Six months ago, the situation was different. At least they feel different. Jay Monahan is the leader of the PGA Tour and invests for at least $1.5 billion through negotiations with the Saudi Public Investment Fund.
Monahan wasn’t ready to give up his tour role in mid-March, but instead held a joint press conference at the Players Championship. He sat in front of the assembly media of TPC Sawgrass and provided a lot of words, equivalent to very few. He refused to add any depth to the negotiations, which took place at the White House and did not end friendly. Among his many non-responders, I squeezed into a question, not the PGA Tour, but the companies it was trying to attract.
As a tour specialist, I’ve started, You will have some annual press conferences, but as governor [Saudi] Pif, Yasir [Al-Rumayyan] No. As someone who has held countless meetings with him, you call it real, can you help us understand his biggest pursuit in potential investments?
Monahan’s answer is one of the respects of respect: “Listen, it’s not surprising to you, I’m a hundred percent focused on the PGA Tour, focusing on everything I control. I think that’s a problem [Yasir] Answer, not let me answer. ”
He is right. But he is not realistic. Since Al-Rumayyan rarely speaks on records, he certainly won’t host press conferences and is primarily a shadowy figure in the sport.
In the months since the player’s title, Monahan has gradually disappeared from the background of the Tour leadership and has been replaced by new CEO Brian Rolapp, who may or may not be tasked to resume these negotiations, hitting a radical obstacle. When asked about Liv’s only press conference last month, Rolapp spoke like Monahan.
“I also want to say that we will do that within the scope of what we can do that will further strengthen the PGA Tour,” Rollap said. “I’m interested in exploring anything that strengthens the PGA Tour.”
My initial question still exists, partly because it has never been answered. This is also because Al-Rumayyan speaks very little publicly. (He will sit on the stage here and there at an event to ask softball questions.) He loves to play Liv golf professionals and participate in football games at Newcastle United. But there are few (if any) problems that are against him and he is not introduced to him. (This will likely continue.)
But this is probably one of the weakest – Al-Rumayyan did something different this week. Financial supporters of LIV Golf spent the weekend in Washington, D.C. on Monday – President Trump played in the U.S. Open after spending the weekend in New York – conducted 48 minutes of interviews at the Economic Club for a variety of investment topics. Liv Golf and Saudi investment strategies, the 2034 World Cup, Middle East tourism, etc. Even the golf problem – the question asked by David Rubenstein, founder of private equity firm Carlyle Group, is simple, maybe that’s a good thing. Because one of them finally answered what I asked Monaghan.
Next is a summary of Al-Rumayyan’s thought, pruning golf-centric analysis.
What is “liv” actually?
Usually, this question can be answered with a simple explanation, i.e. a Liv tournament was played in 54 holes, and the Liv was 54 Roman numerals. Although the connection is accurate, the meaning of liv (perhaps its meaning of existence) is different.
The LIV is indeed 54, but it is not necessarily the number of holes, but the pursuit of perfect holes.
“That’s why we’re saying to take golf to the next level, which is the reason for the 54 shot,” Al-Rumayyan hinted that Liv could take the sport closer to the ceiling push. What is that?
Golf fans may recall Al-Rumayyan’s promise of winning in the first-ever LIV event, and any Liv Golfer who shot 54 in the leg would get a $54 million check. Well, he doubled that information again on Monday, making it even more dizzy than what he said for the first time in June 2022.
“If we achieve that, it will be one of my happiest days,” said Al-Rumayyan, who hopes that will happen. “Because I’m going to go back to my insurance company, ask them to pay for it.”
Will Saudi PIF reach an agreement with the PGA Tour?
Pay tribute to the directness of this question. When there is no direct answer, this is an answer in itself.
Instead, Al-Rumayyan’s reaction revolves around the trend of golf fans (TV observers, ticket buyers, etc.) to become golfers. Few sports around the world have a greater connection between professionals and leisure hobbies.
“What I want is to bring golf to non-golfers,” Rumayan said. “Like football, like tennis or Formula 1. How many people are driving Formula 1? But at the same time, you have millions of people watching Formula 1. I want to offer the same thing for golf.”
