monahan

CROMWELL, Conn. — PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan met with the media at TPC River Highlands on Wednesday and revealed that the Travelers Championship will receive Signature Event status again in 2025.

These tournaments feature elevated purses and limited field sizes, hovering around 70 players. This year’s Travelers Championship marks the eighth and final Signature Event of the 2024 season.

“This event will be a Signature Event in 2025,” Monahan said. “This is the 18th year with Travelers, and we have an agreement; they’re in a 10-year agreement through 2030.”

Travelers first sponsored this tournament in 2007, when Hunter Mahan won his first event on the PGA Tour. Since then, it has become a fan favorite among tour pros, who cite the golf course and hospitality as reasons why.

“It’s good to be back. I feel like this is always a fun tournament to come play,” said World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler on Wednesday.

“The community really rallies around the tournament. The fans are always tremendous. The golf course is typically always in great shape. The clubhouse. The way the tournament treats us as players is always tremendous. So it’s a very easy, fun week for us to come play, and glad to be back here.”

Caddies even receive courtesy cars this week, a rarity on the PGA Tour. But that’s not all. The top players on the PGA Tour receive plenty of other amenities.

“They do such an amazing job for us, our caddies, and our support team,” added Xander Schauffele.

“If you look at the range, it’s got the little umbrellas, we have a coffee stand, a lounging area, there’s the green truck there with the pizza. So it’s such a relaxing week coming after the U.S. Open and I think all of us really appreciate that.”

With this in mind, the Signature Event model—new for 2024—has drawn plenty of criticism. In March, Lucas Glover called these tournaments a “money grab,” adding that he “doesn’t like the idea at all.”

“Why do the signature events have [a maximum of] 80 players, and only 50 make the cut? Our biggest signature event next week is 144 players with a full cut. The signature event,” Glover said in March, referencing The Players Championship.

“I just don’t see what was so bad out here that we had to do all this. Let’s raise some purses to make sure we keep some guys around, but now we’ve eliminated a lot of playing opportunities for some really good players.”

Monahan recognizes this too, as many players, such as Min Woo Lee, who has had a strong 2024 season, did not qualify for the Travelers this week, even though Rory McIlroy withdrew.

“Nothing’s perfect, nothing ever is, but when you look at where we are today and as we shared with our board [on Tuesday], we feel like we’re delivering to our fans exactly what we set out to do, and that is to get our top players competing together more often, and to create the most competitive schedule we can possibly create,” Monahan said about the Signature Events.

Jay Monahan, Texas Children’s Houston Open — Jay Monahan during the 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open.

“When you look at our full-field events, and you look at the strength of the field, whether it’s top 50 or top 125, our strength of the field at full-field events is up 35 percent.”

The Signature Events have undoubtedly provided opportunities for the best players to compete against one another. Look no further than who has won the seven Signature Events this season: Scheffler has won three. Wyndham Clark triumphed at Pebble Beach with a record-breaking 60. Hideki Matsuyama shot 61 at Riviera to come from behind and steal the Genesis Invitational, and then Rory McIlroy won the Wells Fargo Championship. Chris Kirk also won The Sentry, the first tournament of the year. That’s a pretty strong whos-who of the PGA Tour.

Plus, these wins came against very strong fields. The top 50 players from last year’s FedEx Cup standings gained entry into each of these tournaments in 2024. Then, the PGA Tour established the Aon Next 10 and Aon Swing 5 to help round out these limited-field events. Whoever wins an event on the PGA Tour in 2024 also gains entry, while each tournament has sponsor exemptions they use to round out the field. Those exemptions have been greatly scrutinized, as PGA Tour Policy Board members seem to take a fair share of those. Look no further than Webb Simpson, who again received an exemption to play this week.

Nevertheless, this tournament always delivers. Players typically go low on this golf course, as TPC River Highlands, the shortest course on tour, yields plenty of birdies. It also produces great drama, as the tournament has had six playoffs since 2007. One stroke has decided the result six other times, too.

So, considering all of this, it makes sense for the tour to make the Travelers Championship a Signature Event in 2025, despite some of the criticism the overall model has received.

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.

CROMWELL, Conn. — Who knows when the PGA Tour will strike an agreement with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), LIV Golf’s beneficiary. But one thing is certain: no deal will be made during this week’s Travelers Championship.

Speaking to reporters at TPC River Highlands, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan provided an update on negotiations without revealing anything the golfing world did not already know. He also shut down any rumors about a pending deal.

“There’s been a lot of news around our ongoing discussions with the PIF, Monahan said.

“I’m not going to negotiate in public, and I know [everyone is] eager to know more, but I will go back to the meeting that we had two Fridays ago in New York, where our entire Transaction Committee, including Tiger Woods and Adam Scott being in person and Rory [McIlroy] dialing in from the Memorial Tournament, alongside Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the Governor of the PIF and representatives of the PIF. It was a very productive discussion. As we’ve said, progress was made and we continue to be in regular dialog. I had a 10 o’clock call [Wednesday] morning with the PIF, and we’re doing that multiple times a week.”

At least talks with the PIF have taken place, which did not appear to be the case before the Players Championship in March.

“I would say to you that there were a lot of important aspects that we talked about in that meeting [in New York], aspects that will be important towards a final agreement that we got consensus on, and there are a number of areas that we recognize that we weren’t going to, but identified them, and that’s what we’re focused on, and that’s what we’re working on,” Monahan continued.

“So, my outlook for those discussions continues to be very positive.”

The negotiations between the PGA Tour and the PIF were further complicated by the addition of the tour’s new investor, the Strategic Sports Group (SSG), in February.

Before the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Monahan and the tour announced that SSG—a consortium of sports owners from around the country—agreed to invest $1.5 billion in the tour. This investment will give the tour much-needed capital amid rising costs, thanks in part to LIV Golf’s rise to prominence.

Of course, the PIF has over $700 billion in assets and has reportedly invested north of $1 billion into the PGA Tour’s rival circuit.

Nevertheless, SSG helped the tour establish an equity program for players, meaning top tour members will have massive stakes in its newly formed entity, PGA Tour Enterprises.

“All I can say is that when you have the likes of John Henry and Arthur Blank, Sam Kennedy, Andy Cohen, Joe Gorder, a lot of people that—some people are new to our sport, but have massive experience in sport and in the corporate world. When they say that this is one of the most complex scenarios that they have ever seen, I think that says a lot,” Monahan added.

“As it relates to whether or not the complexity is being underestimated, I think it’s only fair to say that unless you have a full context for everything that’s being discussed, it would be unreasonable for anyone to think that you would fully understand the complexity. There are a lot of different factors at play, but nobody who is having the conversation is unaware of the complexity, and everyone, I think, is embracing the fact that there are things, obstacles, and things you have to overcome in a complex situation. We have the right people around the table for us, and they do as well.”

Monahan provided one large word salad to reporters—a salad that continued no juice or any meat. Yet, the commissioner said that all involved are focused on getting to the right outcome, with players and fans in mind.

When that outcome comes about is anyone’s guess.

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.

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