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PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan assembled his stars on Tuesday night - before this week's Canadian Open in Toronto - in an attempt to justify the shock declaration of peace in golf's civil war.
McIlroy and Tiger Woods both turned down huge financial offers from LIV Golf and established themselves as the biggest supporters of the PGA Tour. But both were kept in the dark about the shock deal announced on Tuesday.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan assembled his stars on Tuesday night - before this week's Canadian Open in Toronto - in an attempt to justify the shock declaration of peace in golf's civil war.
McIlroy and Tiger Woods both turned down huge financial offers from LIV Golf and established themselves as the biggest supporters of the PGA Tour. But both were kept in the dark about the shock deal announced on Tuesday.
Fellow players reacted with surprise and a sense of betrayal at the news that the PGA Tour and DP World Tour are merging their commercial operations with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), which bankrolls LIV Golf.
The announcement came after 12 months of unprecedented disruption in the men's professional game following the launch of LIV, which held its first event in June 2022 in England.
Monahan accepted that he will be labelled a 'hypocrite' but insisted the players who remained loyal to the PGA Tour had made the right decision.
'They have helped re-architect the future of the PGA Tour, they have moved us to a more competitive model,' Monahan said.
'We have significantly invested in our business in 2023, we're going to do so in '24. (But) we've had to invest back in our business through our reserves. Between our reserves, the legal fees, our underpin and our commitment to the DP World Tour and their legal fees, it's been significant.
'But this puts us in a position where we've got capital that we can deploy to the benefit of our members and through our tournaments, and it gives us capital to deploy in growth businesses that ultimately will generate a return that we'll reinvest in our players.'
Asked if the likes of Woods and McIlroy would be compensated for turning down lucrative offers from LIV, or whether those who took massive pay-outs to join the breakaway would have to pay that money back, Monahan said: 'I think those are all the serious conversations that we're going to have.
'Ultimately everything needs to be considered. Ultimately what you're talking about is an equalisation over time and I think that's a fair and reasonable concept.'
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