CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA | The wine room in the clubhouse at Quail Hollow is exactly what it sounds like – comfortably cozy with bottles stacked in glass-fronted cabinets built into the walls in a space with an ambiance as rich and deep as a good cabernet.
It’s where PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has settled into an armchair after sharing a lunch there with former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton on Friday at the Presidents Cup, where 40,000 spectators are scattered across the golf course on a nearly perfect, 70-degree afternoon.
At the end of a turbulent summer, Monahan sits in a quiet spot during a noisy time. Still wearing a sport coat over his golf shirt, Monahan leans back in his chair and the slight rasp in his voice is a product of his duties as the leader of the PGA Tour at one of its five-diamond events.
Monahan started his Friday by having breakfast with Rory McIlroy, an honorary member at Quail Hollow, who flew up a day earlier to get a sense of the moment and to continue his tour-shaping conversations with the commissioner.
All in a day’s work.
At the U.S. Open in June, a chance meeting with Monahan near the clubhouse at The Country Club near Boston as the LIV Golf storm was raging led to me to ask a simple question:
“How are you doing?”
“Don’t worry about me,” Monahan said. “I’m fine. Worry about players who are making bad decisions.”
Three months later, it’s the same question to Monahan: How is he doing as a lawsuit lingers, criticism continues and questions remain about what professional golf and, specifically, the PGA Tour will look like down the line.
“All is great with me,” Monahan said. “I’m blessed to do what I do every single day. I’m more inspired to do it and do it better than I’ve ever done.”
Every week, it seems, LIV Golf tries again to bend the golf world toward what it wants, but it is not making much progress. LIV wants the Official World Golf Ranking to change to fit the rival tour’s criteria, refusing to accept the status quo accepted by the world’s top organizations.
Greg Norman went to Capitol Hill seeking support and reportedly got bruised in the process.
Without talking specifically about LIV – there is a lawsuit pending – Monahan talks with the assuredness of a leader driven by his conviction that the chosen path forward is the right one. In an interview on Golf Channel earlier this week, Monahan said any potential truce with LIV Golf “is off the table.”
He has been seen by some as the man who let LIV get its tentacles into the game by his refusal to hold a single meeting with its leadership. That was a collective decision, made not just by Monahan but in concert with the counsel of others.
Monahan saw what was coming, appreciated the threat and chose to build a better PGA Tour rather than go into business with the Saudi-driven enterprise. The tour has lost some top players, but it is in the midst of a dramatic reinvention that promises more money and more events with the best players together, among other things.
Recently, The Wall Street Journal published a pointed article detailing Monahan’s use of a private jet for personal and business trips. His contract – which earned him a reported $14 million last year – mandates that he fly private and he pay taxes on his personal use of the jet. Still, it had the feel of a hit piece.
“I’ve never worried about credit, therefore I don’t worry about criticism. I really don’t,” Monahan said. “It comes with the territory in a very public sport. My position is a very public profile. It comes with the job.
“You focus on the things you can control. You can’t control that. What you can control is the thought that went into the decisions that you make, the way you involve others, the ways you communicate that.”
Monahan became the tour’s fourth commissioner nearly six years ago and, in that time, he has led the negotiations that resulted in domestic and international media-rights deals worth more than $1 billion, guided the tour through the pandemic, setting an example other leagues followed in the game’s return to competition and now dealing with the LIV problem.
Born and raised near Boston with enduring allegiances to the city’s various sports teams, the 52-year-old Monahan believes in the power of listening. He is in charge of managing multiple constituencies, including the players, the sponsors and the public which ultimately drives the business of his sport and works to consider all sides of any potential decision he makes.
“The thing I love about Jay is he has an opinion. He's not afraid to have a different opinion from the players,” said Kevin Kisner, who has served as one of four players on the tour’s Policy Board.
“He and I talk to each other all the time. He has an opinion; I have an opinion. We have different opinions, and we're not afraid to let each other know. We don't have a problem coming to a consensus on those opinions.”
