Who are the men behind LIV-PGA merger? What to know about Jay Monahan, Yasir Al-Rumayyan (2024)

Two men from very different backgrounds came together to shock the sports world as Jay Monahan and Yasir Al-Rumayyan pulled the strings to orchestrate a billion-dollar agreement to merge the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and DP World Tour.

Who are they, and how did their relationship evolve to the point of Tuesday’s megadeal? Here’s what to know about each of them.

Jay Monahan

Monahan, 53, has been the commissioner of the PGA Tour since 2017. Born and raised in Belmont, Mass., a Boston suburb, he played Division III golf at Trinity College (Conn.) before earning a master’s degree in sports management from UMass Amherst.

“Any impression you could have of a prominent New England golf family is someone of great privilege and great wealth and, in reality, that is not the Monahan family,” Sam Kennedy, Monahan’s friend and the Boston Red Sox president/CEO, told The Athletic last year. “They’re amazing people, but regular people. His dad was a defense lawyer in the city and his mom was the most kind, loving, compassionate person you’d ever meet.”

After grad school, Monahan interned with Woolf Associates, a sports management company, where he helped grow the company’s golf arm. Eventually, he landed at IMG Worldwide and worked on developing the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston before serving as the tournament’s first director at age 32.

He reconnected with Kennedy while working as a senior vice president for the Fenway Sports Group, the holding conglomerate that now owns stakes in the Boston Red Sox, Pittsburgh Penguins, Liverpool FC and Roush Fenway Racing.

Monahan’s path diverged from Kennedy’s in 2008 when he became executive director of The Players Championship. He was promoted within the PGA Tour, moving from senior vice president of business development to executive vice president and chief marketing officer to deputy commissioner to chief operating officer.

In 2017, following the retirement of Tim Finchem, Monahan became the fourth-ever commissioner of the PGA Tour.

As commissioner, he simultaneously works for the members who make up the tour, while also answering to the board of directors made up of five independent directors from corporate America.

In 2020, a review of the organization’s tax return revealed that Monahan was credited with earning $14.1 million.

Yasir Al-Rumayyan

Al-Rumayyan, also 53, is the governor of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Born in the Saudi Arabian province of Al-Qassim, Al-Rumayyan was born to a Saudi father and Syrian mother and moved to the capital city of Riyadh to attend a school catering to the sons of officers working for the Saudi Ministry of Defence and Aviation.

His career began in finance, working as an executive at several banking and investment companies. In late 2007, he left to study leadership at the Harvard Business School before returning to a promotion with the Capital Market Authority (CMA) — Saudi Arabia’s financial regulatory authority. Following the death of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Al-Rumayyan was invited to join the Royal Court — an advisory board that serves as the link between the nation’s king and the governmental institutions, and it is the Chief Executive Office of the King.

It was there where Al-Rumayyan connected with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, a man who is now considered one of the most powerful and controversial rulers in the world.

Within six months, he was appointed managing director of the PIF, which was at that time a tiny fund, employing fewer than 50 staff. A year later, in 2016, Al-Rumayyan joined the board of state oil company Aramco as part of a move to restructure the nation’s economy and fund the PIF.

Along with Aramco, investments via the PIF have landed Al-Rumayyan on the boards of companies such as Maaden (Saudi Arabia’s largest mining firm), Reliance Industries (the largest conglomerate in India), and Uber, the largest taxi company in the world.

As Bin Salman gained more power in the country and replaced the previous regime with his leaders, Al-Rumayyan was given more responsibility. Over the past four years, PIF has continued to grow and now employs more than 2,000 people, holding at least $600 billion of assets.

About a year after PIF funded the birth of LIV Golf, the fund acquired Premier League club Newcastle United for $415 million. Al-Rumayyan was elected as chairman.

LIV Golf Investments was established in late 2021 and PGA legend Greg Norman was named CEO in a front-facing role while Al-Rumayyan was a key behind-the-scenes leader. At a LIV event in July 2022, he was photographed with Donald Trump standing at the first tee of Trump National Golf Club Bedminster. Both wore “Make America Great Again” hats.

The pair’s relationship

Monahan and Al-Rumayyan connected in April following Al-Rumayyan’s meetings with PGA Tour policy board members Jimmy Dunne and Ed Herlihy. The PGA commissioner and the PIF governor met in Italy, and Monahan later said he trusted Al-Rumayyan “10 minutes after sitting down with him.”

The two met soon after in London for lunch and golf. Then, soon after that, a deal was struck that changed the world of golf as we know it.

Major players on both sides, such as Norman or star tour members such as Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, were not aware of the negotiations. Players throughout the world were blindsided.

Hours after the merger news broke, Monahan called it a “framework agreement” and implied it was the only decision the tour had to make.

“The PIF was controlling LIV, and we were competing against LIV,” Monahan said Tuesday. “I felt very good about the changes we’d made and the position that we’re in, but ultimately to take the competitor off of the board, to have them exist as a partner — not an owner — and for us to be able to control the direction going forward, put us in a position as the PGA Tour to serve our members, and at the same time, get to a productive position for the game at large.”

Al-Rumayyan, who has already stated that more billions of investment will be available for the new golf entity, will serve as chairman. Monahan will assume the role of chief executive officer, thus answering to Al-Rumayyan.

(Top photo: Brian Spurlock / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Mark Puleo is a News Staff Editor at The Athletic. Before joining The Athletic, Mark covered breaking weather news as a digital journalist and front page digital editor with AccuWeather. He is a graduate of Penn State University and its John Curley Center for Sports Journalism. Follow Mark on Twitter @ByMarkPuleo