Will slow play save pro golf? Looking into the future of the game

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AUGUSTA, Ga. — Slow play is one of golf’s biggest issues, but for PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan slow play could allow him to save face, and possibly his future employment.

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Ever since the world of men’s professional golf split in two, the Masters Tournament has become a stark reminder of how much better the sport is when the world’s best players compete against one another.

It has been nine months since the Open Championship at Royal Troon. Nine months since single-name stars such as Rory, Scottie and Jordan faced off against Bryson, Brooks and Phil.

For the Masters, it has only added another element to, what is for many, the best week on the golf calendar.

Since LIV Golf began in 2022, through all the venom and vitriol, talk of somehow reaching a reunification deal has dominated the discourse. That eventuality — however and whenever it happened — seemed to be the only answer to a sport tearing itself apart at the seams.

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After the all-out war, came the framework deal announcement at the 2023 RBC Canadian Open. After the framework deal, came LIV’s Jon Rahm signing. After the Rahm signing, came the PGA Tour’s multi-billion-dollar investment deal with Fenway Sports Group. On and on the saga went, with leverage seeming to flip-flop between the two sides. But always with a final deal frustratingly out of reach.

After expertly steering the PGA Tour through COVID, commissioner Monahan stumbled and bumbled his way through the LIV Golf threat. His unsteady, ineffective leadership initially had players out for blood, with the game’s stars eventually wrestling much of the control away from the tour boss.

Three years later, in the spring of 2025, Monahan’s refusal to believe LIV Golf would ever get off the ground, and his subsequent paralysis and inaction could end up saving the day.

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Allow me to explain.

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Approaching the halfway mark in its fourth season, LIV Golf has been a commercial and competitive failure by virtually every metric. Golf fans outside of a vocal online minority have not bought into the new tour. Golf fans who wanted something different have flocked to YouTube Golf, not LIV Golf.

“I think we all hoped it would have been a little bit further along, and that’s no secret,” Koepka recently said about LIV Golf’s place in the sport.

But a general lack of interest isn’t what should most concern LIV Golf’s Saudi benefactors. What’s potentially much more dangerous for LIV’s future is the end of its initial round of player contracts. There is very little concrete information on the term lengths of LIV Golf’s contracts with players, but the general belief is that many of the game’s popular stars signed on for four or five years. If that’s the case, some of them are set to expire at the end of this season or after 2026.

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What happens then? Whether or not you believe any of the reports — including one from Fred Couples — that players such as Koepka would like to return to the PGA Tour, the fact is, if there were an avenue to return to the PGA Tour when contracts expire, LIV golfers will have a decision to make.

That’s why, commissioner Monahan’s No. 1 concern at the moment shouldn’t be to reach a deal with LIV Golf, it should be to reach a deal with the PGA Tour’s star players to come up with a viable path for LIV players to return to the tour.

Could LIV Golf offer billions more to retain its players, or sign new golfers? Of course. But those who took the bag already have the biggest boats on the dock, so the question becomes, is the lifestyle enough to keep them happy where they are? Perhaps. Is their competitive itch being scratched enough on LIV? Maybe, but we won’t know until the choice to return to the PGA Tour is put in front of them.

The reunification of the game through a merger or a deal is far more complicated and harder to envision than a trickle of LIV players returning to the new, more lucrative PGA Tour. That is, if such a path back can be paved by Monahan and the tour’s biggest stars. And if that happens, would it be a death knell for LIV Golf or merely a speed bump?

We’ll have to wait and see.

Wait and see if slow play can save the sport.

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