PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan recovering from a 'medical situation'
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan is recovering from a “medical situation,” the Tour announced on Tuesday night. A pair of Monahan’s lieutenants at the PGA Tour will take over his duties for the time being.
No information was given on the nature of Monahan’s health issue. The statement from the Tour was generally vague.
“Jay Monahan informed the PGA Tour Policy Board that he is recuperating from a medical situation. The Board fully supports Jay and appreciates everyone respective his privacy,” the Tour said.
PGA Tour COO Ron Price and executive vice president Tyler Dennis will handle the day-to-day work of administering golf’s main governing body.
Monahan’s absence comes as the PGA Tour is in a period of turmoil
The turmoil is in no small part Monahan’s creation, as he and a group of others quietly negotiated a merger between the PGA Tour and rival splinter tour, LIV Golf.
A deal to merge with LIV Golf required, among other things, a backtracking on more than a years worth of public statements from Monahan, something he acknowledged.
It also resulted in immediate and fierce backlash from outside and within the Tour.
Any number of PGA Tour golfers apparently found out about the deal along with the rest of the world via headlines and news alerts. They did not do much to hide their ire for Monahan or the deal that was struck.
Beyond his own talent pool, Monahan also angered golf fans. Some of them called for his resignation.
But bigger than any pushback from fans or even the golfers he need to make the tour work, Monahan and the PGA Tour are now staring down a U.S. Senate investigation.
By partnering with LIV Golf, the PGA Tour is effectively partnering with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is controlled by the Saudi government and, in turn, prince Mohammed Bin Salman. A large cash infusion into a major U.S. sporting entity via the investment arm of another sovereign country has drawn scrutiny from Capitol Hill.
Monahan, of course, was under intense pressure to stave off the threat that LIV Golf posed to the PGA Tour. He reportedly told PGA Tour employees that the golf governing body didn’t have the money in its coffers to keep up a legal fight with LIV Golf and the powers that back it.
So rather than fight with LIV Golf and the Saudis, Monahan partnered with them.