Can 'hypocrite' golf commissioner Jay Monahan repair tattered reputation? | Gene Frenette

One indisputable notion about this stunning merger between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Public Investment Fund, the financial backer of LIV Golf — Jay Monahan is now deservedly sitting on the hottest seat in sports.

The likable tour commissioner has put his reputation as a credible leader of the world’s most impactful golf organization on the line.

Shamefully, he did it for the sake of a money grab offered by the Saudi Arabia-based PIF, the same entity for which he repeatedly chastised his own players after they defected to join the LIV Golf league.

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Monahan essentially sold his soul to the devil, exchanging his own treasured legacy and the tour’s smug, holier-than-thou attitude toward LIV for a lot more than 30 pieces of silver.

Terry Strada, national chairwoman of the 9/11 Families United, whose husband, Tom, was killed in the attacks on the twin towers, minced no words about the betrayal she felt over the tour striking a deal with PIF.

Her organization issued a statement saying it was “offended” by the merger and, specifically, Monahan’s 180-degree turn after previously denigrating LIV Golf and the source of its funding.

“Now the PGA and Monahan appear to have become just more paid Saudi shills, taking billions of dollars to cleanse the Saudi reputation so that Americans and the world will forget how the Kingdom spent their billions of dollars before 9/11 to fund terrorism,” said the 9/11 Families United statement.

Monahan, who later expressed regret to The Golf Channel for not communicating the merger in advance to Strada’s organization, knew full well stinging criticism would come down on him.

The biggest salvos were apparently fired Tuesday from his own players, some of whom reportedly applauded at a tense meeting with the commish at the Canadian Open after one player reportedly questioned his leadership and labeled him a “hypocrite.”

Adding to the heat descending on Monahan was the top-secret nature of how the merger came down Tuesday morning when he and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of PIF and chairman of the new alliance, jointly announced the merger on CNBC.

Monahan will serve as the CEO of this unified golf body, retaining the power to set the schedule and still have the tour operating as a 501c (6), tax-exempt organization. Al-Rumayyan, for all intents and purposes, is serving as a tour sugar daddy.

Nobody outside a tiny circle around Monahan and Al-Rumayyan knew anything about these two previously acrimonious parties, who kept slinging arrows at each other for a year and filing lawsuits against one another, hooking up in solidarity with the DP World Tour.

Ever since LIV Golf and its massive financing enticed the likes of Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and others to join them last year — loading up dozens of Brink's trucks as a signing bonus — the tour was more likely to spit on them than acknowledge their existence.

Then without any forewarning from even some anonymous media source, golf’s Hatfields and McCoys announced they were getting married.

It was as big a bombshell as the sports world has seen in quite some time. Monahan and the tour partnering up with the financial backer of LIV Golf is like hearing Coke deciding to merge with Pepsi. Or Taylor Swift announcing a tour with Kanye West.

Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee, one of the most vocal critics of LIV Golf and the “sportswashing” PIF that funded the endeavor, went on air Tuesday afternoon and wore the facial expression of someone who had been hit by a sledgehammer.

Somewhere, Tiger Woods must have felt like Y.E. Yang had just snuck up on him and stolen another one of his majors.

All about the money

Moving forward, a ton of questions remain about this merger. Like how the 2024 tour schedule is going to be structured? What will golf’s new combined operation be called? Does this merger subject this alliance to more probing from the Department of Justice about antitrust violations?

Furthermore, does LIV Golf play on as it now exists, die a slow death or expand? What kind of path, if any, is going to be available for those who defected to LIV to go back to the Tour and DP World Tour? Remember, Monahan said last year that as long as he was commissioner, no LIV member would be welcomed back to his tour.

Also, since PGA Tour players Rickie Fowler and others resisted the temptation of the get-richer-quick offers by LIV Golf to stay put, does the tour somehow funnel money their way, and how, to reward their loyalty?

Monahan and his new Saudi Arabian BFF deemed it too soon to provide answers to any of those questions. But golf’s new villain thankfully didn’t try to sidestep how he looks two-faced for reversing his position, looking no different than the money-chasing LIV golfers he routinely vilified.

