Exclusive: Rival tour bosses set for Saudi reunion

In the latest sign of thawing tensions in golf’s civil war, Jay Monahan and Yasir Al-Rumayyan are meeting again – this time in Saudi Arabia. 

Eyebrows were raised earlier this month when Monahan, the PGA Tour’s commissioner and Al-Rumayyan, who controls the Public Investment Fund bankrolling the LIV Golf League, were grouped together at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland.

The elite male game’s two leading powerbrokers smiled their way around Carnoustie in the Dunhill pro-am during their first public meeting since the televised handshake over a proposed ‘framework agreement’ back in June 2023.

It was unclear, however, if any serious breakthrough was made on the links over a deal to unify the two parties.

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But bunkered.co.uk has now learned that Monahan and Al-Rumayyan are both on site together again ahead of this week’s Aramco Ladies Team Series Event on the Ladies European Tour.

One well-placed source has stated the duo will play together in a floodlit pro-am at Riyadh Golf Club on Thursday, with Greg Norman also in attendance in the Saudi capital.

LIV Golf chief executive Norman has an added interest in proceedings, given the venue will also stage LIV’s upcoming Promotions Event in December and the breakaway circuit’s first event of the 2025 season in February.

Thursday’s pro-am, meanwhile, is in association with the Future Investment Initiative (FII), the annual investment conference which kicked off in Riyadh on Tuesday.

Al-Rumayyan – also the chairman of Newcastle United – confirmed at the summit earlier this week that Saudi’s sovereign wealth fund would be cutting back on international investments and focus its future spending on the domestic economy.

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However, it is understood that this shift in spending will not impact the future of LIV Golf as the reduction in global investment will only apply to future portfolios.

The latest meeting between Al-Rumayyan and Monahan comes at a time when men’s professional golf remains in limbo.

During the prolonged period of uncertainty, the PGA Tour has added private investment from the Strategic Sports Group, while protracted talks continue over the PIF becoming an investor in the new for-profit PGA Tour Enterprises.

Both tours continue to operate independently in the meantime, with LIV close to finalising its full 14-event schedule for the 2025 campaign.

Ben Parsons is the Senior Writer at bunkered and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.