“Very productive.
“Very constructive.
“Very collaborative.”
Those were how Rory McIlroy described Friday evening’s meeting in New York City between PGA Tour Enterprises’ transaction subcommittee and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. McIlroy, who is playing the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio, took part in four-and-a-half hours of discussions, including three hours with PIF representatives, remotely.
“Definitely things are heading in the right direction,” McIlroy said. “A lot of progress was made. I can’t really say much more than that, but it was really positive. … Definitely encouraged.”
McIlroy said earlier this week that the two sides had been having three calls per week, mainly to discuss “the financials and the legals and all that,” what McIlroy previously described as “big-boy stuff.” He said Friday featured lots of talk about “the future of the game, and the vision, and that was where I thought there was a lot of progress that was made.”
Asked how much he participated in the discussion, McIlroy answered, “The mute button was turned off a couple of times to chime in.”
Also in the meeting, per the PGA Tour, were members of the transaction subcommittee – Jay Monahan, Tour commissioner; Joe Gorder, Enterprises chairman; John Henry, Strategic Sports Group manager; Joe Ogilvie, liaison director of Enterprises board; plus players Tiger Woods and Adam Scott. PIF representatives included governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan.
The transaction subcommittee released a joint statement on Saturday morning, saying: “We remain committed to these negotiations, which require working through complex considerations to best position golf for global growth. We want to get this right, and we are approaching discussions with careful consideration for our players, our fans, our partners and the game’s future.”
McIlroy did not provide any specifics, but he did say that discussion on the vision of the game included “a lot of the things that we’ve all sort of been kicking around for the last two or three years.”
“You’ve got to understand, they’re a sovereign wealth fund,” McIlroy added of the PIF. “They invest in companies and in different things and they want a return on their investment. That’s what they want. It doesn’t seem like they’re getting that at the minute within golf, and this – you know, hopefully if things progress and we get to a certain point, then hopefully they see a future where that can happen, they can start to get some returns on their money.”
