Jay Monahan gets one-up on LIV Golf chief as merger rivals go head-to-head

Jay Monahan and Yasir Al-Rumayyan put their tour differences aside on Thursday, teeing it up alongside each other at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland

Jay Monahan came out on top against his LIV Golf rival Yasir Al-Rumayyan after the two golf chiefs played alongside each other in round one of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

The two men at the centre of golf's off-course politics were brought together on it in Scotland on Thursday, having been paired together in the Pro-Am event on the DP World Tour. Monahan and Al-Rumayyan are two of the men sat at the top of the negotiation table, with the PGA Tour looking to end their dispute with LIV via a peace deal with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF).

Whilst the two sides have been looking to build bridges over the past 15 months, PGA Tour commissioner, Monahan was able to get one up on his Saudi counterpart after the pair showed off their golfing ability on Thursday.

As worked out by Bunkered, if Monahan and Al-Rumayyan's hole-by-hole team scores were put against each other in the a matchplay format, it would have been the PGA Tour chief that came out on top. Whilst things were neck-and-neck in the early stages, Monahan and his partner Billy Horschel enjoyed a much stronger finish.

In fact, the late showing down the stretch would have seen the PGA Tour pair take a 3&1 victory over Al-Rumayyan and LIV's Dean Burmester, without the need for a final hole. The eyes of the golfing world were on the Monahan-Al-Rumayyan pairing on Thursday, in what was a bold move from tournament organisers.

One man who welcomed the grouping was Rory McIlroy, who played alongside his dad, Gerry as well as Louis Oosthuizen and tournament chief, Johann Rupert in the fourball behind. "I think it's a great thing and good sign that Jay and Yasir are going to play together," claimed McIlroy.

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"And obviously you've got quite a big contingent over from LIV that are playing in this event. I think what Johann Rupert the man who runs this event is trying to do is just bring the golf world back together a little bit. If we need to be forced together in some way, he's trying to do that.

"I think it will be good. It's certainly a step in the right direction." It remains to be seen how much, if any, of the on-course chat centred around the current negotiations between the two sides. Frustration within the game has grown in recent months, with a deal still yet to be finalised, almost a year-and-a-half on from the initial announcement.

McIlroy however called for patience. "Maybe it's going too slow for the people that follow golf," he added. "In the business world, deals of this size take time. You are talking about billions of dollars changing hands, different jurisdictions. I think we'll know a lot more by year's end. We're in October so hopefully three months to get something done."