PGA Tour players have lost faith in commissioner Jay Monahan

Many of the PGA Tour's elite turned on Jay Monahan after the league commissioner blindsided players by agreeing to a secret merger with LIV Golf and the DP World Tour last summer. Not even Rory McIlroy, the spokesperson for the PGA Tour and main condemner of LIV, knew about the deal before the official announcement in June. 

Nine months later, PGA Tour stars still have trouble trusting Monahan.

"Trust is something that’s pretty tender, so words are words, and I would say in my book [Monahan’s] got a long way to go," World No. 6 Xander Schauffele said this week ahead of the Players Championship, per Golf.com. "He could be the guy, but in my book, he’s got a long way to go to gain the trust of the membership."

This isn't the first time Schauffele has spoken out against Monahan, and he wasn't the only player at TPC Sawgrass to bash the conniving commissioner. World No. 4 Viktor Hovland was blunter with his assessment. 

"There were some things that were said that have been walked back on and then things have been very contradictory," Hovland told reporters this week, per Sports Illustrated. "As a leader of an organization, I will want a person like that to take some ownership and say, hey, we made a couple of mistakes, but this is how we’re going to rectify it, instead of kind of sweeping it under the rug, which I felt like has been done to a certain degree.

"I don’t mind people making mistakes. We all make mistakes. But I think when you make a mistake you got to own up to it and say, 'Hey, we’re trying to do better here, and this is how we’re going to do it.'"

These comments came shortly after Monahan took the podium in the TPC Sawgrass media room and said a whole lot of nothing in his 57 minutes behind the microphone. Cliche affirmations such as "I've gotten stronger as a leader" and "We're just trying to get better every single day" spilled out of his mouth like the Saudi billions spilling into golfers' pockets. 

It's been almost a year, and Monahan still hasn't won back the PGA Tour brass he betrayed last summer. His time as PGA Tour commissioner must be ticking.