PHOENIX — PGA Tour officials met with President Donald Trump on Tuesday, the tour said, in its first public acknowledgement of his role in potentially clearing the way for the tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund to strike a completed deal to ultimately reunify the men’s professional game.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said he met with President Donald Trump at the White House this week as the tour moves closer to finalizing a long-sought investment deal with the Saudi Arabian backers of rival LIV Golf.

To the dismal list of indignities visited upon men’s professional golf — profound division, cutthroat rancor, naked greed, rampant entitlement — we can add brazen obsequiousness, evidenced by Thursday’s statement in which PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and player-directors Adam Scott and Tiger Woods had to fluff Mango Mussolini’s ego to help secure government approval for a deal to reunify the sport.