Six months ago things were different. At least they felt different. Jay Monahan was the leader of the PGA Tour and worked through negotiations with the Saudi Public Investment Fund on a possible investment of at least $ 1.5 billion.
Monahan was not ready in mid-March to give up his role as a Tour head and instead continued with his State of the Union press conference at the players’ championship. He was on TPC Sawgrass for assembled media and offered many words that amounted to very little. He refused to add a depth to the negotiations – which took place in the White House and did not finish. In the midst of his many non-answers, I squeezed a question that was not so much not about the PGA Tour, but rather about the company that tried to attract it.
As the tour of the Tour, I started You make a few annual press conferences, but as the governor of the [Saudi] Pif, Yasir [Al-Rumayyan] not. If someone who has had countless meetings with him who really calls you, can you help us understand what he is looking for the most in a potential investment?
Monahan’s answer was one of respectful respect: “Listen, no surprise for you, I am one hundred percent focused on the PGA Tour and focused on everything I control. I think that is a question for [Yasir] To answer, not for me to answer. “
He wasn’t wrong. But he was just not realistic either. Because Al-Rahayyan rarely speaks on the record, he certainly does not perform any press conferences and has mainly applied a shadow figure in the sport.
In the months since the players’ championship, Monahan faded into the background of tour leadership and was replaced by Brian Rolapp, the new CEO, who has or not the task of breathing new life into – who touch an aggressive snake among the group. When he was asked about Liv in his only press conference last month, Rolapp spoke as generic as Monahan.
“I will also say that as far as we can do everything the PGA Tour will further strengthen, we will do that,” Rolapp said. “I am interested in exploring what the PGA Tour strengthens.”
My original question remains, partly because it has never been answered in the first place. But also because of how little al-Rahayyan speaks publicly. (He will be on stage during an event here and there for largely softball questions.) He loves Liv Golf Pro-Ams and takes Newcastle United football matches. But questions are rarely or never lobed on him without being informed of them. (And that will probably continue.)
However, and this can be one of the weakest, however, it did something different this week. Liv Golf’s financial support spent Monday in Washington DC-after the weekend in New York, with President Trump, who took the US Open 48 minutes interview in the file, in the Economic Club, about different investment subjects. Liv Golf was one of them, together with Saudi investment strategy, the World Cup 2034, the tourism of the Middle East and more. And even if the golf questions – asked by David RubensteinFounder of the private equity company, Carlyle Group – was fairly simple, perhaps that is a good thing. Because one of them eventually responded partly from what I asked Monahan.
What follows is a synopsis of the thoughts of Al-Rahayyan, deposited for golf-oriented analysis.
What does ‘Liv’ actually stand for?
This question is often answered by the simple explanation that LIV tournaments are played more than 54 holes, and LIV is the Roman figure for 54. Although the connection is accurate, the meaning of LIV – perhaps its existential meaning – is different.
Liv is indeed 54, but not necessarily the amount of gaps – rather the pursuit of perfection.
“That is why we say that we want to get golf to the next level, that is 54 strokes,” said Al-Rahalyyan, insinuating that Liv could push the sport closer to his ceiling. What does that look like?
Golffans may remember how Al-Rahayyan triumphantly promised during the very first LIV event that every LIV golfer that 54 in a round shot would receive a check of $ 54 million. Well, he doubled that message again on Monday, even more dizzier than when he first said it in June 2022.
“It will be one of my most happiest days when we achieve that,” said Al-Rahalyyan and said he hopes it will happen. “Because I will go back to my insurance company and ask them to pay for it.”
Will the Saudi Pif close a deal with the PGA Tour?
A compliment for Rubenstein for the directness of this question. If there was no direct answer, that is an answer in itself.
Instead, Al-Rahayyan’s reaction turned to the tendency of Golffans-TV viewers, buyers of Ticket, etc. to be golfers themselves. Few sports all over the world have a larger connection between the professional ranks and the recreational hobby.
“What I want is to bring golf to the non-golfers,” said Al-Rahamayyan. “Just like football, just like tennis, or Formula 1. How many people have driven a Formula 1 car? But at the same time you have millions of people looking at the formula. I want the same thing for golf.”
In other words, it sounds like Al-Rahayyan wants to create an ecosystem in the game that performs the popularity of the recreational side of the sport while using his professional branches. And to be honest, that seems to check with the actions of LIV, paying exorbitant funds to top talent to create its own competition with a different Formula 1-style format. (Not to mention his extreme Formula 1-Style broadcast, Villages Fan, etc.)
