Jay Monahan meeting with PGA Tour golfers gets 'heated' - ESPN

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan was called a hypocrite in a heated meeting with players at Oakdale Golf and Country Club in Toronto on Tuesday, hours after the tour announced that it was forming a partnership with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and the DP World Tour.

Australian golfer Geoff Ogilvy told reporters that a player called Monahan a hypocrite during the meeting at the site of this week's RBC Canadian Open, which lasted for more than an hour.

«It was mentioned, yeah, and he took it,» Ogilvy said. «He said, 'Yeah.' He took it for sure.»

In a news conference with reporters later, Monahan said he realizes he might be criticized for agreeing to form a new entity with Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund after he had questioned the source of the LIV Golf League in the past.

«I recognize everything that I've said in the past and my prior positions. I recognize that people are going to call me a hypocrite,» Monahan said. «Anytime I said anything, I said it with the information that I had at that moment, and I said it based on someone that's trying to compete for the PGA Tour and our players. I accept those criticisms, but circumstances do change. I think that in looking at the big picture and looking at it this way, that's what got us to this point.»

At last year's RBC Canadian Open, Monahan was asked about the Saudi Arabian monarchy's connections to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks during an interview with CBS Sports.

«I think you'd have to be living under a rock not to know there are significant implications,» Monahan said at the time. «I would ask any player who has left or any player who would consider leaving, 'Have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?'»

Monahan on Tuesday said that the