Harrington: Why has PGA Tour backtracked on 9/11 stance?

Padraig Harrington says the fact that PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan has backtracked on his stance regarding Saudi Arabia involvement in the 9/11 attacks highlights the perilous state the organisation was in before this week's shock merger with LIV.

Players reacted with shock and a sense of betrayal at the proposed merger of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour's commercial operations with those of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), which bankrolls LIV Golf.

Amnesty International described the move as "more evidence of the onward march of Saudi sportswashing", while the 9/11 Families United, a community of family members who lost loved ones in the 11 September, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York, have also condemned the agreement.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers from 9/11 were Saudi citizens and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been accused of sportswashing its contentious record on human rights by bankrolling the LIV Golf circuit.

Last year after LIV Golf first launched, Monahan was forthright in his views regarding LIV and the Saudi association with the 2001 atrocities.

"I have two families that are close to me who lost loved ones, and so my heart goes out goes to them - and I would ask any player who has left [for LIV] or any player who has ever considered leaving, have you ever had to apologise for being a member of the PGA Tour?" he said.

Earlier this week Monahan described the PGA Tour-LIV Golf merger as, "a momentous day for [the Tour] and the game of golf".

Speaking on RTÉ’s Liveline, three-time major winner Padraig Harrington addressed the criticism.

"Jay has backtracked on that," he said. "Why? Why has he backtracked?

Jimmy Dunne, an independent director of the PGA Tour board, played a key role in the approaches to