PGA commissioner Jay Monahan should be fired for many reasons

Jay must go.

In the wake of the stunning, about-face announcement Tuesday that the PGA Tour and the Saudi owners of LIV Golf have jumped into bed together after two-plus years of intense acrimony and vitriol, the trust between PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and the tour’s players has eroded like a baked-out sand trap.

The damage is widespread and it’s irreparable.

That is the primary reason that Monahan should not continue in his role, but not the only reason.

Monahan has, in large part, butchered the invasion of LIV Golf into the sport since before the controversial tour was started, never taking it seriously and declining to at least look into a way to stave it off as a competitor to the PGA Tour.

Monahan had the chance to cut the Saudi-funded tour off at the knees when Phil Mickelson and three other high-profile players came to him in the fall of 2021 with a proposal to buy out (with an investor) six to eight of the PGA Tour’s so-called lesser events — tournaments that did not attract a lot of the top players and thus didn’t draw a lot of TV and sponsor attention to them — and turn them into star-power team events.

At the time, Monahan, according to multiple sources, told the potential investor, “I don’t think this LIV thing is going to happen.’’

Just months later, after LIV Golf had gotten off the ground and was gaining attention, Monahan and the PGA Tour were scrambling to try to keep their players happy by creating “elevated’’ tournaments with $20 million purses they claim now they can no longer afford to sustain. Monahan conceded as much Tuesday when explaining the reasons for the decision to take the Saudis’ money.

So, here we are: Monahan sitting in that CNBC studio alongside Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Public Investment Fund that oversees LIV Golf, looking like long-lost friends. And Monahan happily accepting the very Saudi money he banned PGA Tour players for taking when they joined LIV Golf.

The hypocrisy has incensed the players — and not just the ones who were banned for going to LIV, but even more so those who remained loyal to the PGA Tour by not taking the tens (and in some cases hundreds) of millions in Saudi money.

Monahan, in an interview with Golf Channel on Wednesday, said there will be a plan in place to compensate the PGA Tour players who remained loyal, though the specifics of that plan are very much yet to be determined. Monahan is still in scramble mode.

“I feel betrayed, and will not be able to trust anyone within the corporate structure of the PGA Tour for a very long time,” veteran PGA Tour pro Wesley Bryan tweeted.

Byeong Hun An, in a tweet, called the deal “a big lose for [those] who defended the Tour for the last two years.”

Ryan Armour, one of 16 members of the Player Advisory Council on the PGA Tour, said there was “a lot of disappointment’’ among the players with whom Monahan met on Tuesday afternoon.

“What I have been told by my peers is that they feel betrayed right now,’’ Armour said. “They feel backstabbed, and they feel slighted. For a year and a half now, we have been told … how evil [LIV Golf’s] funding is and where it’s coming from. And now, no financials have changed hands yet, but the mood in the room is that guys feel used.”

Rory McIlroy, who has been Monahan’s most ardent supporter as the PGA Tour’s unofficial spokesperson, spoke to reporters on Wednesday in Toronto ahead of the RBC Canadian Open and conceded that he has “mixed emotions’’ about the deal struck with the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.

He nevertheless did the best he could to remain publicly supportive of Monahan, saying, “I think ultimately when I look at the bigger picture, 10 years down the line, this is going to be good for the game of professional golf.’’

The irony to this entire mess when it comes to Monahan is that part of his criticism of the LIV Golf format and its 54-hole tournaments with no cuts was about how it lacked the “meritocracy’’ of the PGA Tour. Yet, where’s the “meritocracy’’ when it comes to bumbling job he has done regarding LIV Golf?

In the new agreement, Monahan, who already was being paid a reported $9 million salary annually, not only will retain his role as the PGA Tour commissioner, but also will get a promotion of sorts because he’ll be overseeing the entire operation.

Maybe now Monahan will get to come to work in shorts with live music playing through the speakers in his Ponte Vedra Beach office.

Or maybe, if the PGA Tour players have any say (which they haven’t up to his point) he’ll replaced by someone they trust.

That seems to be the only way forward considering the widespread unrest of his constituents.