PGA chief accepts 'hypocrite' tag as players call for resignation after LIV Golf merger

PGA Tour chief Jay Monahan said he understood being branded a "hypocrite" after brokering the stunning merger with LIV Golf.

Monahan was accused of hypocrisy after announcing that the PGA Tour and DP World Tour had agreed a tie-up with the Saudi-backed LIV circuit in a bid to end golf's civil war.

The PGA Tour chief – who has railed against LIV since its inception while simultaneously lobbying star tour players to resist huge paydays to join the circuit – attended a tense meeting with players at the Canadian Open in Toronto on Tuesday, with some calling for his resignation.

In a media conference call later Tuesday, Monahan acknowledged that criticism directed at him was inevitable.

"I recognise everything that I've said in the past and my prior positions," said Monahan, who will be the chief executive of the new tour.

"I recognise that people are going to call me a hypocrite."

PGA Tour winner Johnson Wagner told Golf Channel that there was plenty of anger in the room after Monahan came to a merger agreement with LIV Golf and the Saudi Public Investment Fund without consulting with the players.

"It was contentious," Wagner said. "There were many moments where certain players were calling for new leadership of the PGA Tour and even got a couple standing ovations.

"I think the most powerful moment was when a player quoted commissioner Monahan from the 3M [Open] in Minnesota last year when he said, ‘As long as I'm commissioner of the PGA Tour, no player that took LIV money will ever play the PGA Tour again.' It just seems like a lot of backtracking."

Johnson Wagner. AFP

Monahan, 53, insisted his staunch defence of the PGA Tour over the past year was in good faith, but that "circumstances do change."

"Anytime I said