It was the year 2023. The RBC Canadian Open was around the corner. The community was looking forward to an exciting display of golf at the Oakdale Golf and Country Club. However, the plans did not unfold as expected! Enter Jay Monahan with the LIV Golf-PGA Tour merger announcement. The announcement arguably overshadowed the entire tournament. And now, a year later, it seems like the event sponsors still remain affected by the whole ordeal!

Mary DePaoli, the Chief Marketing Officer for RBC, was recently spotted in an interview about the event, which is set to begin on May 28. There, she opened up about her grievances with the Tour, like how they’re trying to juggle too many things at once. And that, adding to RBC’s recent “partnership” talk with the press, paints a bleak picture for the PGA Tour!

Is the Jay Monahan-led PGA Tour in danger of being dropped by RBC?

The Royal Bank of Canada, the PGA Tour’s $198.12B partner, has been in an alliance with the Jay Monahan-led Tour since 2012. As a result, the RBC was able to make a significant profit on its investment, including a sum of nearly $28 million for various community programs across the state. Curiously, when the agreements with Heritage and the Canadian Open expired, the RBC chose to opt for one-year agreements rather than making a long-term commitment. The reason? All thanks to the PIF merger.

“As details of the PGA Tour’s proposal with (LIV Golf) continues to unfold,” stated a company spokesperson in an interview with The Post and Courier, “RBC is working through the implications of the proposed agreement and its impact on our partnership with the PGA Tour.” At the same time, a tournament director also went ahead and admitted how RBC is currently in its ‘wait-and-see’ mode.

In the meantime, Heritage’s tournament director, Steve Wilmot, although disappointed, was understanding of RBC’s decision: “Something happened last June that kind of rocked our worlds. So any business in their right mind is going to ask, ‘What if? How’s that affect me? How’s that affect us?’ Those are questions that have to be answered.” Furthermore, he disclosed that discussions were underway for a long-term agreement with RBC prior to the announcement of the merger. It was truly an unlucky situation for the event on the Jay Monahan-led PGA Tour.

That’s not all. The 2023 edition, unfortunately, was not the only instance in which the event on the Monahan-led circuit sponsored by the Royal Bank of Canada faced obscurity thanks to the Saudi-backed league. In 2022, the LIV Golf inaugural event in London, which began on June 9, overshadowed the Canadian Open. Consecutively being blocked out by the tournament and the spat in the past two years does not hold well, especially when you couple the partnership troubles with the recent interview that DePaoli had.

Sponsors vent frustration on the PGA Tour-PIF merger

The $198.12B partner did not shy away from expressing their concern over the current situation in the golfing world. From the inception of LIV Golf to the present, where negotiations are ongoing, golf, especially the Tour led by Jay Monahan, has seen much division as well as a sink in popularity (remember the 20% dip in ratings?). This is exactly what she meant when DePaoli alluded to the current situation surrounding the sport while calling for a balance: “It’s going to be really important for us to see the Tour stabilize professional men’s golf.”

She then referred to PGA Tour Enterprises, the non-profit entity that came about as a result of the $3 billion deal with SSG and the ongoing framework agreement negotiations, while putting forth an analogy: “It’s like they’re flying the plane and building it at the same time. It’s probably not too far off.” But, even when pointing out how it was not good for the game in general, the CMO was hopeful that everything would turn out well.

“If some of these outstanding questions can resolve themselves…,” continued the official, “and we can start to put some of the static and — you know — kind of changes that a lot of people were not too pleased with behind us, hopefully, they can get professional men’s golf back on track and growing in a very positive direction again.” She said so while hinting at the merger announcement made by Jay Monahan, which surprised and shocked everyone in 2023, before expectantly expressing the same.

Taking all this into consideration, the future does look a bit bleak for the Jay Monahan-led Tour, especially when news of such a powerful partner slowly backing out arises. Will they find greener pastures? Only time will tell.