Trump and Jay Monahan meet at White House as PGA Tour deal with Saudis gets closer

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Trump and Jay Monahan meet at White House as PGA Tour deal with Saudis gets closer

2025-02-07 06:35 Last Updated At：06:41

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said he met with President Donald Trump at the White House this week as the tour moves closer to finalizing a long-sought investment deal with the Saudi Arabian backers of rival LIV Golf.

Monahan said Thursday in a statement he and Adam Scott, one of the player directors on the PGA Tour board, met with Trump and asked him to get involved in the negotiations “for the good of the game, the good of the country, and for all the countries involved.”

“We are grateful that his leadership has brought us closer to a final deal, paving the way for reunification of men’s professional golf,” Monahan said.

The statement was signed by Monahan, Scott and Tiger Woods, who is vice chairman of the commercial PGA Tour Enterprises and the only one of six player directors who has a term without limits. Woods, heavily involved in negotiations, was not at the meeting Tuesday. That was the day his mother, Kultida, died in Florida.

A flight tracker on social media noted Woods' plane arrived in Washington on Monday evening and left for Florida shortly after midnight.

The PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia first agreed to a deal in June 2023, which ended the antitrust lawsuits between them. But that framework agreement drew the attention of the Justice Department, and the year ended without a deal in place.

The tour and PIF have been meeting for nearly a year. Trump, just 10 days after he was elected, invited Monahan to play golf at Trump International in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Nov. 15.

Trump said on the “Let's Go!” podcast on the eve of the election that “it would take me the better part of 15 minutes to get that deal done.”

“I’m really going to work on other things, to be honest with you,” Trump said on the podcast. “I think we have much bigger problems than that. But I do think we should have one tour and they should have the best players in that tour.”

The tour has been keeping the Justice Department informed of its negotiations for the last several months as it makes progress on an investment deal with PIF.

After the deadline for the original framework agreement with PIF expired at the end of 2023, the tour signed with Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of North American sports owners spearheaded by Fenway Sports Group, for a $1.5 billion investment in PGA Tour Enterprises with the potential for that to double.

PGA Tour Enterprises is separate from the tax-exempt PGA Tour that deals with competition.

The latest negotiations are for PIF to become a minority investor in the commercial arm. Still unclear is how that would patch up the fractured golf landscape.

LIV Golf began its fourth year on Thursday in Saudi Arabia, equipped with a network deal (Fox) and a new CEO (Scott O'Neil), and with several of its 12 four-man teams getting additional corporate sponsorship deals.

PIF and its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, are the financial muscle behind LIV Golf. The breakaway spent some $2 billion to recruit top players, who then were suspended by the PGA Tour. That group included Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm. They have combined to win 17 majors, and three have been No. 1 in the world.

They only time all the world's best compete together now are the four majors. The USGA this week was the first of the majors to publish a qualifying category for a LIV golfer not already eligible for the U.S. Open.

Rory McIlroy, who serves on a transaction subcommittee for tour negotiations, said last week at Pebble Beach he felt a new administration was “going to be a bit more deal friendly.”

“I think from an investment standpoint, that deal should and will be done,” McIlroy said. “But it doesn’t solve the problem of what the landscape of golf looks like going forward. I’d say the biggest impediment is maybe the differing visions of what golf should look like in the future.”

Trump's involvement in golf goes back more than two decades when he began building a portfolio of high-end golf courses, and buying the renowned Turnberry Golf Club in Scotland.

He also bought Doral Resort outside Miami, a venerable PGA Tour stop that had hosted a World Golf Championship until moving it in 2016 to Mexico City when it became difficult to find a title sponsor with Trump and his ubiquitous presence.

Three of Trump's courses have hosted LIV events, including one this year at Doral.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Thousands of nurses go on strike at several major New York City hospitals

NEW YORK (AP) — Thousands of nurses in three hospital systems in New York City went on strike Monday after negotiations through the weekend failed to yield breakthroughs in their contract disputes.

The strike was taking place at The Mount Sinai Hospital and two of its satellite campuses, with picket lines forming. The other affected hospitals are NewYork-Presbyterian and Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.

About 15,000 nurses are involved in the strike, according to New York State Nurses Association.

“After months of bargaining, management refused to make meaningful progress on core issues that nurses have been fighting for: safe staffing for patients, healthcare benefits for nurses, and workplace violence protections,” the union said in a statement issued Monday. “Management at the richest hospitals in New York City are threatening to discontinue or radically cut nurses’ health benefits.”

The strike, which comes during a severe flu season, could potentially force the hospitals to transfer patients, cancel procedures or divert ambulances. It could also put a strain on city hospitals not involved in the contract dispute, as patients avoid the medical centers hit by the strike.

The hospitals involved have been hiring temporary nurses to try and fill the labor gap during the walkout, and said in a statement during negotiations that they would “do whatever is necessary to minimize disruptions.” Montefiore posted a message assuring patients that appointments would be kept.

“NYSNA’s leaders continue to double down on their $3.6 billion in reckless demands, including nearly 40% wage increases, and their troubling proposals like demanding that a nurse not be terminated if found to be compromised by drugs or alcohol while on the job," Montefiore spokesperson Joe Solmonese said Monday after the strike had started. "We remain resolute in our commitment to providing safe and seamless care, regardless of how long the strike may last.”

New York-Presbyterian accused the union of staging a strike to “create disruption,” but said in a statement that it has taken steps to ensure patients receive the care they need.

"We’re ready to keep negotiating a fair and reasonable contract that reflects our respect for our nurses and the critical role they play, and also recognizes the challenging realities of today’s healthcare environment,” the statement said.

The work stoppage is occurring at multiple hospitals simultaneously, but each medical center is negotiating with the union independently. Several other hospitals across the city and in its suburbs reached deals in recent days to avert a possible strike.

The nurses’ demands vary by hospital, but the major issues include staffing levels and workplace safety. The union says hospitals have given nurses unmanageable workloads.

Nurses also want better security measures in the workplace, citing incidents like a an incident last week, when a man with a sharp object barricaded himself in a Brooklyn hospital room and was then killed by police.

The union also wants limitations on hospitals’ use of artificial intelligence.

The nonprofit hospitals involved in the negotiations say they’ve been working to improve staffing levels, but say the union’s demands overall are too costly.

Nurses voted to authorize the strike last month.

Both New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani had expressed concern about the possibility of the strike. As the strike deadline neared, Mamdani urged both sides to keep negotiating and reach a deal that “both honors our nurses and keeps our hospitals open.”

“Our nurses kept this city alive through its hardest moments. Their value is not negotiable,” Mamdani said.

State Attorney General Letitia James voiced similar support, saying "nurses put their lives on the line every day to keep New Yorkers healthy. They should never be forced to choose between their own safety, their patients’ well-being, and a fair contract.”

The last major nursing strike in the city was only three years ago, in 2023. That work stoppage, at Mount Sinai and Montefiore, was short, lasting three days. It resulted in a deal raising pay 19% over three years at those hospitals.

It also led to promised staffing improvements, though the union and hospitals now disagree about how much progress has been made, or whether the hospitals are retreating from staffing guarantees.