Donald Trump is in the midst of an incredibly busy time after winning the election last month as he now must finalize his cabinet and appointments while preparing to take office in January.
Needless to say, it’s not exactly a time when you would expect the president-elect to be worrying about the state of professional golf. But it seems that’s exactly what he’s doing.
This week, the Washington Post reported that Donald Trump met with high-ranking representatives from both LIV Golf and the PGA Tour amid unification talks between the two rival leagues. This reportedly included a golf outing with PGA Tour CEO Jay Monahan.
This is rather shocking news, considering Trump himself said earlier this month that he would not prioritize these negotiations over other more serious concerns the country is facing.
However, the PGA Tour confirmed that Trump did indeed take some time to golf with Commissioner Jay Monahan.
“President-Elect Trump has always been a champion of the game of golf and Commissioner Monahan was honored to accept his invitation to play at Trump International. The President-Elect and the Commissioner share a love for the game and the Commissioner enjoyed their time together,” the PGA Tour said in a statement to the Washington Post.
Additionally, Trump’s talks with LIV Golf were confirmed when he was seen at a UFC event with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the head of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which launched LIV Golf in 2022 to compete with the PGA Tour.
It’s not clear exactly why Trump has decided to make these negotiations a priority, especially after explicitly indicating that he would not prioritize these talks, but he is quite clearly invested in the outcome.
LIV Golf and the PGA Tour have not been able to come to a deal to unify the two leagues yet, even though the initial deadline to strike a deal was more than 11 months ago.
We’ll have to see whether or not Trump can help these talks.
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