It was the first time Monahan had publicly fronted a media scrum since returning from medical leave. The pending merger between the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund, which is the financial force behind LIV Golf  – entered immediately on June 6 to drop all litigation between the two parties was the apparent hot topic of the press conference. 

The state of the framework has led to everybody searching for answers. What does this mean for the Tour? What does it mean for the future of LIV Golf?

Monahan didn't answer any of those questions directly; he was stressing a “positive outcome” is on the horizon for the Tour.

"We're confident that we're going to reach a positive outcome for the PGA Tour," Monahan said.

"If you just go back to the nature of the agreement that we struck, the framework agreement, it is the PGA Tour partnering with PIF, having PIF be a minority investor in NewCo with the PGA Tour, with full-board governance and operational control of the Tour and ultimately the men's professional game moving forward."

"I don't have any reason to think that we won't be successful." - Jay Monahan.

Monahan believes the negotiations are on the right track, and the team around him are in constant communication with the PIF regarding the situation of the framework.

"There are frequent talks. Tyler (Dennis) and Ron Price, who did a tremendous job in my absence, are leading conversations with the team from PIF, and I would just say, given the fact that there's frequency of talks, including Keith Pelley from DP World Tour, we're probably right where I would expect that we would be. But there's – yeah, so that's – there's an intensity, and there's an urgency, and there's a lot of work, good work, that's being done.

So, is the previously set deadline of January 1st still a realistic target? Monahan has no reason to believe it isn't, but it seems clear a lot of work is still to be done.

"As it relates to reason not to believe or believe, you know, at this point, given what Tyler just outlined and what I said, no, I don't have any reason to think that we won't be successful," Monahan said.

But what does a positive outcome look like for the Tour? Monahan highlighted one aspect of the merger, which starts to provide some positive insight into what the shape of the agreement with the PIF means for fans and broadcasting, the latter being the subject of a lot of gripes with the amount of advertising played during the live broadcast of events, especially locally in the States.

"For fans, for us to be able to use the capital to be able to invest back in our product, you know, to do things like further reduce commercial inventory in our broadcast, to further invest in our data businesses, to further invest in our media business, to potentially invest in entities and companies that we think are going to help us grow and diversify our fan base and the game."

If the board decides against approving the merger, it could be back to square one for Monahan and the Tour; although they believe their entity could be appealing, they firmly have all their eggs in the PIF basket.

"I think given the amount of attention that our framework agreement has received and, in particular, the fact that we've created a NewCo, PGA Tour Enterprises. I think the realisation that there is an entity that can be invested into at the PGA Tour and the uniqueness of being able to invest into a professional sports league of the calibre, quality and sustainability of the PGA Tour obviously has generated a lot of interest.

"But in terms of alternatives, right now, you know, the sole conversation that we're having is the conversation we're having with PIF."