The optimism that emanated from both Jay Monahan and Tiger Woods in the aftermath of a first meeting with President Trump meant to solve golf’s ongoing strife appeared to be missing last week when they met at the White House again.

Forget for the moment the incredible notion of a golf entity—twice—meeting with the President while in the midst of major upheaval at this time, asking for help in solving its problems.

Clearly Monahan, the commissioner of the PGA Tour, and players Woods and Adam Scott—who serve on the PGA Tour Policy Board—see value in engaging the golf-loving Trump who also has well-documented ties to Saudi Arabia, whose sovereign wealth fund backs the LIV Golf League which has disrupted the men’s professional game for more than three years.

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Public Investment Fund, was also at the meeting. He and Trump are well-acquainted. How Trump is supposed to solve this multi-faceted issue is fascinating, given his own history.

He’s a golf course owner whose properties have hosted LIV Golf events. His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, got $2 billion in funds from the PIF for his private investment company after Trump left the White House in 2021.

And Trump criticized the PGA Tour in 2022 in the aftermath of LIV Golf’s launch, calling for new leadership and accusing the Tour (without proof) that it was diverting money from the player pension fund in order to cover increasing purses.

That is the backdrop to the recent develops which have seen the Tour laud Trump for helping.

Figuring out what it all means is clearly conjecture, but there is one aspect that has been on the table the entire time and which makes sense if the Tour is trying to gain favor with Trump.

The U.S. Department of Justice.

Since the framework agreement was announced on June 6, 2023, there has long been a belief that any kind of a deal with Saudi Arabia that involved bringing the sides together would face DOJ scrutiny.

Roughly a month after the controversial framework deal was announced, PGA Tour officials were part of a Senate subcommittee hearing in Washington, D.C.

The committee was concerned about the foreign involvement in an American sports league as well as possible antitrust violations.

And what was being proposed—at least as part of the original framework agreement—was essentially a super monopoly, which in theory would break antitrust law.

Among the struggles is coming up with a plan that would pass DOJ muster. There have been various reports suggesting different proposals have been put forth as a way of trying to cooperate with the DOJ and reach some sort of common ground.

The ultimate irony in all of this is the charges from the LIV Golf side of the argument that the PGA Tour existed as a monopoly and its practices thwarted something like LIV Golf from launching or being successful.

The way the Tour requires its membership to adhere to various playing minimums and release rules for competing outside of the PGA Tour came under scrutiny.

But any kind of a “deal” with the PGA Tour would, in essence, form those same kind of issues. In theory, competition is replaced by cooperation. If LIV Golf were to “fall under” or be part of PGA Tour Enterprises, doesn’t the competition for players, sponsors, TV deals and the like cease?

It’s an interesting question in all of this because the view has been since before the election that Trump—who has maintained that the DOJ works at his discretion—could simply waive off any kind of roadblocks and approve a deal.

That deal, obviously, is unclear right now. And the need to meet with Trump twice over something that seems obvious on the outside—the Tour wants him to sign off what it is proposing—remains curious.

So here we are again, waiting and wondering about what is next. Just a week ago, there appeared clear signs that a deal that would “reunify” the game was close, even if we didn’t know all the details.

Perhaps it still is.

But it is becoming even more clear that there will be no quick fix. The 2025 golf season is unlikely to see much, if any, in the way of players coming back to the PGA Tour and vice versa. Putting together a schedule for 2026 that sees those aspects appears daunting as well, although there could be some interim moves to bridge to a more thorough system.

The PGA Tour’s flagship event, the Players Championship, is in two weeks. LIV Golf will be in Hong Kong next week and Singapore the same week as the Players. Monahan normally speaks with the media pre-tournament, where he’s likely to get grilled on the subject.

Would there be a big announcement then? The Tour would be loathe to take the attention away from its biggest event. And yet, so much attention is focused on this issue, it might not matter.

Tiger’s possible schedule

It came as little surprise when Tiger Woods’s name was not on the entry list for this week’s Cognizant Classic, which kicks off the Florida Swing of four tournaments. His words at last week’s TGL match when he said he had not picked up club in more than a week and his subsequent trip to Washington to be part of a meeting with President Trump alongside PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and fellow player director Adam Scott suggested that his quest to get ready for his first tournament of 2025 was behind schedule.

The death of his mother, Kultida, on Feb. 4 has had an understandable impact. Woods skipped playing in the Genesis Invitational after first saying he would, then decided to play in last week’s TGL match, where he appeared less than sharp (and had a somewhat wild incident where he misheard a yardage on one of the simulator holes, thinking he had just 99 yards when he had 199 yards.)

“I really haven’t thought about golf, so I don’t think I’m going to be thinking about it for just a little bit here,” he said.

There had been some inkling of hope for the Cognizant, which is played at PGA National and where Woods teed it up on a few occasions, although not since 2018. (He finished 12th in his third event back following 2017 spinal fusion surgery.) It is not far from his South Florida home and, let’s face it, he needs to play at some point, right?

That led to some thoughts about the Cognizant, which would give him plenty of recovery time before the Masters or perhaps even allow for him to play a second event (Players, Valspar) before heading to Augusta National.

The lackluster TGL play and comments afterward suggested that wasn’t going to happen, and sure enough, now the speculation will center around whether Woods, 49, will play at the Arnold Palmer Invitational next week or the Players the week following. (Woods hasn’t played at Bay Hill since a tie for fifth in 2018.)

But the near-term decision to skip Tuesday night’s TGL match is at least curious. As an investor in the league, and still a huge television draw, it was believed—barring injury—that Woods would compete in all five of his Jupiter Links team’s scheduled matches.

When lineups were announced on Friday, he was not part of it, which means Woods will play in TGL just one more time before the league’s playoffs—for which his team might not qualify.

And it does bring into question whether or not he will play before the Masters. He said in the CBS broadcast booth at the Genesis that he wanted to play more this year and it makes sense for him to play before head to Augusta National and the only tournament where he made the cut in 2024.

The API, where he has won eight times, still remains possible but not if he has plans to play the Players Championship, the PGA Tour’s flagship event and where he has one more year left on an exemption from his 2019 Masters win.

Barring a change in eligibility rules—or a big run of success this year—odds are he won’t be eligible for the Players in 2026.

The tournament makes a good bit of sense—it’s a flat golf course, the weather should be decent and it suits his strong iron play. It makes more sense than a very difficult Bay Hill, with its abundance of rough and some more formidable scoring conditions in recent years.

It seems, however, that Woods has some work to do. Teeing it up next week if he’s not prepared makes no sense. Maybe two weeks heading to the Players will be enough to get his game together. With the Masters looming, a tournament start somewhere—his first official start since missing the cut at the British Open last July—seems a minimum.