Jay Monahan's Top Priorities As He Returns To Work - Can He Keep His Job?

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan returns to work after a dealing with illness with plenty of items stacked up in his in-tray - with top of his to-do list being to make sure he keeps his job!

While everyone wishes Monahan well after his illness, he could not have left at a worse time as his departure came just after the shock announcement of a deal made with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF).

Not long after shaking hands with PIF boss Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Monahan had a room full of angry PGA Tour players firing questions at him - with some calling for him to resign.

Tempers have cooled slightly, but as more details of the framework agreement with the PIF have emerged, Monahan has still been missing and communication with players has not been what they have wanted.

So Monahan has plenty of work to do and it will not be a case of easing back into the job by any stretch.

Top of Jay Monahan's to-do list - keep his job

Restoring trust between players and PGA Tour management is the biggest priority for Monahan as he returns to work - as if the tension grows it could well see him out of a job.

Players have continued to voice their frustration over the huge U-turn PGA Tour leaders performed when joining forces with the PIF.

Although he backed him, Rory McIlroy feels like a sacrificial lamb, while Jordan Spieth says the players feel like they're being kept in the dark with a lack of communication over the details. 

Xander Schauffele perhaps put it best when he said Monahan would have "a lot of tough questions to answer" when he returns with him among a number of players who had "a lot less" trust in the commissioner.

"The guy who was supposed to be there for us, wasn't," Schauffele put it bluntly. 

"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."

"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."

With Hunter Mahan posting on social media that "players are done with him" Monahan looks like facing a frosty reception upon his return - and just how he deals with the angry PGA Tour membership could decide whether he keeps his job or not.

What will the final PGA Tour-PIF deal look like?

Just what the future of men's professional golf looks like is still anyone's guess, as the PIF deal came out of the blue with the only thing of any real substance being that both parties would drop their legal proceedings against the other.

The deal is also still under scrutiny from the US Justice Department and US Senate and with precious few details nailed down there's still plenty of work to do to settle on what the future of the game will look like.

Pressure from the US Justice Department has already been enough to drop the 'no poaching' clause of the framework deal - one of the few actual written down, so that's not the best start!

But from a distance it just seems that it happened in such as rush that even Monahan and Al-Ruamayyan, the architects of golf's new future, don't actually have the details in their minds as yet.

What will happen to LIV Golf is a huge point of contention - it looks like it's staying for now but in what form will it take place in the future?

Proposals put forward to see Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy as future captains were flatly rejected by McIlroy - who said he'd rather retire than play LIV - so that one seems a definite non-starter.

Of more urgency is probably finding a mechanism for LIV players who want to return to PGA Tour action - will they face sanctions, financial or otherwise? And what about vice-versa, will other PGA Tour pros be able to go and fill their boots with LIV millions for a few 54-hole events?

It's a head-scratching situation golf finds itself in, and having one of only two men who could really influence the future having an illness absence and coming back to more questions than answers is far from ideal.

So, welcome back to work Jay, and good luck sorting this out!