be back for 2025? 2026? Ever? Who’s to say?
The PGA Tour under Monahan’s leadership has never done more to keep the top players happy than it is, introducing smaller-field, limited-or-no-cut events with even larger cash prizes. I was in favor of them when signature events were introduced a year ago, and remain so, at least theoretically. But they’d be a heck of a lot better to watch if any of the top players sans Wyndham Clark and Scottie Scheffler had shown up for 2024 ready to compete week-in, week-out.
It’s been too often a bad product, one that leaves us longing for something else. Other pro sports can have these moments. MLB games used to take too long. The NBA is a star-driven league that can feel more soap opera than sport. Even the mighty NFL takes the occasional hit.
But no one responds to a bad NFL schedule by putting on the shoulder pads and hitting their buddy. It’s a much more captive audience than the PGA Tour enjoys, a challenge that can be overcome but a challenge nonetheless.
“We’ve done extensive research with our fans, and what they’re telling us today is simple: They love golf, and they’re loyal to the PGA Tour,” Monahan said. “They’re tired of hearing about conflict, money and who is getting what. They want to watch the world’s best golfers compete in tournaments with history, meaning and legacies on the line at venues they recognize and love.”
There’s a lot of truth there, but it’d also be foolish to suggest that any loyalty to any tour runs all that deep nowadays.
Men’s professional golf cannot suffer the fate of open-wheel racing, which fractured into two leagues in 1996 and never has fully recovered. It needs all the best players playing together more often than the four majors. It needs everyone to give a damn. It needs thoughtful, capable leadership to get it back to that point and build from there.
It needs to hope it’s not too late.
(Photo: Cliff Hawkins / Getty Images)
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Hugh Kellenberger is the senior managing editor of The Athletic's golf group. A native of North Carolina, Kellenberger previously served as sports editor and columnist for the Jackson (Mississippi) Clarion Ledger. He first covered Ole Miss for the paper, and in the past has covered Indiana for the Bloomington Herald-Times and the ACC for the Rocky Mount Telegram. Follow Hugh on Twitter @KellenbergerCBB
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· 22h 21m ago
Jay Monahan can't recover from calling out LIV and then begging for its treasure. Monahan has that fetid smell about him, much like Mark Emmert, the former NCAA president, who had to resign after no less than the Supreme Court of the United States had to tell him to stop confiscating college athletes' earnings. People like them are in the business of hypocrisy, but there must be a limit.
M
Michael Z.
· 22h 22m ago
I strongly disagree with one belief, taken as article generally and repeated here. It is not good for the game for all the best players to compete 15 times a season and to have the rest of the tournaments devoid of stars. That makes the sponsors and broadcasters of all the other events lose interest and suffocate the pipeline for new funding and new talent.
It is much better if some of the best players are in almost every tournament. If that happens, more tournaments can offer higher purses, more people will watch and attend because there should be some big names in contention most weeks, and the game as a whole can grow.
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Keith S.
· 21h 12m ago
A few thoughts: 1. No, Monahan is not the right guy. He’s devoid of vision, trust and honesty. New leadership is needed; 2. Monahan and the tour never planned for the day that Tiger was no longer a factor on the course. They have nothing that comes remotely close to what he brought and are now paying the price; 3. I suspect that this year’s Masters will be a ratings slam dunk, perhaps one of the most watched ever. Simply because golf viewers want to see the best playing together, and the Majors are the only avenue. To that last point, golf will end up like tennis…viewers will only tune in for the four majors, with few caring about all the other stuff.
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