Xander Schauffele believes Jay Monahan has a “long way to go” before PGA Tour players can trust him again.
Asked if he had confidence in the PGA Tour commissioner, the 30-year-old said that trust was “pretty tender,” echoing a view he’s never been shy to express.
The tour’s membership was unaware a deal between the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund was in the offing when it was announced last June, increasing the shock of such an alliance with the Saudi sovereign wealth fund that bankrolls the tour’s start-up rival LIV Golf.
Schauffele, a seven-time PGA Tour winner, revealed he wasn’t alone in losing faith in Monahan after being left in such darkness when asked on the subject last summer and now, at The 50th Players Championship, his view hasn’t wavered.
“You know what I’ve said in the past on how I feel about it,” Schauffele said here at TPC Sawgrass. “Trust is something that’s pretty tender, so words are words, and I would say in my book he’s got a long way to go.
“He could be the guy, but in my book, he’s got a long way to go to gain the trust of the membership. I’m sure he’s got the support of the board, since they were with him making some of those decisions, but for me personally, he’s got quite a ways to go.”
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In a meeting at the RBC Canadian Open that followed the PGA Tour-PIF public announcement in the same week, it was reported players felt betrayed by Monahan who had rallied the tour against LIV Golf during the previous 12 months after the breakaway league’s inception.
December 31 was set as the deadline day for negotiations but having now reached The Players Championship in March, a compromise hasn’t been pencilled but Monahan is confident that talks have gathered pace.
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The 53-year-old spoke to the media in Ponte Vedra only a matter of hours before Schauffele took to the stage, revealing that talks with the Saudi group had accelerated.
Nine months after the initial announcement, Schauffele believes he still doesn’t have the facts and appears finished with trying to seek such information.
“To be completely honest, I would consider myself pretty uninformed,” he added. “Haven’t really sought out a whole lot of information just because, you know, when I felt like I did, I didn’t get any.
“I’m a pro golfer at the end of the day, so I have to hope that things can go well at some point, but, yeah, I have seriously no details or extra facts to throw out to you. And if I did, I don’t know if I would tell you, to be completely honest.”
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