“I look forward to the day to work with the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour,” Al-Rahalyyan continued. “We have reached them from day 1. And unfortunately things have not gone so well. But hopefully in the future we will be able to bring the game of golf together and this – I mean, what I try to do is not to clap the PGA or the DP World Tour. What I try to do is to increase the size of the pot.”
It would have been great to hear him say those words, in a very public environment, about 2 or 2.5 years ago. Instead, Golffans had to look for clues and meaning in itself. The negotiations between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Pif reached a point where the PIF would be considered an investor in the Tour in the line of the Strategic Sports Group, a collective of American sports managers who have promised at least $ 1.5 to the Tour in the months since then. Al-Rahayyan, however, continued to take care of its many responsibilities, so Golffans feel that an investment can never actually happen.
His comments make it much more plausible on Monday than one of the silence of the last six months.
What about that round with Tiger Woods? And Donald Trump?
Al-Rahayyan admitted that he played golf with the most top players on either side of Pro Golf’s Civil War, including Tiger Woods and his son Charlie. That round is probably the one who took place between Woods and Al-Rahalyyan in April 2024 in the Bahamas. In a moment of lightness, Rubenstein asked or Woods is overestimated or “really pretty good”. Al-Rahayyan took that baton, pauted and then took out: “Eh, he’s ok.”
Al-Rahayyan also admitted that he was raging it against President Trump. When Rubinstein asked whose game is better, the Liv Golf Head of Al-Rumuyyan or Trump joked: “I think that is a state secret.”
If someone who has seen both of them play up close, the true answer is Trump, although Al-Rahayyan certainly improves.
It is clearly not all about financial returns
Al-Rahayyan said that the total value of PIF currently fluctuates between $ 925 and $ 930 billion, and the goal by the end of 2025 is $ 1.075 trillion. The PIF portfolio comprises companies in 14 different sectors, of which “entertainment, leisure and sport” is the likely home for Liv Golf.
But what does Liv do as an investment for the PIF?
It is not entirely clear, due to the quantifiable statistics, the Adolescent Golf League is a considerable drag. It was expected that the total investment would possibly reach $ 5 billion by the end of 2025, the figures of which will only be official at the beginning of 2026. But as has long been at the forefront of any conversation about LIV, it is less quantifiable topic of Sportwashing. The country has had to deal with serious accusations of the use of sport investments to distract or wash its brutal reputation on human rights. You cannot measure that on an Excel magazine, but it is worth thinking if Al-Rahalyyan responds to Rubenstein’s simple question:
“Is the return the most important?”
“It’s a number of things,” said Al-Rahalyyan. “It is a matrix. Returns is very important, but why are we making certain investments in a certain sector? Is there a GDP contribution? Is there a job creation? Is there help in our local content, which is very important. How can we diversify oil?”
He continued discussing how Saudi GDP is enormously diversified on dependence on oil, which was as high as 90% of the economy ten years ago.
“The financial return comes with a high degree of certainty, but what is the impact?” he asked aloud. “What is the – are you an impactful investor? That is part of our vision and mission within PIF, to be an impactful investor. What is the definition of that? It is of course making money to help with the prosperity and achieve the most important KPIs of Vision 2030 and to develop the country. Is bridging these gaps in basic. “
Liv Golf would certainly not count as an investment with an impactful financial return. It is (and probably) something else. Another example: the PIF has invested in the ATP tour (the Herentennistour) and deserves a naming entitlement to the ATP ranking list, which do not yield a financial return on the PIF. But the PIF ATP rangers increase the name recognition for the country in the larger sports ecosystem.
It’s okay Take it all … with a grain of salt
You can view the entire Al-Rahalyyan interview below. It is remarkable because of his rarity. He just didn’t give much in the record discussions of this length, in this American setting … period. His answers are rosy and optimistic and when discussing the depths of investment Saudi Aarabia does in the US, all over the world and in a number of industries, it is easy to understand why Golf may not always be at the top of his list. It is also easy to understand – when he Gloats incorrect About the Saudi Pro Football League is one of the four best football competitions in the world – that his view of the competitions funded by Saudi money is disconnected from reality.
Watch the video below. The golf conversation starts on the 20 -minute marking:
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