Rory McIlroy Hints At Positive Timeframe For PGA Tour-Saudi Deal To Finally Get Done

Nearly 500 days have passed since the PGA Tour and Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) made the shocking announcement about a framework agreement that would bring the two sides together. We still don’t know what exactly that framework agreement entails other than it involving a for-profit entity, but maybe, just maybe, we’re inching closer to a deal coming to fruition.

This week’s Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland appears to be serving as a boardroom with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan paired together alongside some of the top players from both the Tour and LIV Golf.

Rory McIlroy, the most influential golfer in the world not named Tiger Woods, is set to play with Monahan on Friday and Al-Rumayyan the following day. Seeing as how it’s only Thursday at the time of this writing and we don’t have a time machine, we don’t know if anything in terms of getting some sort of deal closer to the finish line will take place, but McIlroy seems confident something will.

“There’s no better place than the home of golf to try and get everyone together and talking,” McIlroy said. “I think it’s a great thing and good sign that Jay and Yasir are going to play together. And obviously, you’ve got quite a big contingent over from LIV that are playing in this event,” McIlroy told BBC Northern Ireland.

“Maybe it’s going too slow for the people that follow golf. In the business world, deals of this size take time. You are talking about billions of dollars changing hands, different jurisdictions.”

“I think we’ll know a lot more by year’s end. We’re in October so hopefully (there is) three months to get something done.”

Rory McIlroy seems to believe major developments between the PGA Tour and Saudi PIF could come to fruition by year’s end. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

While McIlroy claiming that “we’ll know a lot more by year’s end” is just that, a claim, it’s a stark contrast to what we heard from him and other earlier this year.

In April, DP World Tour chief executive Guy Kinnings reportedly mentioned the year 2026 as to when all sides could come to an agreement. At the time, McIlroy saw 2026 as a positive timeframe.

This thing isn’t just going to happen overnight and there’s going to have to be compromises made on both sides,” McIlroy said in June. “2026, if that means we’ve just got a year-and-a-half left of this and 2026 looks a little different, I actually think that’s a pretty good timeline considering all of the things that have to be worked out.”

The waiting game continues, but it may be shorter than expected.