While campaigning, re-President-elect Donald Trump said he’d make magic happen and help broker a PIF/PGA TOUR merger. We’ll give him credit for trying.
Earlier today, It was reported that he met with both PIF (LIV’s backers) and the PGA TOUR over the last week. What was discussed is “classified” for fans of golf; certainly, Trump brought up how great it would be for the game of golf, and for his golf courses to be able to host meaningful tourneys again, if a truce/merger/investment/acquisition, heck, anything more substantive than a weak arse framework agreement came to fruition between both parties and soon. Fingers crossed.
Trump has been multitasking in his favorite ways: wheeling, dealing, and hitting the greens. And because no negotiation is complete without some quality time on the fairways, Trump teed off with PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan at his own Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach—naturally, a round Trump himself initiated. He is a player in more ways than one.
He finished up his week sitting alongside Tesla’s Elon Musk and Saudi PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan at UFC 307. From Balls & Bogeys to Blood & Guts, Trump put in work to solve the biggest fracture in the history of professional sports.
At the UFC fight, talk about a power-packed row of seats—one guy builds rockets, the other builds sovereign wealth portfolios, and then there’s Trump… well, he erects golf courses, intrigue, and his biggest project on his plate right now, building what looks to be the most eclectic cabinet in the history of US politics.
Meanwhile, the PGA Tour and the PIF are still trying to finalize their partnership, proving that making deals can be as slow as lining up a 30-foot putt. Eleven months past their initial deadline, the only thing set in stone so far is Trump’s penchant for being in the middle of the action.