LIV Golf: some reluctance to Saudi deal, player return says PGA Tour policymaker Peter Malnati
- Reuniting world’s best a priority, but questions remain over how that happens
- Malnati among six players on the PGA Tour policy board being urged to meet LIV boss Yasir Al-Rumayyan on Monday
Reuniting the world’s top golfers is a priority, PGA Tour policymaker Peter Malnati said on Saturday, but some players had issues with Saudi backing and how defectors would return.
Malnati, who spoke after his third round at The Players Championship, is among six players on the PGA Tour policy board being urged to meet on Monday with Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF) governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, according to multiple reports.
The meeting with the backers of the LIV Golf League, which has lured reigning Masters champion Jon Rahm and other big names away from the PGA, is planned for Ponte Vedra Beach a day after the Players ends.
“It would be even better if we had Jon Rahm here. I’ll just say it. It would be an even better win,” Malnati said. “That’s something that we as a membership and leaders of the membership, we need to figure that out.
“How do we make this happen for people to come back and do it in a way that has some semblance of fairness … that can at least somewhat pass the sniff test and get us to a place where … we have all of the best players in the world? “Something needs to happen for our sport.”
The policy board, which must approve any final deal on the PGA-PIF merger framework unveiled last June to controversy, includes Americans Malnati, Tiger Woods, Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth and Webb Simpson plus Australian Adam Scott.
