'I Would Love To See A Unified Game' - PGA Tour Board Member Opens Up About Merger

Peter Malnati has been one of the six Player Directors on the PGA Tour Policy Board since 2023, with the American not afraid to speak his mind when it comes to the world of professional golf.

Speaking at The Players Championship on Saturday, following a six-under-par round of 66, Malnati spoke at great length about the PGA Tour's ongoing negotiations with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.

One of the points the 36-year-old brought up surrounded a potential meeting of PGA Tour players and PIF's Governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, with Malnati claiming "I don't even think our membership knows anything about a meeting on Monday yet", despite Jordan Spieth stating on Friday that: "We (a group of PGA Tour players) are being encouraged to potentially meet with them at some point."

Speaking at TPC Sawgrass, Malnati stated: "I don't know the details of it. Yeah, I just, I think, when I do know details, I would rather tell our membership first, but I, honestly, like, I think at this point I probably should have more details because, yeah, there may be a meeting, but I don't even know; I don't know where it is or how I'm getting there. I would like to know that information, and I would like to then tell the membership about it before I talk about it."

The American was then asked about the state of the game, with Malnati giving yet another lengthy answer. "I think something needs to happen for our sport. I would love to see a unified game where we can -- it doesn't mean that -- I want there to be different tours where guys can play, I want that, but I want to see a unified game where, when we have events like The Players Championship, that we have all the best players in the world and we're proud to call 'em PGA Tour members. That's what I want. I don't know how we get there, but that's what I want."

On Tuesday, PGA Tour Commissioner, Jay Monahan, spoke about how talks with the PIF are “accelerating”, but the words of the Commissioner did not go down well with some PGA Tour players. Xander Schauffele, who leads The Players Championship going into the final round, claimed: "I mean, you know what I've said in the past on how I feel about it. Trust is something that's pretty tender, so words are words, and I would say in my book he's got a long way to go. He could be the guy, but in my book, he's got a long way to go to gain the trust of the membership."

When the merger news was announced, one of the main reactions was how Tour members were kept in the dark about the decision. Currently, not much information has been released in regards to the merger, with Malnati asked about the PIF and what they want going forward.

"Well, that's, I mean, that is why our Commissioner has been saying for months that the next step is to have Yasir meet with players of the PGA Tour. He's been saying that for months. There's been, obviously, all sorts of challenges to making that happen. But, no, of course, that's essential," stated Malnati.

"That's absolutely essential, because, at its core, like, players have no business running the PGA Tour, but this is a member, this is a members' organization. Like, we should have input in the direction it goes. For something, some of these monumental changes that are bound to happen as we stand up this for profit company and take on investment, whether it's from the private sector here or the whatever it is, like, players should have involvement and knowledge of that, and even input. Like, players do not need to be running this organization, but we certainly, yeah, we certainly should be a part of decisions like that. 

"I think we've almost swung the pendulum too far in the other direction now after what happened on June 6th, where players and the whole organization were left in the dark, the pendulum has swung too far to where players are probably feeling like they have, you know, more input than we should. So I think, as it comes back to sort of neutral, I think we're going to land in a really sweet spot where we have the leadership of the Tour doing what they should, which they are, and we have a lot of transparency where the players know what's going on and are able to give their input."