“It takes two to tango. So if one party is willing and ready and the other isn’t, it sort of makes it tough.” If Rory McIlroy was trying to be cryptic, then he failed miserably here. Speaking about the potential PGA Tour- PIF deal that has been in the works for nearly two years, the Northern Irish golfer implied that there is a hold-up from one end regarding the finalization of the deal, and with the way McIlroy spoke, it was somehow clear that the holdup was coming from the PIF side, especially considering that Jay Monahan and the PGA Tour went to extreme lengths, like involving the President of the United States, Donald Trump to smoothen out the deal at quicker pace.

“But I don’t think the PGA Tour needs a deal. I think the momentum is pretty strong. TV’s been good, TGL’s been hopefully pretty additive to the overall situation. I answered this question at Torrey Pines two weeks ago, before the landscape might have looked a little different then than it does now. I think it would still be the ideal scenario for golf as a whole. But, from a pure PGA Tour perspective, I don’t think it necessarily needs it,” said McIlroy. You see, ever since the discussion regarding a possible unification happened, both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf have found their standings in the world of golf. The words of Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau echo that sentiment.

“I think the narrative around golf would welcome a deal in terms of just having all the best players together again. But I don’t think the PGA Tour needs a deal. I think the momentum is pretty strong,” McIlroy stated. “I continue to see LIV Golf growing,” DeChambeau explained to reporters ahead of LIV Hong Kong on Wednesday. “It’s going to grow at an exponentiating pace for years to come, and we aren’t going anywhere.” But apparently, the fans want something else.

The PGA Tour CMO disagrees with Rory McIlroy

Andy Weitz, the Chief Marketing Officer of the PGA Tour, spoke to Dan Rapaport on his podcast that despite what McIlroy and DeChambeau think, the fans want the best golfers in the world in one place and competing against each other regularly. That means reunification. “Our data tells us, the fan forward research, that 70 percent of the fans want reunification. That means, the best players in the world playing against each other more often,” said Weitz very clearly. Unification will be better for the game, and even Weitz agrees. But he did shed light on how Tour is working hard to be better.

The PGA Tour has had to deal with a lot of flak for the pace of play they maintained for the initial part of the 2025 Season. Even the live broadcast was involved in calling out the snail-like pace with which some golfers were moving around the course. Even Dottie Pepper called out the pace at the Farmers Insurance Open. Her broadcast teammate Frank Nobilo also called out Tom Kim at Pebble Beach, after he took a long time with his shot, “That was not worth the wait.”

But since the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the pace of play has significantly improved, and that is due to great efforts from the PGA Tour, who created a team to monitor the same. They are also trying to introduce rangefinders, a way to measure distances visually, so that players do not waste more time for that. “We have our pace of play working group. You’ll hear us, in the days and weeks ahead, talk more about some experiments we’re going to conduct this year,” continued the CMO.

Weitz also guaranteed that the PGA Tour is going to be more open with what they are trying to achieve with respect to golf. “You’re going to see us talk about more testing and more transparency,”Weitz added. The PGA Tour CMO was clear that the PGA Tour was not going to sit on it’s current laurels. There is continuous work  that will take place to keep improving the product that is on offer.

The PGA Tour is not going anywhere

The Tour is going from strength to strength, and Weitz is adamant that the Tour is just beginning its look into the future. More interesting and outstanding innovations are on the line to be executed. But it requires time. And that is what Weitz is trying to say.

“I’m just trying to give you a few examples, Dan, of stuff that in the past I think you and others might have said you know, why isn’t the Tour moving more quickly on these things? Well, we’re moving on that stuff.”

Recently, Jay Monahan explained that the PGA Tour made a few new deals that saw an incredible increase in revenue.

The Tour had signed 14 deals that totalled nearly $400 million. These deals include partnerships with companies like 3M and Valspar, which have the potential to provide nearly $4 billion in revenue by 2035. “The tour is in a stronger place than it was two years ago. You see that in the ratings, you see that in the commercial partnerships, and you see that in the Innovation we’re driving,” Weitz added further.

The reason for such accelerated success is mostly because of the competition with LIV Golf. With such great things happening, do you think that the PGA Tour needs to partner up with PIF and bring forth the reunification of golf? Or is it good to have some healthy competition on the sides?