The men at the centre of the deal to bring men’s professional golf back together in Jay Monahan and Yasir Al-Rumayyan will come together at this week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship
Yasir Al-Rumayyan will compete (
Image: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
DP World Tour star Richie Ramsey has called on a ‘lock in’ for Jay Monahan, Yasir Al-Rumayyan and Guy Kinnings at St Andrews this week in a bid to hash out a deal to reunite men’s professional golf.
The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship will bring golf’s most powerful names together in Scotland this week, with PGA Tour commissioner, Jay Monahan and CEO of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF), Yasir Al-Rumayyan competing at the Pro-Am event.
Not only are the two chiefs both on the entry list, Monahan and Al-Rumayyan have also been paired together in the opening round, alongside their pro partners Billy Horschel of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf’s Dean Burmester.
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Also expected on site is DP World Tour CEO, Guy Kinnings, with the trio making a rare collective public appearance. The three bosses are the names at the centre of the ongoing framework agreement negotiations that are expected to end the hostilities between the two Tours and LIV.
Monahan and Al-Rumayyan shocked the sport last June when announcing initial plans for an agreement, but over 15 months on a deal is yet to be completed. With both sides of the deal at the Home of Golf this week, Ramsay joked that those in charge should be locked in the iconic St. Andrews pub, ‘The Jigger’ until they come to a finalised deal.
“Lock them in the Jigger and tell them to sort it out before they are allowed out,” The Scottish star tweeted. It is expected that for this week at least, the focus for Monahan and Al-Rumayyan will be on the on-course action, with both competing alongside their chosen pros across three of Scotland’s most iconic courses.
Talks between the sides have been held behind closed doors for the most part, with a recent in-person meeting in New York last month a chance for the PGA Tour and PIF to accelerate negotiations. Whilst updates on the talks have been sparse, Kinnings – who was also around the table – did lift the lid on the current goings on.
“I’m very hopeful,” he told Sky Sports. “I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for the game to come together and become more harmonious and global. There’s an ongoing process within the US between the PGA Tour and Public Investment Fund, but in the room those discussions are ourselves, DP World Tour and the Strategic Sports Group.
“I think everyone has the right attitude going into that and doing the right thing for the game and taking it forward. I see it as an opportunity and, hopefully, it will be what’s good for players, fans and everyone else.”
On the back of the meeting, Kinnings was forced to apologise for the timing, with talks taking place over the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States. 15 of the 19 hijackers in the 2001 attacks were Saudi citizens, however the Saudi government has always denied any involvement.