“I recognize everything that I’ve said in the past and my prior positions,” said Monahan. “I recognize that people are going to call me a hypocrite. Anytime I said anything, I said it with the information that I had at that moment, and I said it based on someone that’s trying to compete for the PGA Tour and our players. I accept those criticisms, but circumstances do change.”

It’s not some deep, dark mystery about what changed, why Monahan is now extolling the benefits of his tour and PIF being “on a path of unification” for the overall good of the game.

The commissioner saw not only how the Tour-LIV Golf divide was creating a huge distraction with a drama-obsessed media. More importantly, he could see all the green in front of him. And I don’t mean the grass.

Do not overthink why this bombshell announcement happened. As in any corporation or big business, money drives the PGA Tour. Whether it’s being on the receiving end of sponsorship dollars or avoiding massive litigation fees, Monahan is beholden to the tour’s bottom line.

“We recognize that together, we can have a greater impact on the game than working apart,” Monahan said on CNBC about merging with PIF. He also pointed out the tension between the two sides goes away because “the litigation is dropped.”

So if all this means putting up with the discomfort of being labeled a sellout by people that he considered friends, Monahan was obviously willing to pay that price, falling on the sword when necessary.

He acknowledged feeling bad about not being more transparent about the merger with Strada, as well as how flipping on his past hard stances against LIV Golf would look to players who trusted him.

“Any hypocrisy, I have to own, nobody else,” Monahan told The Golf Channel. “That’s on me.”

Still, he capitulated because he was afraid of the financial consequences of what continued public bickering with PIF and LIV Golf might mean down the road for the PGA Tour.

Hard path to regain trust

Nobody will have to wear a black hat more than Monahan over this stunning transaction.

The man who repeatedly doubled down to rip LIV at every opportunity now faces the biggest public relations battle of his career. That might include a threat to his job security if the tension created by such an improbable merger doesn’t blow over.

Fortunately for Monahan, some big guns are doing their part to quell one of the biggest firestorms in golf history.

Rory McIlroy, who carried the tour’s torch in its fight against LIV and acknowledged Wednesday that it's hard "not to feel like a sacrificial lamb" about the merger, also said he was hopeful it will put men’s professional golf in a better spot in five to 10 years. McIlroy basically told everybody to calm down.

Jack Nicklaus, The Masters, the USGA and the R&A all issued diplomatic statements, professing their optimism for how this merger can bring global golf unity. At least they stopped short of suggesting tour officials, LIV Golf and DP World Tour members would soon be singing “Kumbaya” around a campfire.

Suffice it to say Monahan has a lot of fence-mending to do. Remember one of his big talking points at last year’s Canadian Open to CBS announcer Jim Nantz, asking if any player who left for LIV or considered leaving, “Have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?”

By digging in his heels for so long against LIV, Monahan knows he can’t whine now about getting bombarded with criticism. Remember at his annual address before The Players Championship, when asked about a future merger with LIV, he said he didn’t want to engage in answering hypothetical questions, then added: “That’s not a possibility.”

Now his tour is in bed with PIF and calling it a “transformational partnership,” showing the world how all the spitefulness and hand-wringing about the human rights abuses of a Saudi Arabian monarchy can disappear if the price is right.

As for his legacy, Monahan hopes playing the long game will ultimately vindicate him. While unclear now what golf will look like in 2024 and beyond, the 53-year-old commissioner is banking on this merger being viewed in a much different light as the years pass by.

Obviously, if things go sideways for any reason and the heat on Monahan leads to his ouster, he could become the first tour commissioner not elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame. His three predecessors — Tim Finchem, Deane Beman and Joseph Dey — are all enshrined.

It’s too early to get a proper reading on how the fallout from this merger is going to play out. Surely, the storyline will not die before or any time soon after next week’s U.S. Open.

What is certain is, by giving in to greed, temptation and joining another form of "sportswashing" that he once disavowed, Jay Monahan has put himself on the firing line. Hypocrisy has a way of doing that.

Gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540   

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jay Monahan betrayed trust on PGA-LIV merger, must regain it