PGA Tour: No news on reunification with LIV, but pace-of-play changes are coming

For just a moment on Tuesday, hope flickered in the fragmented world of men’s professional golf. For a moment, it seemed golf fans would have some actual news of reunification, a pathway for the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to gather once again. But then the moment passed, and it’s clear the world of golf remains just where it’s been the last three-plus years — divided and weaker, regardless of how much spin its proponents can put on the ball.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan held one of his annual press conferences Tuesday in advance of The Players Championship, and his initial remarks seemed promising. Monahan began by praising President Trump’s role in golf’s reunification — “talks have been significantly bolstered by President Trump's willingness to serve as a facilitator … He believes strongly in the game's power and potential and he has been exceedingly generous with his time and influence to help bring a deal together.”

And then the slightest hint of hope. Monahan praised Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund which oversees LIV, adding that “we can see a future where we welcome him onto our board and work together to move the global game forward.” Monahan noted that “we believe there's room to integrate important aspects of LIV Golf into the PGA Tour platform.”

Complimenting Al-Rumayyan, opening the door for LIV Golf — that’s progress! Yes, it was very calculated progress — Monahan very clearly, and surely deliberately, placed both Al-Rumayyan and LIV in a PGA Tour-centric context — but any progress is welcome at this point.

Sadly for golf fans, that was as far as Monahan got in nodding toward any actual specifics of a reunification. He deflected question after followup question about golf’s split with some variant of a reaffirmation to his commitment to reunification and hope for a brighter future for the game.

“We're committed to these negotiations and to doing everything that we can to drive to reunification for our fans,” he said. “That said, we're not going to do anything that diminishes the strength of our platform or that momentum that we have with our fans and partners.”

The other newsworthy — and potentially more impactful, in the short run — item from Monahan’s press conference concerned pace of play. The slog of tournament rounds slows golf to a crawl. In an on-demand, always-on world, a player who takes several minutes to reach, address and swing at his ball — despite rules meant to keep him from doing so — is a numbing drag on the sport.

Later this year, the Tour will begin publishing statistics related to pace of play. And starting next month, the Tour will implement a new policy on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Americas designed to pick up the pace of play … with actual penalty strokes assessed for slowpokes.

Monahan did not indicate whether names would be named — whether the Tour would say that Player X is the slowest player on Tour, for instance. And announcing penalty strokes is one step; actually implementing and enforcing them is another matter entirely. For many golf viewers (and, for that matter, players) fed up with slow play, the Tour will need to put teeth into its declarations to make them worthwhile.

“It's easy to identify the problem,” Monahan said. “It's a little bit harder to find the solution just given the depth and breadth of everything that goes into pace of play, but we are committed to finding the right solutions and making progress on that front.”

The Tour has much to take pride in this week, from improving TV ratings to the rollout of new initiatives like TGL to a new Fan Forward outreach plan that makes the game more compelling to a new audience. The Players Championship is the PGA Tour’s marquee event, and the de facto start of golf’s big-tournament season.

With Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and most of the rest of the Tour’s stars in attendance, the event ought to be its usual spectacular production. Perhaps LIV stars like Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau could be in attendance next year. But if not, no matter how the tournament plays out, there will still be something missing, just as there has been for the last three years.