LIV Golf and PGA Tour bosses send clear merger message with Rory McIlroy gesture

Jay Monahan, the commissioner of the PGA Tour, will tee it up with Yasir Al-Rumayyan – governor of the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF) – at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on Thursday.

Many of the world's best players are in action at the prestigious pro-am in Scotland this week, including Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka. But the main attraction for Thursday's opening round will instead be a pair of notable amateurs.

Monahan and his playing partner Billy Horschel have been grouped with Al-Rumayyan and LIV Golf star Dean Burmester for the tournament, which is played across three iconic venues – The Old Course at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns.

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Al-Rumayyan is chairman of both LIV Golf and Newcastle United, becoming one of the most influential figures in all of sport after huge Saudi investment in recent years. He and Monahan were once enemies at the outset of golf's civil war after the launch of the breakaway LIV circuit in 2022, poaching numerous star players from the PGA Tour in the process.

However, the landscape has shifted dramatically over the past 18 months, with the rival tours striking a "framework agreement" in June 2023 that is set to see PIF invest in the PGA Tour with the hope of reunifying the professional game.

Progress has been slow since the announcement, but Monahan and Al-Rumayyan playing together this week in such a public setting is a clear signal of intent that a deal between the sides is edging closer.

They have been drawn in Game 43 and will begin the tournament in the 9am tee time at Carnoustie before playing their second and third rounds separately.

Monahan and Horschel will play with McIlroy and his father, Gerry, at Kingsbarns on Friday, teeing off at 10.39am. Al-Rumayyan and Burmester will tee off 11 minutes later, playing alongside Louis Oosthuizen and Johann Rupert.

On Saturday, they will tackle The Old Course, with Monahan and Horschel grouped with Oosthuizen and Rupert in 11.12am tee time. Rumayyan and Burmester will play with the McIlroys at 11.23am.

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It will not be the first time Al-Rumayyan has competed in the Dunhill Links. He played in the event last year under a pseudonym – Andrew Waterman – but was quickly identified as the LIV boss when he arrived at the course.

Twelve months on, the optics are very different, playing rounds with the commissioner of the PGA Tour and McIlroy – its biggest star. It is a situation that would have seemed farfetched a year ago, but the world of golf changes fast.

World No. 3 McIlroy is playing an active role in merger negotiations as part of the PGA Tour's Transaction Committee alongside Tiger Woods and Adam Scott.