PGA Tour chief Jay Monahan has confronted calls to resign at an “intense and heated” gamers assembly following the shock merger with LIV Golf.
Several gamers left the American PGA Tour and European-based DP World Tour to hitch the Saudi Arabia-backed Liv circuit when it launched final 12 months.
Monahan had beforehand mentioned anybody who joined LIV wouldn’t be welcome again on the PGA Tour.
“I recognise that people are going to call me a hypocrite,” Monahan mentioned.
He added that Tuesday’s assembly earlier than the beginning of this week’s RBC Canadian Open in Toronto was “intense and certainly heated”.
Northern Ireland’s world quantity three Rory McIlroy, who has been a agency defender of the PGA Tour, is ready to talk to the media at round 15:00 BST on Wednesday.
American golfer Johnson Wagner, a PGA Tour winner, informed the Golf Channel: “There were many moments where certain players were calling for new leadership of the PGA Tour and even got a couple of standing ovations.
“I believe essentially the most highly effective second was when a participant quoted Monahan from the 3M in Minnesota final 12 months when he mentioned, ‘so long as I’m commissioner of the PGA Tour, no participant that took LIV cash will ever play the PGA Tour once more’. It simply looks as if a whole lot of backtracking.
“Players were mad, players were calling for [his] resignation, and Jay sat there and took it like a champ, he really did.”
An settlement has been signed that may mix the PGA Tour and LIV’s business operations and rights into a brand new, but to be named for-profit firm and it means pending litigation between the excursions can be halted.
But the announcement took gamers abruptly with many reacting with anger, whereas the specifics of how the Tours will look going ahead just isn’t but clear.
Former US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy added: “(Monahan) just sort of explained the structure, how it’s going to look going forward.
“He did not actually discuss specifics. It was a troublesome assembly for each side as a result of no person actually is aware of what that is going to appear to be in the long run.”
Human rights group Amnesty say the announcement is further evidence of Saudi Arabian efforts to draw attention away from the country’s human rights record, known as sportswashing.
Meanwhile a 9/11 victims group say the PGA Tour should be “ashamed of their hypocrisy and greed” after Monahan previously referenced the terror attacks when criticising players for leaving the PGA Tour for LIV.
LIV players lost their places on DP World Tour and PGA Tour, were fined for taking part and also saw their world rankings plummet as LIV events were not officially sanctioned.
European players who resigned from the DP World Tour are also not currently eligible for the 2023 Ryder Cup, with Henrik Stenson, removed as captain for this year’s event, which takes place in Rome from 29 September to 1 October.
“Any time I’ve mentioned something I’ve mentioned it with the knowledge I had at that second, and I mentioned it primarily based on somebody that is making an attempt to compete for the PGA Tour and our gamers,” mentioned Monahan.
“I settle for these criticisms however circumstances do change and I believe trying on the large image received us so far.
“It probably didn’t seem this way to them but as I looked to those players that have been loyal to the PGA Tour, I’m confident they made the right decision.
“They have helped re-architect the way forward for the PGA Tour, they’ve moved us to a extra aggressive mannequin. We have considerably invested in our enterprise in 2023 and we’re going to take action in 2024.”
Monahan said all golfers who joined LIV will be able to reapply for PGA Tour membership in 2024.
He also said that conversations about compensation may take place with golfers who stayed loyal to the PGA Tour, such as Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
Fifteen-time major winner Woods and four-time major champion McIlroy turned down lucrative offers to join LIV last year.
“Those are the intense conversations that we’ll have,” mentioned Monahan.
“Ultimately all the things must be thought of. Ultimately what you are speaking about is an equalisation over time and I believe that is a good and cheap idea.”
High-profile players who accepted lucrative offers to join LIV, such as Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson, were supportive of the merger with Mickelson saying it was an “superior day”.
Former US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, told CNN it was “the perfect factor that would ever occur for the sport of golf” adding: “We are higher collectively and never aside.”
But ex-PGA Tour player Brandel Chamblee, who is now a television analyst, has been critical, describing the announcement as “one of many saddest days within the historical past {of professional} golf”.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
