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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – When PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan was requested if he has the complete confidence of the gamers, he replied that was a query higher suited to the gamers.
So, members of the media did simply that.
“I assume we’ll begin with the straightforward ones,” Xander Schauffele mentioned, smiling, when he was requested proper off the bat if he was in Monahan’s nook. “Belief is one thing that’s fairly tender… and I might say in my ebook he’s acquired a protracted option to go… I’m certain he’s acquired the help of the board… however for me personally he’s acquired fairly a methods to go.”
Schauffele beforehand has expressed his disappointment with Monahan within the wake of the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund’s June 6 announcement of a framework settlement with out telling any of the gamers. Monahan’s approval ranking has been decrease than that of the previous few presidents of the USA ever since.
Subsequent into the media heart was Patrick Cantlay, who sits on the PGA Tour’s Coverage Board as a participant director, and will have added readability to a query Monahan had dodged earlier: Had any board member referred to as for his resignation?
“You understand, there’s been plenty of good spirited debate amongst our board,” Monahan mentioned.
When Cantlay was requested if Monahan is the perfect particular person for the job going ahead, his response was lukewarm at greatest.
“I feel it’s essential that we’re all rowing in the identical course, and proper now he’s positively our chief.”
Not an enormous vote of confidence.
However on Wednesday, Rory McIlroy, who within the Netflix documentary “Full Swing,” described himself because the closest participant on Tour to Monahan, continued to lend his help to the Commish.
“You take a look at what Jay has completed since he took over – the media rights deal, navigating us by COVID, the strategic alliance with the DP World Tour – I might say creating PGA Tour Enterprises, we have been simply in a position to settle for a billion and a half {dollars} within the enterprise. Folks can nitpick and say he didn’t do that proper or didn’t do this proper, however should you truly step again and take a look at the larger image, I feel the PGA Tour is in a far stronger place than when Jay took over,” McIlroy mentioned.
However McIlroy, who left the Coverage Board in November, wouldn’t go as far as to say that Monahan’s drop within the recognition ballot with gamers wasn’t unwarranted.
“I feel a few of the response to June sixth was warranted, however I feel at this level it’s eight months in the past, and all of us want to maneuver on,” McIlroy mentioned. “All of us have to kind of transfer ahead and attempt to carry the sport again collectively.”
Rely Justin Thomas among the many present crop of stars that thinks Monahan has made some savvy strikes of late and is successful again the hearts and minds of the gamers. However he was fast to level out that Monahan’s working as half of a bigger group – one that features new participant director Tiger Woods – within the making of the newest cope with Strategic Sports activities Group.
“I’ve been happy with all the newest stuff that’s been taking place and been happening, and Jay’s been part of that group, so I feel this can be a lot larger than one particular person sitting there and making all the selections,” Thomas mentioned.
Monahan’s skill to regain the belief of his constituencies is essential to his survival, and the likes of McIlroy, Cantlay, Schauffele and Thomas signify only a slice of the Tour membership and what they envision going ahead.
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