[PHOTO: Richard Heathcote]

It’s rare that news is made on a Tuesday when groupings are released for a DP World Tour event this late in the year, but here we are.

Call it progress, call it the next step in on-going negotiations, or anything else you wish, but Yasir Al-Rumayyan and Jay Monahan are both in the field this week to play in the pro-am portion of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland. And… they’re playing together in the first round at Carnoustie.

That’s right, the two men who were the architects of the now infamous June 6 framework agreement from last year will be playing golf in the same grouping, in public, on television, on one of the most recognisable golf courses in the world.

Al-Rumayyan is in charge of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which underwrites the LIV Golf League. His partner for the week is LIV Golf member Dean Burmester. Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, is playing alongside Billy Horschel for three days. That foursome is scheduled to go off the 10th tee at Carnoustie on Thursday at 9am local time.

Competitors will play a rotation of Carnoustie, Kingsbarns and the Old Course the first three days. A cut will be made and the remaining players will compete on the Old Course during the final round. Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Tyrrell Hatton, Patrick Reed and Shane Lowry are among some of the bigger names competing.

Rory McIlroy is also in the field, playing with his father Gerry. The McIlroys will be grouped with Al-Rumayyan and Burmester during the third round at the Old Course in St Andrews. They tee off the iconic first tee on Saturday at 11:23am local time.

Al-Rumayyan, listed with H.E. ahead of his name in groupings for His Excellency, and Burmester will play with Louis Oosthuizen and South African billionaire Johann Rupert on Friday at Kingsbarns.

This is just the latest in the drama surrounding the future of men’s professional golf.

At the Tour Championship at East Lake in late August, Monahan was asked about negotiations between his tour and LIV Golf.

“We have the right people at the table with the right mindset,” he said then. “I see that in all of these conversations, and that’s both sides. That creates optimism about the future and our ability to come together. But at the same time, these conversations are complex. They’re going to take time. They have taken time, and they will continue to take time.”

McIlroy has been the face of the PGA Tour’s battle with LIV Golf for the past couple of years but changed his tune recently in the name of finding a way for the two sides to work together. He’s part of the PGA Tour’s transaction subcommittee with Tiger Woods and Adam Scott.

At the Tour Championship in late August he said, “I think if it doesn’t happen soon, then honestly, I think PIF and the Saudis are going to have to look at alternative options, right? I’d say that’s the next step in all this if something doesn’t get done.”

Then just last month it was announced that there would be a made-for-TV match in Las Vegas in December between the McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler against LIV Golf’s Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau. McIlroy downplayed the notion that the match had anything to do with a deal between the two tours.

“It’s more we wanted to do something that, I guess, all golf fans could get excited about,” McIlroy said. “You’ve got the best player in the world. You’ve got two guys in Bryson and Brooks that have won majors in the past two years. You’ve got me in there who – I haven’t done what those guys have done the past couple of years, but I’ve definitely been I feel one of the best players in the world. It’s a way to show golf fans in the world that this is what could happen or these are the possibilities going forward. I’ve been saying this for a long time. I think golf and golf fans get to see us together more than four times a year.”

The last time that it was reported that Saudi Arabia representatives and PGA Tour officials met was in New York on, of all days, September 11.

“I don’t know much about the talks that are going on,” McIlroy said. “I know that there is but that’s not something that I’m a part of.

“I think we are all in the game of golf trying to look for a solution to all this and try to move forward. So we’ll see, yeah. I know as much as you do at this point, and I’m sure news will start to trickle out here in the next few days.”