PGA Tour boss Jay Monahan has admitted he is 'getting blue in the face' as the Tour's battle with LIV Golf continues. The two circuits find themselves on opposite sides of golf's civil war, which has exploded this summer.
LIV has looked to form a fierce challenge to the PGA Tour's position as the sport's leading circuit by luring in a number of golf's biggest names thanks to mega-money contracts. In order to keep some of his marquee names on side, Monahan has used the player power of both Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
The pair fronted an all-player meeting in Delaware at the end of the PGA Tour season, where they spoke on the Tour's behalf to instil the backing of the world's top players.
In an interview with ESPN , the commissioner has revealed the importance of Woods' and McIlroy's intervention with he himself going 'blue in the face' in regard to the saga. He said: "At the end of the day for me, and I feel like I'm getting blue in the face on this, but the competitive framework here and the integrity of that is so important.
"And that's what those players [Woods and McIlroy] are trying to protect. And so to me, understand, respecting history, respecting tradition, honouring it at the same time, figuring out how we can evolve in a way that actually improves upon that is the absolute right way of going about things."
There had been calls for both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to put their differences aside and come to some sort of an agreement for the good of the game. This however is not an option for Monahan. He went on: "I'd provide the same answer.
"The answer to that is they've gone down their path and I think we have been pretty consistent that we're going down ours, and I don't see that happening. Haven't, and I don't." The Tour and the Saudi-funded circuit currently find themselves embroiled in a legal dispute.
This comes after LIV players and the series itself looked to sue the American-based circuit on anti-trust violations as LIV rebels were suspended from competing on the PGA Tour. As a result, Monahan and co have recently hit back after reportedly 'countersuing' LIV for similar violations.
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Per The Athletic , the PGA Tour's complaint read: "Indeed, a key component of LIV’s strategy has been to intentionally induce TOUR members to breach their TOUR agreements and play in LIV events while seeking to maintain their TOUR memberships and play in marquee TOUR events like The Players Championship and the FedEx Cup Playoffs, so LIV can free ride off the TOUR and its platform.
"LIV has openly sought to damage the TOUR’s business relationships with its members by inducing them to breach their contractual requirements, even going so far as to pay members’ legal fees to make breaching their contracts with TOUR more enticing.”
