The commissioner of the PGA Tour, the governor of the Saudi fund is paired in the pro-am

Three weeks after PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan met with Saudi Arabian financial sponsor LIV Golf, they will be together again this week in Scotland, this time inside the ropes.

Monahan and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Public Investment Fund that supports the PGA Tour’s rival league, are playing together in the Dunhill Links Championship on the European Tour. The tournament starts on Thursday.

Monahan is paired with Billy Horschel, while Al-Rumayyan plays with South African Dean Burmester, one of 14 LIV Golf players in the field.

In the group directly behind them on Thursday at Carnoustie will be Rory McIlroy, who will be playing with his father.

Monahan and Al-Rumayyan have been participating in meetings in New York on September 11 and 12 as both parties are trying to make an agreement in which PIF will be a minority investor in PGA Tour Enterprises and trying to find the concept of the group and bring the parties together.

The PGA Tour has banned players who defected from LIV Golf, which launched in June 2022. The European Tour has allowed players to return to certain events as long as they meet the sanctions, a combination of suspensions and fines.

Jon Rahm plays Dunhill while appealing his penalties. A decision on that — the independent panel that once favored the European tour — is not expected until next year.

Guy Kinnings, CEO of the European tour, was also part of the New York meetings and will be at Dunhill Links. Kinnings expressed his hope that the talks are headed in the right direction, although he said, “It’s a long road. There’s still a lot to do.

There have been talks that talks have stalled with little movement since June. The LIV Golf League ended on September 22, and the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup qualifiers ended at the end of August.

The tournament pairs an expert with a novice over three rounds in St. Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns. Al-Rumayyan also played at Dunhill last year. Monahan has played at AT&T Pebble Beach under the same format.