SAN DIEGO – Adam Scott, who joined PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan last Tuesday at the White House for a meeting with President Donald Trump, offered more details on that meeting, which the circuit said in a statement was to discuss “the future of men’s professional golf.”
Scott said the meeting lasted about 40 minutes in the Oval Office and was a “really positive” step for the Tour in its ongoing negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
“It’s just a positive thing that the President of the United States is such a lover of the game of golf and understands some of the challenges facing the professional game at the moment,” Scott told Golf Channel Tuesday at the Genesis Invitational. “Given how things are sitting with the Department of Justice among the professional game, this is all crazy stuff, he’s a lover of the game and hopefully will be very helpful for the professional game and help everybody move forward.”
In June 2023, the Tour and PIF announced a framework agreement that ended months of legal wrangling and an expanding gulf in the professional game. Since that announcement, however, the anticipated final agreement that would reunite the professional game has not been reached.
According to one source, Tiger Woods helped arrange the meeting with Trump, who had said in the past that he could negotiate a deal between the PIF, which owns LIV Golf, and the Tour in 15 minutes.
“The president is passionate about [golf], he owns several golf properties, fabulous destinations around the world. He has a relationship with Saudi Arabia and the Public Investment Fund. I genuinely think he’s a fan of the PGA Tour, as well, and he’s certainly a fan of Tiger Woods, most people are,” said Scott, who is a player director along with Woods on the PGA Tour Enterprises board of directors. “Given this [a potential definitive agreement between the Tour and PIF] has been tied up he can be very helpful.”
Although the Tour didn’t specify how Trump’s involvement could expediate the negotiations, the Department of Justice’s antitrust division has an ongoing investigation into the potential deal for possible antitrust violations.
A source with knowledge of the investigation told CNBC in 2023 that the DOJ investigation predates the framework agreement and that it is not unusual for U.S. antitrust authorities to review a transaction of this profile. The source added that a review does not suggest the transaction violates antitrust laws.
Scott couldn’t offer a timeline for the DOJ review of a potential deal between the Tour and PIF, but he was optimistic Trump’s help could help move the review process along.
“The difficult thing for maybe the administrations to understand [is] why professional golf coming back together, working more harmoniously, let’s say, is not a breech of antitrust or anticompetitive issues. That’s what’s really been looked at,” Scott said. “Hopefully this can be helped by the president and things can move forward at a faster pace.”
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