PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan on Wednesday provided insight into his month-long medical leave earlier this summer. Monahan cited anxiety over the PGA Tour’s framework agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund as the cause of his leave, which began June 14 and ended July 17.
“I think the reality for me was that I was dealing with anxiety, which created physical and mental health issues and challenges for me,” Monahan told a group of small reporters in Memphis ahead of the 2023 FedEx St. Jude Championship. “And I realized that I needed to step away and to deal with that and understand how to develop the skills to deal with that going forward.
“To step away at that point in time was very difficult for me, but I needed to take care of myself and my family and ultimately come back here stronger than I’ve ever been to lead the PGA Tour forward. And my family and my doctors supported me coming back.”
Monahan’s leave came one week after the PGA Tour and PIF announced the framework agreement; the organizations will come together to house commercial operations for professional golf under a new for-profit entity.
PGA Tour members felt blindsided by the suddenness of the deal with players such as Jordan Spieth, Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele lamenting that Monahan had work to do to regain their trust.
In Monahan’s place, executive Tyler Dennis and chief operating officer Ron Price led the day-to-day operations of the PGA Tour. Price was alongside PGA Tour Policy Board member Jimmy Dunne when the two testified in front of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on July 11. Monahan told reporters he offered to testify and would be willing to in the future, but the subcommittee was unable to accommodate his schedule in July.
“Our team is in regular contact with the Department of Justice, has been and continues to be,” he said. “We’re confident when we come off the back end of this, we’ll do it the way where we’ve created more opportunities for players going forward.”
Since his return, Monahan has leaned into regaining trust from the membership. Adding Tiger Woods as a player director on the PGA Tour Policy Board and implementing additional transparency and governance measures, Monahan’s actions are beginning to mirror his words.
“It was ineffective,” Monahan said of the deal rollout. “And as a result, there was a lot of misinformation. I think, anytime you have misinformation, that can lead to mistrust, and that’s my responsibility. It’s nobody else’s responsibility — that’s me and me alone. As I’ve said, I take full accountability for that. At the same time, I apologize for putting players on their back foot, but ultimately the move that we made is the right move for the PGA Tour. I firmly believe that. And as we go forward, time will bear that out.”