'He Has A Lot Of Tough Questions To Answer' - Schauffele Says He's Lost Trust In Monahan

Jay Monahan may have been away dealing with a health issue, but he will not get an easy ride as he returns to work with Xander Schauffele saying he's not alone in having lost trust in the PGA Tour commissioner.

Monahan's huge U-turn in doing a deal with Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) boss Yasir Al-Rumayyan took the entire PGA Tour playing membership by surprise, and there's seemingly been little communication since.

The 53-year-old will be back at work on July 17th after his health improved, but he'll have some talking to do when he returns to help calm angry PGA Tour players who feel they have been left in the dark.

Among those is Schauffele, the defending champion at the Scottish Open this week, who says Monahan will have some big questions to answer. 

"We got a memo that he'll be back on the 17th. If you want to call it one of the rockier times on Tour, the guy was supposed to be there for us, wasn't," said Schauffele.

"Obviously he had some health issues. I'm glad that he said he's feeling much better. But yeah, I'd say he has a lot of tough questions to answer in his return, and yeah, I don't trust people easily.

"He had my trust and he has a lot less of it now. So I don't stand alone when I say that. He'll just have to answer our questions when he comes back."

Documents released alongside a US Senate hearing into the potential deal had some big revelations, including proposals to have Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy captain LIV Golf teams.

Schauffele has only glanced at the 276-page document and seen bits of the hearing but insists he "will do my homework" when trying to decipher what it all means for the players. 

Players call for transparency

As Jordan Spieth said, the players just feel left out of things, so Schauffele wants them to stand together to try and get more transparency from those brokering this deal.

"Most of the players on the PGA Tour are together and sort of want to be informed and want to have a say in sort of what happens," Schauffele added. 

"Right now, with this hearing and everything that's going on, these are just sort of steps in the process to getting, I guess, not what we want but more transparency and sort of getting a seat at the table. It's a for-members organisation and that's what it should be.

"There isn't much communication right now and things are a little bit unsettling and there is a bit of a divide between management and the players.

"My hope is that a positive thing coming from that will be more communication, more transparency, and sort of understanding which direction the Tour will go with us being sort of the ambassadors of it.

"I think in any tough situation, something good will happen. It may not seem like it when you're stuck in, knee-deep in some of that. 

"But for the most part, I do expect some good things to come from everything that's happened, and hopefully it's some of our players getting more of that transparency that we have been asking for for quite some time."