Dunlap becomes first player in PGA Tour history to win as an amateur and a pro in the same year

MIAMI: President Donald Trump’s intervention in negotiations between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf has “significantly bolstered” hopes of reunifying the fractured sport but “hurdles” to a deal remain, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said Tuesday.

Speaking ahead of The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, Monahan said Trump, who has hosted two rounds of talks at the White House involving leaders of the PGA and Saudi Arabia-financed LIV, had made a deal between the two sides more likely.

But Monahan told a press conference that while some hurdles had been removed during negotiations, “others remain” without revealing what were the stumbling blocks preventing a final agreement.

Hopes of a breakthrough had risen after Trump hosted PGA and LIV chiefs at the White House last month in talks that Monahan described as “real and substantial.”

“Those talks have been significantly bolstered by President Trump’s willingness to serve as a facilitator,” Monahan said Tuesday.

“President Trump is a lifelong golf fan. He believes strongly in the game’s power and potential, and he has been exceedingly generous with his time and influence to help bring a deal together.

“He wants to see the game reunified. We want to see the game reunified. His involvement has made the prospect of reunification very real.”

Monahan said he had built a relationship of “mutual respect” with LIV Golf chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who he said could conceivably be welcomed onto the board of the PGA Tour eventually “to move the global game forward.”

However, Monahan said that while “important aspects” LIV Golf could be incorporated into the PGA Tour, any unification deal would not “diminish the strength of our platform.”

“Our team is fully committed to reunification,” Monahan said. “The only deal that we would regret is one that compromises the essence of what makes the game of golf and the PGA Tour so exceptional.”

Asked for an example of what might diminish the PGA Tour, Monahan was tight-lipped but hinted that the impasse could be linked to the PGA Tour’s traditional four-round, 72-hole format versus LIV’s abbreviated 54-hole standard.

“If you look at the PGA Tour today and the strength of our organization, the momentum that we have as an organization and what we stand for, I mean ultimately if you’re a player anywhere in the world, this is the platform that you want to get to,” he said.

“These tournaments are 72-hole stroke play tournaments at historic, iconic venues ... That’s who we are as an organization, and that’s who we’ll always be as an organization.”

Monahan said fans simply wanted to see the best players playing against each other. At the moment, golf’s four annual majors are the only events that see players from both circuits competing against each other.

“I think what our fans are telling us is that they want to see the best players in the world playing together more often and that’s what really is the focus of the conversations,” he said.

Two-time major-winner Justin Thomas, meanwhile, said players were fatigued by the long-running saga of golf’s schism.

“I think this is the third time I’ve played this tournament while this has been going on in some way, shape or form,” Thomas said. “I think we’re kind of like past the level of exhaustion... obviously like the rest of us, we would love for it to be done sooner rather than later.”

ORLANDO, Florida: Xander Schauffele took his first swing on a PGA Tour course in 57 days and found the middle of the fairway.

And then he took another golf ball from his bag and tossed it into the thick rough. That was the real test.

“If this doesn’t go well,” he recalled telling his caddie, “then I’m going to get in my car and drive back to Jupiter.”

Schauffele gave it a rip and didn’t feel any twinge in his right ribs from an intercostal strain and slight tear in his cartilage that has kept him out of golf for two months. He returns to the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill this week with modest expectations.

He started the year as the top threat to Scottie Scheffler, the world’s No. 1 player. Schauffele broke through in a big way in 2024 by winning two majors at the PGA Championship and the British Open, going from no majors to halfway to the career Grand Slam.

That lasted all of one week at The Sentry at Kapalua, where he finished in the middle of the pack and then realized that nagging pain was more serious than he thought.

He isn’t sure if the injury stemmed from trying to gain more speed in his swing or something during a workout. He describes it as a perfect storm — it happened right when his trainer left the country to get his visa renewed. He didn’t get any soft tissue therapy, like usual. He figured it was not a big deal, until it became one.

He missed two tournaments at Torrey Pines in his hometown of San Diego. He watched way too much golf on TV to see what he was missing.

And now he has some catching up to do.

Bay Hill is loaded again as a signature event, the third time the top three players — Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Schauffele — are in the same field since the Tour Championship last August.

“I wouldn’t call it like the dream place to come back to, to be completely honest,” Schauffele said. “Everyone knows what Bay Hill gives you — it takes a lot more than it gives — and you have to earn every par or birdie or bogey that you make. It’s a tough place.”

But it’s a dream part of the schedule — Bay Hill, The Players Championship next week and the Masters is right around the corner.

“I would be lying if I said I was in the most comfortable position ever,” Schauffele said. “I’ve been practicing mentally to convince myself that I’m still in some crazy-good form. Trying to use that sort of low expectation with serious focus to try and get the most out of what you’re doing. Just think about all the greats that have had to take some time off and came back and played really well.

“I think Scottie came back and he wasn’t close to winning, but played pretty decent and put himself back in the mix, so I don’t see why I can’t do that.”

Scheffler can appreciate what Schauffele faces this week. He also went two months without playing because of a freak injury when he was trying to cut ravioli with a wine glass and it punctured his right palm.

He has two top 10s in his three starts since returning.

“I think it’s challenging any time you’re coming off an injury,” Scheffler said. “That first time you step back out inside the ropes, it’s different playing competition tournament golf, and there’s definitely challenges to it and it takes a little bit of time to get used to.

“I’m a big routine guy and so being injured and being out of my routine was definitely an unusual thing. Xander’s a guy that’s fairly routine as well, so I’m sure there will be some adjustments, but it’s definitely good to have him back out playing.”

Because it’s a player-hosted event (Palmer), the 72-man field features a 36-hole cut to top 50 and ties. Schauffele has the longest active streak on the PGA Tour at 57 in a row.

In three previous trips to Bay Hill, he has only one round in the 60s.

Schauffele said he relied on plenty of scans to make sure he couldn’t reinjure his ribs, and that shot he took out of the rough was another indication. He played nine holes using only his irons in San Diego. He returned to his South Florida home and played nine holes on a par-3 course with Justin Thomas, 18 holes on his own, and then came to Bay Hill.

“So this is as good as it’s going to get,” he said.