PGA Tour boss Jay Monahan REFUSES to answer question about LIV's Greg Norman
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has given his latest thoughts about the LIV Golf League and "the meeting" called by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan refused to say whether he'd answer the phone to his LIV Golf League rival Greg Norman.
Monahan has remained largely a silent figure since the Tour Championship at East Lake.
But in his first remarks to the media since then at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, the embattled commissioner described a landscape of two rival leagues going their separate ways.
LIV - now known as the LIV Golf League - are gearing up for their second season which starts in February.
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The breakaway tour made a splash in 2022, signing the likes of Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka.
Monahan previously described a world in which the PGA Tour could not win a "dollar bills arms race" with their Saudi-funded rival.
That being said, the American circuit has considerably increased their prize purses for 2023.
As many as 13 events have been given "elevated status" in an attempt to rival the purses offered by LIV.
The first of which was the Tour's first stop in 2023 in Kapalua. Jon Rahm erased Collin Morikawa's seven-stroke advantage to take home a massive cheque for $2.7m.
Morikawa later admitted "it sucked" after being visibly stunned by what happened.
Monahan told the media of the professional golf landscape:
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Many of the changes to the PGA Tour were spearheaded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
Both players called a meeting of the elite players to discuss what the Tour needed to do going forward in response to LIV.
Not everyone in that meeting before the FedEx Cup playoffs remained with the PGA as Joaquin Niemann later joined LIV.
Monahan stressed that while he knew what was being discussed, it was very much the players' meeting.
He continued:
Monahan and Norman have traded barbs publicly and privately over the last 12 months.
Famously, Norman wrote an email to Monahan that began with: "Surely, you jest".
This was after Monahan threatened to suspend PGA Tour members who played in LIV's curtain-raising event in June 2022.
So would Monahan take Norman's call now?
But what if he did?
Next page: PGA Tour pro says "it's a problem" LIV stole "all the a**holes"
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