PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan held his annual press conference ahead of The Players Championship on Tuesday.
And as there was plenty to digest sitting there in the media room, we'll go ahead and break this down topic by topic.
PGA Tour-LIV Golf negotiations
And the hottest topic, naturally, was the status of the ongoing PGA Tour-LIV Golf negotiations, talks, conversations, meetings, or whatever you want to call this grueling process.
"The talks are real, they're substantial, and they're being driven at the top levels of both organizations," Monahan said. "Talks have been significantly bolstered by President Trump's willingness to serve as a facilitator.
"President Trump is a lifelong golf fan, Monahan continued. "He believes strongly in the game's power and potential, and he has been exceedingly generous with his time and influence to help bring a deal together."
All that said, though, there was no word on when the next meeting might take place.
In his discussions on LIV, Monahan vowed not to do anything that reduces the strength of the PGA Tour or what it has built, including its relationship with fans.
“Like our fans, we still share the same sense of urgency to get to a resolution,” he explained. “Our team is fully committed to reunification. The only deal that we would regret is one that compromises the essence of what makes the game of golf and the PGA Tour so exceptional.”
Adam Scott, a member of the PGA Tour Board of Directors who recently attended a meeting at the White House with President Trump to discuss the situation, noted that he hadn’t been involved in any business deals that took two years to conclude.
"I don't know if that's normal or not, but this obviously is quite a difficult thing to solve," Scott noted, "but I think also everyone should be reassured that, you know, the Tour's treating this with caution out of the best interests of the professional game and the game in general."
Leave it to a gentleman like Scott to sound diplomatic. It’s just the way he is. In addition, his accent makes whatever he says sound vastly more important than it may actually be. He could read the ingredients on a cereal box, and it would seem like a weighty statement.
However, he also has a sensible view of things. After the meeting with the PGA Tour, President Trump was apparently getting ready to talk to the Israeli delegation.
“Our conversation was pretty low in the importance of what was happening that day,” Scott said.
Pace of play on the PGA Tour
Pace of play has become a hot topic of conversation because far too many rounds these days don't finish before darkness sets in and because commentators mention it constantly.
The Tour has the ability to time each player's every shot and knows who the sloths are and who the rabbits are. But they've chosen to keep the information private.
Specific players are sometimes mentioned because they have improved their pace of play, and Monahan said it was not done to embarrass anyone. He sees it as a positive development.
"They're celebrating the players that are playing faster and improving, and at the same time, there's giving players the information that they need to have to be able to improve in the eyes of not only how they're competing but also in the eyes of our fans," he said.
Justin Thomas admitted that he’s on the slower side of players. He was in favor of putting the results of the timing stats out in the locker room, but he knows that information will eventually come to light.
"Nobody wants to be known as that. I mean, I'm the first to admit, I mean, I'm on the slow side of players," he admitted. "The first thing any slower player thinks is that they're not slow."
Commercial breaks
After LIV and pace of play came the hot button of commercial breaks during PGA Tour telecasts.
Sure, everyone would like no commercials in any program. Streaming services have perhaps spoiled audiences to expect fewer of them. Still, in the U.S. at least, the number of commercial minutes is no longer regulated by the Federal Communications Commission.
Technically, the number of commercials is determined by the network airing the event. And the networks and the Tour are aware of this issue, so much so that they are trying all kinds of things to make some commercial messages seem non-commercial.
"We've received such positive commentary on last week with Mastercard and NBC and Golf Channel sharing those player/caddie interactions; we're evolving in a way with our partners that has more golf shots per minute, fewer shorter putts, capturing the drama, doing all the things that we think that they want," Monahan said.
But the fact is, televising golf is expensive, more so than any other sport because so much area has to be covered.
It’s not one stadium with 100 yards of play but acres of land with water, trees, and bunkers. At The Players Championship, NBC will use 60 cameras, utilizing FlyCams, drones, and all sorts of special effects equipment.
And all that has a cost that must be recovered with some kind of sponsorship, meaning all golf tournaments around the world have to get creative in different ways.
Conclusion
What all of this means is that once the PGA-LIV deal is concluded, there are plenty of other mountains to climb to keep the PGA Tour as successful as it has been up to now. There's pace of play, there's the number of commercial minutes, and so much more.
We are all impatient. We all want to know MORE. And we want to know it NOW. Unfortunately, not every situation is solved in a day, a week, a month, or even a year. And these issues are the kind that take some time.