Donald Trump’s return to the United States presidency could help the PGA Tour and PIF reach a deal to reunite men’s professional golf, Rory McIlroy said Wednesday.
“Given today’s news with what’s happened in America, I think that clears the way a little bit,” McIlroy told reporters at the DP World Tour’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
Trump told the Sirius XM podcast “Let’s Go!” with Jim Gray and Bill Belichick earlier this week that he believes “it would take me the better part of 15 minutes to get that deal done” between the PGA Tour and the PIF, the Saudi Arabia sovereign fund that owns and operates LIV Golf.
Negotiations, which have carried on for around 18 months and blown past the original deadline of the end of 2023, have always faced a potential stumbling block with the Department of Justice. The DOJ’s antitrust officials have expressed concern with the potential deal, and other government officials have been concerned about a foreign investment of this magnitude.
But the DOJ would work under Trump’s direction and his administration’s priorities, and he’s made it clear he’s in favor of an agreement.
“He might be able to (get a deal done),” McIlroy said. “He’s got Elon Musk, who I think is the smartest man in the world, beside him. We might be able to do something if we can get Musk involved, too.
“Yeah, I think from the outside looking in, it’s probably a little less complicated than it actually is. But obviously Trump has a great relationship with Saudi Arabia. He’s got a great relationship with golf. He’s a lover of golf. So, maybe. Who knows?”
LIV Golf has hosted six events in its three-year history at Trump’s courses in New Jersey, Virginia and Miami, paying the Bedminster and Doral courses for the privilege, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has received a reported $2 billion investment into his private equity firm from the PIF, LIV’s backer. Beyond the Trump family’s relationship with the Saudis and his enthusiasm for LIV Golf (he has attended multiple times), the President-elect, in his business dealings, has never been particularly respectful of anticompetitive regulations. As the owner of the New Jersey Generals, once part of the shuttered United States Football League, Trump manufactured an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL that ultimately led to the start-up league’s demise.
“The DOJ is a creature of the executive branch, and with its law enforcement and prosecutorial role, it can exercise significant discretion and pursue the priorities of the current administration,” said Brooklyn Law School professor and sports antitrust expert Jodi Balsam. “When a new administration comes in, whether it’s Harris or Trump, they can dictate the priorities of the DOJ.”
McIlroy, who sits on the PGA Tour Enterprises Transactions Subcommittee, said he’s not aware of a finished deal (reported last week by a UK tabloid but not separately confirmed), though he indicated progress continues to be made. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan was in Saudia Arabia last week, and McIlroy said Monahan will brief the subcommittee Wednesday.
(Photo of Patrick Reed, left, and President-elect Donald Trump: Mike Stobe / Getty Images)
