The handful of times PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has spoken with the media since originally announcing the Tour’s framework agreement with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) in June 2023, ‘confident’ is not a word you would use to describe his message about a coming together in the men’s professional game.

Monahan broke that trend on Wednesday, however, while sharing details of a recent meeting with President Donald Trump with media gathered at Torrey Pines ahead of this week’s Genesis Invitational. 

READ: Rory McIlroy Says That President Trump Has Taken A Side In The Battle Between LIV And The PGA Tour

While the commissioner was still largely vague and claimed that a deal between the Tour and Saudi PIF was getting closer for the umpteenth time, he also mentioned the game’s best players competing on “one tour” for the first time.

“It was a very productive visit,” Monahan said, referring to his meeting with Trump. “I think you all have been around him enough to know how passionate he is about the game of golf.”

“For him 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.”

“I think the meeting ultimately gets us one step closer to a deal being done, but there’s a lot more work to do. Hopefully you sense my enthusiasm as I talk about it today,” he continued.

Monahan had this to say when asked to clarify his comment about “one tour:”

“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.”

The best players in the world competing against each other as often as possible is the ideal scenario for everyone – players, media, fans, etc. – but what that looks like is still a giant question mark. Nevertheless, the golf world has no option but to take Monahan’s comments as a win, which hasn’t been an option for nearly two years now.

As for Monahan’s “one tour” comment, the obvious question is which flag would the players play under? Monahan is the commissioner of the PGA Tour, so he wants the best players playing on the PGA Tour. LIV Golf has not indicated for one second that it just going to quietly go away, however, so what this ‘one tour’ would actually consist of is purely speculative. 

The Department of Justice and antitrust claims have been the largest hurdles in the way of a deal coming together between the Tour, Saudis, and ultimately LIV Golf. The assumption has long been that the Saudi would receive a seat at the table via investment into the PGA Tour while LIV Golf would continue to be an entirely separate entity and still solely funded by the Saudi PIF.

Where the ‘one tour’ fits into all of this, well, we’ll have to wait and see.