❚ PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, below, reflects on job after first year
Love says PGA Tour commissioner’s strength is ‘he doesn’t have a weakness’
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Spend any length of time with the PGA Tour commissioner, whether hitting golf balls next to him on the range, grabbing a bite to eat or sitting for a formal interview, and one quickly realizes the last thing Jay Monahan wants to talk about is Jay Monahan.
He’d rather take you to his beloved Boston with his words. Or talk on and on about the beauty of golf. Or chat about his team at PGA Tour headquarters just down the road from the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, home to this week’s Players Championship, the organization’s flagship event.
He learns from the past and eyes the future and speaks easily about the Tour’s ongoing commitment to connect with and broaden its fan base, the move next year of The Players from May back to March and the charitable responsibility the Tour has around the world.
“Honestly, I don’t think about me and my job but I think about what we are doing,” Monahan said. “I feel like the product is our players — how they perform, how they relate to each other, how they relate to the fans. And our financial contributions are significant. We are part of the fabric of so many communities, which brings a whole level of responsibility and energy. We are in a good place with all of that.”
While Monahan, a history major, would rather talk about his hero, John F. Kennedy, or how Bucky Dent broke his heart but not his loyalty to the Red Sox, others enjoy talking about the man who became the PGA Tour’s fourth commissioner on Jan. 1, 2017.
Monahan replaced Tim Finchem, who retired after a stalwart 22 years in which the Tour’s purses grew from $56.4 million to $338.8 million and the FedExCup Playoffs, World Golf Champi- onships events and PGA Tour affiliates in Canada, Latin America and China were added.
A tough act to follow, in other words, but Finchem will be the first to tell you Monahan was the right man for the job of overseeing a multibillion-dollar operation. Others will, too.
“Tim paid Jay a very high compliment one time when he said to me, ‘You know, I don’t really want to retire, but Jay is so ready. I need to get out of his way,’ ” said Davis Love III, one of four players on the Tour’s policy board. “That’s the highest of compliments.
“I was worried about Tim leaving. But I’m very impressed by Jay. He’s put together a great team. He came from a tournament background so he understands the structure that’s out there 50 weeks a year. He understands all aspects of the business. He knows how to run a team. He understands what it means to be part of a team. His strength is he doesn’t have a weakness.”
Monahan, who turned 47 Monday, has a Type-A personality and an easygoing manner that connects with one and all, be it a player and his family, a caddie, an equipment rep, a volunteer. He has an uncanny ability to remember names and make you feel like he’s known you for years.
He’s been a part of many teams — high school golf teams, high school and college hockey squads, the group that reshaped Fenway Park (he received a World Series ring in 2007 when the Red Sox won the title). He was the tournament director of the Deutsche Bank Championship and The Players before steadily working his way up the Tour’s ladder to become deputy commissioner in 2014, with chief operating officer added to his title in 2016.
He was a natural for the job as golf is in his DNA — his grandfather played in the 1947 U.S. Amateur, while his father won the 1966 New England Collegiate Golf Association Championship and 35 years later the New England Senior Amateur. And he’s as comfortable on the first tee (he carries a 4.7 index) as he is in the boardroom.
“There are so many things I love about golf,” he said. “Its meritocracy — nothing is given, everything is earned. The values of the game — honor, integrity, respect, sportsmanship.”
Monahan works on his game every week and has played in a few pro-ams, from the Genesis Open to the RBC Heritage, where he stays connected with players and tournament staff but also with CEOs and other movers and shakers in the business world.
Since taking over, Monahan and his team have secured many sponsorship extensions, and there are now nine tournaments on board for at least 10 years (in 2013 there were zero). In addition, a 10-year extension was secured for the lucrative FedExCup. And recently, the Colonial in Texas, one of the most revered and historic Tour events, was saved when officials secured sponsorship through 2022 from Charles Schwab & Co.
“He’s on a roll,” Love said of Monahan.
Monahan will tell you his team is on a roll. And he knows the team needs to keep rolling along to keep up with the changing times, from the schedule to the media landscape to the needs of his players and spectators.
“There are challenges ahead, but I look at them as opportunities,” Monahan said. “We are open to change. We have a fan-first mentality, and there are a lot of things we are doing to address that. We have a great corps of fans, but we have to diversify off that, and we have the players and the stories to do that.
“If you grow your fan base, that’s a healthy place to get to.”
And Monahan, and his team, are confident about getting there.