Players skip PGA Tour meeting; fractures in framework agreement?

LOS ANGELES – A vast majority of the 70 players who qualified for the play-offs ditched an informational meeting with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan on Tuesday, in a sign that progress of the

PGA Tour-LIV Golf merger

has not been as smooth as expected.

Tour player-directors Patrick Cantlay and Rory McIlroy were among the absentees, and only 25 players were at the meeting to share “information and new details” around the pending framework agreement to merge with LIV.

“There’s still a whole lot that no one really knows. It’s just continuing to trust that leadership, everyone is doing what’s best for all of us and the tour moving forward. Some of that was talked about – in calls before this. There really weren’t that many guys in the meeting,” Rickie Fowler said.

American Tom Hoge told the Associated Press following the meeting there is a “good chance” a deal between the two circuits would not get done. He did not elaborate or provide context around the statement.

The pre-tournament gathering ahead of this week’s St Jude Championship was Monahan’s first meeting with players since he returned from medical leave in July.

McIlroy recently doubled down on his long-held anti-LIV position, saying in July that

he will retire before playing on the circuit.

He had previously said Monahan’s announcement of the deal made him out to be a “sacrificial lamb” after he stood up to defend himself and others who stayed, resisting the massive LIV paydays funded by Saudi Arabia.

Scottie Scheffler said on Wednesday that players are not anticipating rapid progress or immediate changes.

“It just seems like they’ve got a long way to go... We still don’t have a great idea as to what is going on,” he said.

Along with

newly appointed player-director Tiger Woods,

players seized more control over the agreement with LIV Golf in a mixture of refusal rights and grants of approval on developments involving the PGA-LIV deal and other plans that might come to light.

Part of the agreement assures player-directors are kept up to date on the latest developments, which might stand to make in-person meetings with Monahan superfluous in the minds of some players. McIlroy, according to reports, was at a weightlifting workout.

The Northern Irishman has no time for LIV Golf but he will be more interested in the Ryder Cup, after he and Spain’s Jon Rahm became the first European players to book their places at September’s event in Rome, Team Europe confirmed on Wednesday.

The four-time Major winner will make his seventh successive appearance, with Rahm to play for a third straight edition against the United States. REUTERS, AFP