ORLANDO — In the aftermath of a second White House meeting with President Trump in an attempt to unify men’s professional golf, the mood from the PGA Tour side appeared to have tempered following initial optimism from commissioner Jay Monahan and player director Tiger Woods.

But Monahan pushed back on that notion on Tuesday without much detail in a  25-minute session with reporters at the Bay Hill Club, site of this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Monahan ostensibly was on hand to about a MasterCard initiative for this week’s tournament that will mean less commercial time on the Golf Channel/NBC broadcast as part of a fan initiative the Tour has embarked on.

But several questions centered around the ongoing negotiations between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which backs the LIV Golf League.

“I think anything I’ve said is consistent with what should be said when you’re in the middle of a complex discussion to try and unify the game,” Monahan said. “It doesn’t speak to my confidence level, it speaks to the moment. I view that meeting as a huge step, and so I look at that very positive.”

Monahan and player director Adam Scott met with Trump at the White House on Feb. 4 and again on Feb. 20 along with Woods.

The statements coming out of each meeting, however, were different in tone.

Monahan met with reporters at Torrey Pines on Feb. 12 and sounded confident about getting closer to a deal via the negotiations, which date to June 2023 and the initial “framework agreement” between the parties.

“It was a very productive visit,” Monahan said in advance of the Genesis Invitational. “I think you all have been around him enough to know how passionate he is about the game of golf.

“For him (Trump) to respond to our request to sit down and talk about how we achieve what he stated publicly as a goal, which is the game of golf operating under one tour with all the top players playing on that one tour, was a great opportunity. We had a really productive conversation.”

Asked to elaborate on the one-tour vision and what that meant for LIV Golf, Monahan said: “What it means is the reunification of the game, which is what we have been and are focused on. Candidly, that’s what fans want. So when you talk about reunification, that’s all the best players in the world competing with each other and against each other.”

Later that week, Woods joined the CBS broadcast and was asked about the current state of negotiations.

“We’re in a very positive place right now,” Woods said. “We had a meeting with the President. Unfortunately, I had some other circumstances that came up, but Jay and Adam, they did great during the meeting, and we have another subsequent meeting coming up.

“I think that things are going to heal quickly. We’re going to get this game going in the right direction. It’s been heading in the wrong direction for a number of years and the fans want all of us to play together, all the top players playing together and we’re going to make that happen.”

The talking points have not been nearly as clear following the second meeting, which also included Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the PIF. How LIV Golf fits into a potential deal is clearly a huge part of these discussions, especially if the PIF is to invest a reported $1 billion or more into PGA Tour Enterprises.

Numerous ideas have been speculated on as LIV Golf continues into its fourth year with events scheduled for this week in Hong Kong and next week in Singapore.

After the second meeting with Trump, the Tour said that the purpose was to initiate “a discussion about the reunification of golf. We are committed to moving as quickly as possible and will share additional details as appropriate.

“We share a passion for the game and the importance of reunification. Mostly importantly, we want the best players in the world playing together more often and are committed to do all we can to deliver that outcome for our fans.”

Getting to that point does not appear imminent. Monahan suggested there would be no such announcement at next week’s Players Championship.

“We’re doing everything we can to reunify the game,” Monahan said, then citing fan feedback that “70 percent of our fans tell us that they’d like to see (the game) reunified versus about 30 percent who’d like to see an investment.

“So that’s the core foundation to why we’re spending the amount of time trying to accomplish that and at that same time responding to fans and doing everything we can to strengthen fan engagement, strengthen our schedule.

“I do think that when reunification happens, that will be one of the man positive guidelines.”

Monahan would not answer a question regarding if he has spoken to any current LIV players about returning to the PGA Tour in any form of timeframe.

Next week’s Players Championship will be the first time since LIV Golf launched in 2022 that a player who competed in a LIV event will play in a PGA Tour event that is not a major championship or co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour.

England’s Laurie Canter, who played all of the 2022 season for the Cleeks and was a reserve player at times in 2023 and into 2024, is eligible as a player who was never a PGA Tour member and has gone at least a year without competing in a LIV Golf event.

Canter, who has won twice on the DP World Tour in the past year and lost in a playoff on Sunday in South Africa, qualified for the Players by moving into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking. Canter is now 42nd.

Asked if he saw any significance in a former LIV player competing at the Tour’s flagship event, he said:

“I think Laurie will have an opportunity to answer that question for you next week about exactly what it means to him,“ Monahan said. “I think that’s most important. But listen, in terms of the DP World Tour, he won in Bahrain (last month), he had a great performance last week, he’s earned his way into the Players Championship, we’re excited to have him next week at TPC Sawgrass, and excited that he’s a member of the DP World Tour.”