Torrey Pines, CA …

Newly appointed PGA Tour Commissioner, Jay Monaghan believes better communication will avoid any repeat of ast year’s bizarre Bridgestone/French Open fiasco.

Monaghan attended the media centre here at the Farmers Insurance Open officially for a first time facing the media.

The new Commissioner first thanked the media stating “the media is a very important relationship with the PGA Tour and it’s a relationship that is and is going to be very important for me”.

He then entertained close to 20 questions from the assembled press from subjects such Tiger Woods return to the Tour, his thoughts about three sub-60s on the Tour in last six months and whether or not he’s spoken to Vijay Singh over the Fijian’s lawsuit with the Tour.

Newly-appointed PGA Tour Commissioner, Jay Monaghan speaking to the media for a first time as Commissioner.

And I took the opportunity to ask Monoghan, who has only been in the job since January 1st, what he could do to avoid the scenario last year when the European Tour, and no doubt feuding with the PGA Tour, chose not to award any Ryder Cup points or allocate any World Rankings points to any European born player who chose to compete in the WGC – Bridgestone Invitational that was staged opposite the French Open.

Of course, the staging of the Olympic Games put enormous pressure on the schedules of both the PGA Tour and European Tour re the staging of both events.

One of those to be seriously affected was Ireland’s Shane Lowry who was torn between defending his WGC – Bridgestone Invitational and/or competing in Versailles.

So I asked the new Commissioner how can all Tours work together better in strengthening their relationships.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monaghan recognises the efforts of Bob Steber – a 50-year Farmers Insurance Open volunteer.

“I think our relationship with the other tours, they’re our partners.  I think it’s extremely important,” he said

“We’re all charged to ‑‑ we’re all a part of growing this game at the professional level throughout the world and we partner in a number of important impactful ways, and I think the key to any partnership is communication and we’re going to continue to be good communicators.

“We will not be without our issues.  I mean, these things happen and you can look back in time.  There are a number of factors that led to the challenge that we had last year and there was no shortage of discussion about how we could rectify it, but I think it’s ‑‑ this sport is unique in the fact that it’s a global game with global tours and we take very seriously those relationships.”