Patrick Cantlay: PGA-PIF talks ‘at all times evolving’

PGA: The Open Championship - First RoundJul 18, 2024; Ayrshire, SCT; Patrick Cantlay hits his tee shot on the twelfth gap through the first spherical of the Open Championship golf match at Royal Troon. Obligatory Credit score: Jack Gruber-USA TODAY Sports activities

Typically no information is sweet information. With regards to the trickle of details about the PGA Tour’s merger with Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund, Patrick Cantlay would concur.

Cantlay, who sits on the PGA Tour coverage board as a participant director, was requested Tuesday if these PGA-PIF negotiations had an finish in sight after a couple of months of comparatively little new data.

“Nicely, it is positively quieted down, and I agree with you, there hasn’t been as a lot chatter the previous couple of months, which has been good,” Cantlay mentioned forward of the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, Tenn. “I believe that is simply form of the character of it. There’s going to be ebbs and flows, relying on what sort of data comes out or what bulletins.

“While you say ‘finish in sight,’ it is at all times evolving. The PGA Tour has at all times been altering and making an attempt to evolve and get higher. Relies upon what you imply by — what you outline because the end line. However I do know all of us are working extremely onerous on a regular basis to get the very best end result.”

Greater than a yr has handed for the reason that PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the PIF (which funds LIV Golf) introduced a “framework settlement” for a merger that shocked the sports activities world. The events blew previous a self-imposed Dec. 31, 2023, deadline to finalize the deal.

The one actual information of the summer time got here in June, when PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan met with PGA Tour representatives in New York the week of the framework settlement’s one-year anniversary.

Requested if the events have been near the end line, Cantlay deflected.

“Yeah, I am not on the transaction committee so I am not completely updated with the place all the things is at at the moment,” Cantlay mentioned. “However every time we do get a significant replace, that’ll come again to the board, after which I am certain we’ll have a dialogue about it.”

The PGA Tour’s transaction subcommittee options Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy of Northern Eire and Adam Scott of Australia.

–Discipline Stage Media