Cut Line: Monahan and Al-Rumayyan together, a good sign or a very good photo op?

In this week’s edition, we applaud what professional golf, and Augusta National, gets right during a crisis; question the future of the fall schedule; and breakdown the most scrutinized amateur pairing in the history of the European tour.

Made Cut

More than golf. Hurricane Helene took a steep toll across the Southeast last week leaving millions without power and more than 200 dead across six states, so checking in on the condition of Augusta National Golf Club is both crass and unnecessary.

The home of the Masters suffered its share of damage during the storm but chairman Fred Ridley was quick to pivot to what golf does best in times of need.

“I was in Augusta in the days immediately after the storm and have seen firsthand its devastating impact,” Ridley said in a statement. “Our employees, neighbors, friends and business owners need, and deserve, immediate and meaningful assistance to overcome the hardships being experienced at this moment throughout Augusta.”

The club announced a joint $5 million donation towards the Hurricane Helene Community Crisis Fund to support local relief efforts following the Category 4 storm as well as “separate contributions” to support the Community Foundation for the CSRA and the Medical College of Georgia Foundation.

The Masters will be played in April on schedule, Ridley and the other members will make sure of that. But the community that supports the year’s first major will need some time.

Calmer heads. While this week’s meeting of the minds at the DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship (see Monahan, Jay below) has been seen as a significant step forward for both the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, it was an interested bystander who touched on the most important part of the negotiations.

“I do believe now looking at the game of golf, which I could never imagine at that point sitting there and speaking how I spoke, that the divide that we’ve created in the game of golf would create such a disinterest in the fans. And that’s really who has sort of been hurt by all this,” said Billy Horschel, who played alongside Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the PIF’s governor, this week.

The nuanced details of a potential deal – primarily what the pathway back to the Tour for players who joined LIV Golf would look like and how the professional landscape could be reimagined – is normally where any possible consensus unravels, but if the starting position of any conversation is how to reunite the game for the fans, Horschel’s point is unassailable.

Made Cut-Did Not Finish (MDF)

Progress. Ongoing. Optimistic. Priority.

Those are all from Monahan this year when asked about the negotiations between the Tour and PIF. They almost all came without additional information, with Monahan repeatedly saying he won’t negotiate in public.

That’s a completely understandable strategy but pictures this week of Monahan with Al-Rumayyan paired at Carnoustie during the opening round at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship spoke much louder than the commissioner’s words. The two were seen laughing, smiling and talking which, not accidentally, would lead an observer to believe that the negotiations are, in fact, ongoing, optimistic and a priority.

But it could also be interpreted as a very real photo op to quiet concerns that as the negotiations drift toward a year and a half since the two sides signed the framework agreement there has been no outward progress.

According to various sources, the face-to-face negotiations are moving along at an encouraging clip but are often set back when the lawyers and small print enter the conversation.

Perhaps this week’s meeting in Scotland is a step in the right direction but Matt Fitzpatrick touched on an important element of pro-am golf when asked about the two executives spending a few hours talking shop: “I don’t think they are going to decide the future of golf in five hours around Carnoustie. I know Carnoustie is pretty bloody hard. Not much time for talking,” he said.

Agent of change. The Tour informed player agents and managers Monday of a plan to create an Agent Certification Program starting in 2025 along with fees to obtain a season-long badge.

The move includes a $1,500 application fee for each agency and a $500 charge per agent to receive a season-long badge, which will now grant access to clubhouses, locker rooms, practice areas, media centers and family dining. The program will also require interactive video lessons on integrity and education and a code of conduct.

With gaming becoming increasingly important for the Tour, the integrity and code-of-conduct programs made sense. Although, the circuit’s current integrity regulations include every member of a player’s team, and the fees shouldn’t be a huge surprise given the Tour’s increasing awareness of the bottom line thanks to the introduction of private equity. But there is a concerning element to the new program.

As one agent explained, the certification program could possibly give the Tour leverage over agents and agencies who did business with LIV Golf and PIF. That seems unlikely for a number of reasons, the most important being the circuit’s ongoing negotiations with the PIF, but unchecked regulations have a history of unintended consequences.

Missed Cut

Fall is coming. The PGA Tour’s move back to a calendar-year schedule and a focus on the regular season and the new-and-improved signature events left the fall portion of the lineup in limbo.

Wins in the fall still count toward a player’s PGA Tour and major championship exemptions and players can also improve their status for 2025, but after two years of selling the signature-event concept there is increased uncertainty for the FedExCup Fall events. This uncertainty prompted the Tour to send out an 18-page “Greensheet” to explain the benefits of the fall schedule to the membership — but that memo never addressed the elephant in the room.

Following a dozen years as the title sponsor of Mississippi’s only PGA Tour event, Wayne Sanderson Farms announced it was stepping down as the event’s title after this year’s event, although it will remain a major sponsor of the tournament.

This year’s fall schedule includes eight events which is one less than was played in 2022, the final year the fall portion of the lineup was part of the Tour’s proper schedule, and there are rumors other sponsors may be ready to move on from what they see as a watered-down product.

The fall has served its purpose on the Tour schedule and perhaps there’s still a place for a slice of the year to feature players other than the established stars, but whatever the future of the game looks like, it’s unclear if the fall, in its current iteration, is part of that picture.