HOYLAKE, England — Votes of confidence are powerful instruments, capable of toppling once-popular governments and ending formerly flourishing careers. The last such motion of consequence in Britain, in 1979, brought down a Labour government and ushered in the bleak era of Thatcherism. The themes that prevailed then — worker unrest, claims of mismanagement, demands for reform, mockery of collective interest, promises of riches — are eerily familiar to the dynamic in professional golf now, though it would be uncharitable to draw parallels between the PGA Tour-Saudi Framework Agreement and the Labour manifesto in’79, which was dryly described as the longest suicide note in history.
Tuesday at Royal Liverpool saw votes of confidence on the two most high-profile, controversial executives in golf, neither of whom is actually present at the 151st Open Championship.
The first featured the embattled PGA Tour commissioner, Jay Monahan, who returned to work Monday after a month-long leave for an undisclosed medical issue. Shortly before his departure, Monahan had announced an astonishing pact with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund that ended, or at least paused, acrimony, litigation and harsh condemnation. At least between those two parties. But it created a similar motif internally at the Tour, where a player putsch is taking shape among a handful of elites intent on ousting the board members behind the accord and tilting the Tour toward alternatives.
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One man seemingly not on board with that plan is Jon Rahm. The world No. 3 was asked if his opinion of Monahan had changed since his Linda Blair-like about-face on June 6. “I wouldn’t say it’s changed … He’s a really good man,” he said. “As it comes to what he’s been doing for us and the PGA Tour, I think he’s done a fantastic job.”
The gust of wind that blew across the grounds at Hoylake after those words was a sigh of relief that began in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
“I would say it was unexpected what happened. I think what the management of the PGA Tour, the turn they took without us knowing was very unexpected,” the Masters champion continued, “but I still think he’s been doing a great job. And right now after that happened, I only think it’s fair to give them the right time to work things out.”
Rahm’s voice has more weight than company at the Open. There’s a widespread belief that Monahan will struggle to survive the fallout of his rapprochement with the regime he consistently (and accurately) denounced while encouraging his players to do the same. But the notion that the commish betrayed his members isn’t a view that Rahm subscribes to.
“I still think they have the best interest of the players at heart,” he said of Tour executives. “All we have right now, it’s a framework agreement. It’s an agreement to have an agreement. We really don’t have anything right now to be able to say or judge what they’ve done. That’s all I can say.”
Pressed on whether Monahan has lost his trust — which Xander Schauffele says is true with him — Rahm was unequivocal: “No. Again, he still has all this time to work this agreement to basically prove that this was the right decision. No, as of right now, no.”
Rahm is nothing if not iconoclastic in his thinking, a fact underscored by another comment he offered that won’t earn applause in the more elite precincts of the locker room. He was asked if the PGA Tour owes a reward to top players who remained loyal and rejected overtures from LIV Golf, a group that includes Rahm himself. “I wasn’t forced into anything. It was my choice to stay,” he said flatly. “Do I think they absolutely should be and there must be a compensation? No. I just stayed because I think it’s the best choice for myself and for the golf I want to play.”
“Now, with that said, if they want to do it, I’m not going to say no,” he added to laughter.
“We all had the chance to go to LIV and take the money and we chose to stay at the PGA Tour for whatever reason we chose. As I’ve said before, I already make an amazing living doing what I do,” he said, a reality that is true for so many of his peers but acknowledged by so few of them.
Today’s other referendum on a golf executive at Royal Liverpool illustrated a complex truth about votes of confidence: it is not simply about surviving them; often it’s about the enthusiasm with which survival is granted.
Brooks Koepka, who jumped to LIV Golf 13 months ago, was asked his thoughts on a revelation that emerged in last week’s U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing on the PGA Tour-PIF agreement — that LIV’s CEO Greg Norman will be bounced if a definitive deal is reached. His response was to offer a neutral, irrelevant and obvious comment about how he’s communicated more with Norman in the past year than in the five years previously and that he’s “pretty good friends” with his son.
But has the Shark done a good job?
“I think he’s done fine. It’s all perspective, right?” Koepka offered.
Fine. The fallback adjective for the angry, the disillusioned and the disappointed when asked if everything is okay, the telltale trope when you don’t want to fully express what you really think.
Pushed again, Koepka didn’t flinch. “He’s done fine.”
Two votes of confidence, both nominally positive, but not at all the same. Monahan will give thanks that the right man was asked about him, while Norman will rue getting the guy least likely to blow smoke up his gills. For all that, both know nothing said in public at Hoylake will determine matters in the coming months, and that their respective fates may turn out to be not all that different.
