Xander Schauffele doubles down on previous PGA Tour claim

PGA Tour star Xander Schauffele reiterated commissioner Jay Monahan still has his work cut out to regain players' trust. 

Schauffele spoke to the media shortly after Monahan addressed reporters for the first time in more than six months at TPC Sawgrass. 

Monahan was expected to provide an update on how the Tour's negotiations are developing with LIV's financiers.

Instead, Monahan refused to go into specifics and simply stated the discussions are 'accelerating'. 

And he also didn't want to entertain the topic of how the Tour would handle LIV players returning should they want to. 

As for Schauffele, the American has previously called for Monahan to resign given the about-face Tour management policy. 

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And he believes that Monahan still has 'quite a ways to go' to prove that he's the right man to lead the PGA Tour into the future. 

Monahan was asked if any player directors had called for his resignation too and his reaction was telling. 

A reporter put it to Schauffele: "Do you have confidence in Jay going forward?

The golfer joked: "I guess we'll start with the easy ones."

He explained: "Yeah, I mean, you know what I've said in the past on how I feel about it.

"Trust is something that's pretty tender, so words are words, and I would say in my book he's got a long way to go.

"He could be the guy, but in my book, he's got a long way to go to gain the trust of the membership.

"I'm sure he's got the support of the board, since they were with him making some of those decisions, but for me personally he's got quite a ways to go."

For his part Monahan has stressed that he has made clear he's owned his mistakes of being a hypocrite and not being transparent. 

"When you look back to last summer I could have handled that better," Monahan said.

"And I've taken full responsibility and accountability for that. That's on me."

Schauffele was also pressed on what Monahan could do to make him 'feel good about the situation'. 

"I haven't really thought too much about how to alleviate the pains of an entire membership," he said. 

He added: "To be completely honest, I would consider myself pretty uninformed.

"[I] haven't really sought out a whole lot of information just because, you know, when I felt like I did, I didn't get any.

"I'm a pro golfer at the end of the day, so I have to hope that things can go well at some point, but, yeah, I have seriously no details or extra facts to throw out to you.

"And if I did, I don't know if I would tell you, to be completely honest."

Watch Schauffele's answer here:

"He's got a long way to go to gain the trust of the membership." o



Xander Schauffele explains why it will take some time for players to trust and believe in the PGA Tour leadership of Jay Monahan  pic.twitter.com/hRLjTFUG2p

— Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) March 12, 2024

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