“It’s critical. It’s inspiring. When you have the voices of Tiger and Rory and so many other players that share their perspective to the benefit of the organization, that’s an advantage we have that’s hard to find in any other sport.”
JAY Monahan
Monahan is guided by his instincts, his experience and his business sense, but Monahan also relies on others, whether it’s to guide him, to reassure him or to point him in a different direction. Monahan seeks counsel from the tour’s Board of Directors, CEOs of major international companies involved with the tour, his staff, the players and others.
“There is not one person; there are multiple people. In any situation, you rely on what’s gotten you there. For me, it’s faith, it’s understanding philosophy, it’s your family. It’s not forgetting about how you’ve been raised and how you’ve been taught,” Monahan said.
“There are some people I have always relied on that are kind of on my own personal board of directors and I’m going to keep on my own personal board of directors. That’s something I established a long time ago and rely pretty heavily on.
“The more you ask questions of others, the more you talk about where you are and share openly, the more you can become a better leader.”
When Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy took the initiative earlier this summer to guide the reshaping of the tour in response to the LIV threat – creating 12 elevated events that will feature $20 million purses – Monahan wasn’t in the players-only meetings in Ireland and Delaware, but he was in the loop as ideas were floated.
It helped that the tour’s two biggest stars drove the discussions, prompting player involvement. Woods and McIlroy were able to galvanize the support of the top players, bouncing ideas off Monahan through the process.
“It’s critical. It’s inspiring. When you have the voices of Tiger and Rory and so many other players that share their perspective to the benefit of the organization, that’s an advantage we have that’s hard to find in any other sport,” Monahan said.
“When you’re dealing with a period of uncertainty and you can turn that uncertainty into certainty and you can have top players identify ways to make the competitive fabric of the PGA Tour better for not just them but for every player … this tour is all about aspiration. It’s about competing at the absolute highest level.”
When Monahan announced the changes before the start of the Tour Championship, there were still details to be worked out but the concept had been created. It had a two-fold impact: It enhanced the PGA Tour and it countered what LIV was selling.
It didn’t stop Cameron Smith and others from leaving after the Tour Championship, but Monahan believes it reinforced and strengthened the PGA Tour. Asked if what is happening is revolutionary or evolutionary, Monahan paused, saying there is more to come that he can’t talk about yet.
“It’s absolutely evolutionary,” he said.
The same can be said of the PGA Tour’s strategic alliance with the DP World Tour. It was possible what had been known as the European Tour might align with the Saudi-backed group behind LIV, but Monahan worked with DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley and others to the benefit of both tours.
“He’s been fantastically collaborative,” said Guy Kinnings, deputy CEO of the DP World Tour.
To anyone who suggests the PGA Tour needs someone other than Monahan as its leader – it has been a familiar refrain – Fred Couples made his point last week.
“He’s doing his job; he’s fighting for the tour. The bottom line is we’re not losing Jay Monahan and we’re not losing the tour. The tour is as strong as ever,” Couples said.
It’s time to leave the quiet of Quail Hollow’s wine room and go outside where the Presidents Cup is thumping along, having set records for sales and attendance.
Monahan has no plans to change the format as some have suggested. He takes the long view on the Presidents Cup and remains bullish on its future. The tour itself is getting better, Monahan said. Whether it was proactive or reactive, the path forward has Monahan inspired and excited.
He is steadfast in his principles, his beliefs and his vision. His summer has been consumed by fighting off the existential threat to the tour, cutting out much vacation time. It has not been enough to play defense. It has been about building a better way.
“I feel like we’re on a path to make (the PGA Tour) stronger, and I believe in my heart and soul, with every fiber of my body, that this tour is going to continue to thrive and continue to come back to its essence as the aspirational place to play at the highest level competitively,” Monahan said.
A moment later, the door to the wine room opens and Monahan steps outside toward the sunshine.
Top: Jay Monahan
E-Mail Ron