Donald Trump is set to ascend to the title of President of the United States of America once again and with it could also come a new moniker: the supposed savior of golf.
That’s if Rory McIlroy’s recent claims are anything to go by.
The PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund, who bankroll the rival LIV Golf circuit, have been trapped in a slow-burning negotiation for the past 16 months, but with Trump poised to reassume control of the White House, the sport’s bitter dispute could finally come to an end, according to McIlroy.
‘Obviously given today’s news with what’s happened in America, I think that clears the way a little bit. So we’ll see,’ the four-time major winner said Wednesday.
‘He might be able to. He’s got Elon Musk , who I think is the smartest man in the world, beside him. We might be able to do something if we can get Musk involved, too,’ he added.
However, the world No. 3 conceded that Trump, on his return to the White House, ‘has probably got bigger things to focus on than golf.’
Yet, Trump may beg to differ. According to him, all he needs is 15 minutes to make America golf again.
‘I think it’ll come together. Yeah, I could certainly help, but I could probably get it done. I would say it would take me the better part of 15 minutes to get that deal done,’ he told former NFL coach Bill Belichick on the ‘Let’s Go! Podcast’ on the eve of the election.
So, could McIlroy be right? Could the president-elect really prove to be golf’s savior, taking the battle from the fairways to the Oval Office? And, could it really be as easy as a ‘15-minute job?’
Trump’s love for the game is no secret. His relationship with LIV Golf and its Saudi backers even less so.
He brought golf to forefront of his election campaign, bickering with Joe Biden over handicaps, starring in YouTube videos with Bryson DeChambeau, practicing his swing on stage at rallies, and sharing a rather lewd anecdote about Arnold Palmer.
The 78-year-old’s courses have also staged six LIV Golf events during the circuit’s two-year history in New Jersey, Virginia and Miami.
He’s even taken center stage himself with pro-am appearances alongside PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Greg Norman and their supporting cast of poached PGA Tour stars.
He’s brushed shoulders with the breakaway’s rebel stars, including Anthony Kim, Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson and, most notably, DeChambeau.
The 31-year-old American hosted the next incumbent of the White House on his YouTube earlier this year for a special episode of his ‘Break 50’ challenge. The US Open champion even graced the stage alongside Trump, who rolled out the ‘shy’ golfer at a Presidential Election Party in Florida in a bizarre celebration Tuesday night.
Yet, Trump’s relationship with LIV Golf extends beyond the breakaway’s stars to its powers-that-be. Trump’s links to the Saudis are par for the course.
He seemingly maintained his relationship with Mohammed bin Salman in the four years he wasn’t in office too, speaking to the Crown Prince in Spring in their first publicly disclosed conversation since Trump left office in January 2021.
Furthermore, the PIF, LIV’s backer, reportedly invested $2 billion into the private equity firm of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
But while Trump has brought the sport to the forefront of his business empire and his election campaign, he now faces the task of bringing it to the forefront of the Department of Justice, if he is to follow through on his claim.
The two warring factions shocked the golfing world when they announced a framework agreement to merge in June 2023, calling a ceasefire on the civil war that had riven the sport for the better part of two years.
Yet since the bombshell announcement, negotiations, which have carried on for around 16 months and blown past the original deadline of December 2023, have faced a stumbling block in the form of the DOJ.
The merger’s aim, outlined by PGA Tour chief Jay Monahan and PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, was to ‘reunify the world of men’s professional golf’.
But Monahan’s claim that the deal would ‘take the competitor off the board’ sparked antitrust concerns, with The Athletic reporting ‘those red flags raised by the DOJ have not disappeared’.
Presidents cannot order that a merger be deemed illegal – that is a power only the courts possess, not the White House. Once any agreement is put forward, the DOJ will begin its review into whether any antitrust violations have occurred.
Yet, while only the courts, rather than a president, can decide if a merger is illegal, administrations can influence whether a deal is challenged or reportedly dictate the DOJ’s priorities.
Trump is said to be seeking loyalty among his appointments to the DOJ in his second term as President, wanting ‘somebody there who will do his bidding,’ according to Politico.
In comparison, under the Biden administration, the DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission have taken an aggressive stance with antitrust cases, hitting the likes of Visa, Apple, Ticketmaster and Google with lawsuits.
While the president-elect also has a myriad of ambitious plans to be executed in his second foray into office – including Russia’s war on Ukraine, the conflict in the Middle East and immigration – it wouldn’t be all too surprising to discover that the 2.5-handicapper has 15 minutes to spare to bump his beloved sport up the list of DOJ priorities.
Trump already has a history of advocating for a deal, previously warning PGA Tour remainers against their loyalty to the organization and urging players to take the Saudi cash while they could – premonitions that were fulfilled with the 2023 truce, something which he celebrated as ‘glamorous.’
Of course, there’s a lot riding on a deal for Trump himself.
Trump sided with the Saudis following a falling out with golf’s traditional powers-that-be. Both the PGA Tour and the PGA of America tried to distance themselves from Trump when he became a presidential candidate in 2015, following his comments about Mexican immigrants on the campaign trail.
In 2021, the PGA of America announced it was stripping Trump’s Bedminster course of the PGA Championship – one of golf’s four majors – in the wake of the January 6 riots at the Capitol.
In a further blow, Turnberry, the Trump-owned course in Ayrshire, Scotland, was stripped of its status as an Open venue by the sport’s governing body, the R&A, in January 2021 also following Capitol riots.
In LIV, Trump was offered a lifeline: a new way to keep his courses in the professional conversation.
But if the ceasefire becomes a permanent peace treaty under a deal, Trump – and the rest of the golfing world, including sponsors and organizers – will no longer have to choose sides, potentially offering the president-elect a route back to the golfing mainstream.
The Sun reported last weekend that a $1bn unification deal has been agreed with Saudi Arabia taking an 11 percent stake in the PGA Tour, while PIF governor Al-Rumayyan would become tour chairman.
Unnamed industry sources subsequently shut down the report, saying it was ‘premature’ due to ‘the major issue of navigating antitrust concerns in the United States’.
But there is light at the end of the tunnel amid signs that a deal is on the horizon. Monahan was in Saudi Arabia last week, and reportedly met with Al-Rumayyan. The two leaders also played golf together at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship last month.
And, if the final hurdle is the DOJ, a Trump administration could swiftly knock that aside.
Trump’s quarter-of-an-hour timeframe is undoubtedly ambitious but he has the potential to drive the deal across the finish line – more so than a Harris administration would have.