In other words, it sounds like Al-Rumayyan wants to create an ecosystem in the game about the entertainment aspects of sports while using its professional branches. Frankly, this seems to be checked through Liv’s actions, paying top talent high funds to build their own Formula 1 style format. (Say nothing about its Formula 1 style broadcast, fan village, etc.)
“I look forward to working with the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour this day,” continued Al-Rumayyan. “We’ve been in touch with them since day one. Unfortunately things aren’t going well. But hopefully in the future we can get the golf game together, which is – I mean, what I want to do is not grab it from the PGA or the DP World Tour. What I’m trying to do is increase the size of the pot.”
It’s nice to hear him say these things in a very public setting about 2 or 2.5 years ago. Instead, golf fans must search for clues and meanings themselves. Negotiations between the PGA Tour and Saudi PIF reached a location that will be seen as investors along the Strategic Sports Group’s tour, a collective of American sports executives who have drawn at least $1.50 to the tour in January 2024. SSG has been touring for the following months. However, Al-Rumayyan continues to raise his many responsibilities, making the feeling that golf fans may actually never happen to invest.
His Monday comment made it sound more reasonable than the silence of the past six months.
What about that round with Tiger Woods? And Donald Trump?
Al-Rumayyan admits he plays golf with most top players on either side of Pro Golf’s civil war, including Tiger Woods and his son Charlie. That round could be one that took place between the Bahamas Woods and Al Rumayan in April 2024. At a moment, Rubenstein asked Woods if it was overrated or “really good.” al-Rumayyan took the pole, stopped, and joked, “Well, he’s OK.”
Al-Rumayyan also admitted to playing games against President Trump. When Rubinstein asked who had the game better, or when Al-Rumuyyan or Trump’s, the head of Liv golf joked: “I think it’s a secret of a country.”
As someone who sees both play up close, the real answer is Trump, although Al-Rumayyan is definitely improving.
Obviously not all about financial returns
Al-Rumayyan said the PIF’s current total value fluctuates between $925 and $930 billion, with a target of $1.075 trillion by the end of 2025. The PIF portfolio includes 14 businesses in different sectors, of which “Entertainment, Leisure and Sports” is home to Liv Golf.
But what does LIV do as an investment in PIF?
Not entirely clear that the golf league in adolescence is a huge profit due to the quantifiable metrics. It is expected that the total investment will reach US$5 billion by the end of 2025, and its figures will not be officially invested until early 2026. The country faces serious allegations of using sports investment to diversify its cruel human rights reputation or money laundering. You can’t measure on Excel tables, but it’s worth mentioning that Al-Rumayyan answered Rubenstein’s simple question:
“Is the rate of return the most important?”
“It’s a lot of things,” Al-Rumayyan said. “It’s a matrix. The returns are very important, but why do we make certain investments in a certain sector? Is there GDP contribution? Is there job creation? Our local content helps, and it’s very important. How do we diversify from oil?”
He began to discuss how Saudi Arabia’s GDP stayed away from its dependence on oil, 90% of what it was a decade ago.
“The financial rate of return is high, but what is the impact?” he asked loudly. “What is? Are you an influential investor? It’s part of our vision and mission in PIF to be an influential investor. What is the definition? Of course it’s about making money to help thrive and vision for the 2030 2030 large KPIs and growing the country. Saudi Arabians have a lot of gaps in many things before 2015 and what we want is what we want.
LIV golf certainly doesn’t count as an investment with influential financial returns. It might (and most likely be) something else. Another example is: PIF invested in the ATP Tour (Men’s Tennis Tour) and received the name of the ATP rankings, which would not bring any financial returns. However, PIF ATP rankings do improve the country’s name recognition in large sports ecosystems.
It doesn’t matter Take it all with a grain of salt
You can watch the entire Al-Rumayyan interview below. It is worth noting its rarity. In this American environment, he simply did not give many people in the recorded conversations during this period. His answer is optimistic and optimistic, and when discussing Saudi Arabia’s depth of investment in the United States, the world and any number of industries, it’s easy to understand why golf may not always be the first on his list. He was also easy to understand when he was about the Saudi Pro Football League being one of the four best football leagues in the world – when his views on Saudi money-funded leagues were disconnected from reality.
Check out the video below. Golf conversation starts with 20 minutes mark:
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