LIV Golf and PGA Tour bosses make merger stance clear with Rory McIlroy involved

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan is set to play alongside Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), at Scotland's esteemed Alfred Dunhill Links Championship come Thursday.

Golfing fans are eager to catch a glimpse of top talents like Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, and Brooks Koepka this week in the pro-am event, but all eyes will be on an intriguing amateur duo during Thursdays opening game.

On the green, Monahan and his teammate Billy Horschel will join forces with Al-Rumayyan and LIV Golf's own Dean Burmester across three celebrated courses: The Old Course at St Andrews, Carnoustie, and Kingsbarns.

Al-Rumayyan, not just heading LIV Golf but also Newcastle United, has risen as a towering figure in sports after the gush of Saudi wealth. Initially, he and Monahan faced off during the early showdowns of golf's heated conflict sparked by LIVs 2022 emergence, which saw a flurry of stars taken from PGA Tour ranks.

Yet, the tides have turned in the last year and a half, marked by a June 2023 "framework agreement" aiming for PIF to funnel investment into the PGA Tour with visions of mending the professional golf rift.

While deal-making progress might be creeping along, the union of Monahan and Al-Rumayyan in such a famed golf arena signals a potent hint that their contractual harmony is indeed on the rise.

They've been assigned to Game 43 and will kick off the tournament with a 9am UK tee time at Carnoustie, with their second and third rounds taking place separately.

Monahan and Horschel are set to play alongside McIlroy and his father, Gerry, at Kingsbarns on Friday, with a tee-off time of 10.39am. Al-Rumayyan and Burmester will follow, teeing off 11 minutes later, in the company of Louis Oosthuizen and Johann Rupert.

Come Saturday, they'll face The Old Course, where Monahan and Horschel will be grouped with Oosthuizen and Rupert for an 11.12am tee time. Rumayyan and Burmester will join the McIlroys on the green at 11.23am.

This isn't Al-Rumayyan's first time competing in the Dunhill Links. He participated in last year's event under the pseudonym Andrew Waterman but was swiftly recognized as the LIV boss upon his arrival at the course.

A year later, the scene is dramatically different, with him playing rounds with the commissioner of the PGA Tour and McIlroy its biggest star. It's a scenario that would have seemed implausible just a year ago, but the golfing world moves quickly.

World No. 3 McIlroy is actively involved in merger talks as part of the PGA Tour's Transaction Committee, alongside Tiger Woods and Adam Scott.