Livescore
President Donald Trump has put himself in the middle of two feuding factions who have been at war now for three years.
It’s a global conflict that started in 2022, forcing longtime allies to turn against one another. Loyalties have been tested, betrayals have been exposed and once-friendly relationships have crumbled under the weight of this massive power struggle.
What began as an aggressive territorial assault quickly escalated into a full-scale war with both sides digging in, refusing to compromise, spending countless amounts of money and resources and launching relentless attacks on one another.
No, I’m not talking about the war between Russia and Ukraine. I’m talking about the feud between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
Obviously, a golf dispute is meaningless and pales in comparison to a real war, but Trump has put himself in the middle of both. While one is a geopolitical conflict with global consequences and the other is a boardroom battle over money and power, both have created deep divisions and forced key figures to pick sides, leaving a trail of animosity that won’t be easy to erase.
With professional golf at a crossroads, Trump has stepped in once again, hoping to broker a deal that could unify the sport and bring an end to a rivalry that has fractured the game. Trump reportedly initiated discussions and has hosted two White House meetings in recent weeks with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, PGA Tour player director Adam Scott and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the chairman of LIV Golf who heads the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.
“He’s someone that absolutely cares about the game of golf,” Monahan said of Trump during a meeting with reporters at Bay Hill before the start of Thursday’s Arnold Palmer Invitational. “He’s the leader of the free world, and he has an active interest in reunifying the game. He’s in an incredibly strong position to do so and his willingness to do so obviously changes the dynamic.
““We’re doing everything we can to reunify the game. Seventy percent of our fans tell us that they would like see the game reunified. That’s a core foundation to why we’re spending the amount of time and energy trying to accomplish that. It was a very productive visit [with Trump]. I think you all have been around him enough to know how passionate he is about the game of golf. For him to sit down and talk about how we achieve what he stated publicly as a goal, which is the game of golf operating under one tour with all the top players playing on that one tour, was a great opportunity.”
So, too, was the recent meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House and we saw how that turned out.
Here’s hoping Trump and Vice President JD Vance don’t invite Monahan back to the White House, where they berate him and then side with the Saudis.
We’re kidding, of course, but there’s no question Trump does have a cozy relationship with Saudi Arabia and perhaps this could help broker a deal between LIV and the PGA Tour. Trump-owned golf courses have hosted several LIV events in the last three years and Saudi’s Public Investment Fund invested $2 billion in a private equity fund founded by Jared Kushner — Trump’s son-in-law and a former White House advisor.
Much like Russia in negotiations with Ukraine, there does seem to be a school of thought that Saudi-owned LIV Golf only wants to make a deal with the PGA Tour on its own terms.
As PGA Tour star Rory McIlroy said before teeing off at API on Thursday: “Look, I think it takes two to tango. So if one party is willing and ready and the other isn’t, it sort of makes it tough.”
McIlroy, who was once the PGA Tour’s most vocal critic of LIV, has struck a more conciliatory chord the last couple of years. In fact, he told reporters at The Arnie earlier this week: “I think the narrative around golf would welcome a deal in terms of just having all the best players together again. I think that would be the ideal scenario, but I don’t think the PGA Tour needs a deal.”
I disagree. I believe the PGA Tour and LIV absolutely need this deal. The PGA Tour can’t continue to lose marquee players to LIV, and LIV can’t continue to dump billions of dollars into a mostly irrelevant golf league.
If Trump — or anybody else — can settle this feud then more power to them. But, let’s be honest, it’s not going to be as easy as shaking hands over a round of golf at Mar-a-Lago. The barriers to reaching a peace agreement are still monumental.
Will LIV give up its team-based format and shotgun starts that the PGA Tour’s traditionalists loathe?
Will the two tours be able to find a way to create a joint financial model, leveraging LIV’s investment power while maintaining the PGA Tour’s tradition, structure and stature?
Will the PGA Tour drop suspensions and allow LIV defectors to return without penalties?
Ultimately, professional golf’s long-term success depends on answering these questions and resolving this schism.
With President Trump mediating the battle between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, perhaps we’ll soon see an epilogue to “The Art of the Deal.”
Golf fans can only hope that this updated chapter ends with a birdie, not a bogey.
Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on X (formerly Twitter) @BianchiWrites and listen to my Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9:30 a.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and 969TheGame.com/listen
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