Tiger Woods will be negotiating with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and is at the center of the drama involving the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
In peace talks between the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) and the PGA Tour, Tiger Woods will be the only player participating. Since the Tour announced a shock framework agreement in June of last year, they have been in talks with PIF.
However, as of right now, the two parties have not reached a final agreement because they failed to meet their deadline of December 31, 2023. The PGA Tour has nominated five players to sit at the table, with only 15-time major champion Tiger Woods, it was disclosed on Wednesday.
Jay Monahan, the commissioner of the American circuit, Joe Gorder, the chairman of the policy board, John Henry, the principal owner of Fenway Sports Group (FSG), and Joe Ogilvie, a former player who is now an economist, will also participate in negotiations.
Woods serves as a player director on the Tour’s policy board; Rory McIlroy, his business partner and close friend, held this position until last November. Last winter, McIlroy made the decision to step down from the board after becoming entangled in the off-course politics between the Tour and LIV.
After six months, McIlroy has indicated that he is interested in returning. However, at this week’s Wells Fargo Championship, it was made clear that his colleagues, including Woods, decided against trying to oust the four-time major winner. Golf Digest claims that because of Woods and McIlroy’s divergent opinions about the status of professional golf today, their relationship has “soured.”
Webb Simpson, Jordan Spieth, and Patrick were reportedly against the idea of the Northern Irishman returning as a player director. McIlroy addressed his own rejection from his teammates. “Many discussions have taken place,” the Northern Irishman stated this week.
It partially reminded me of the reasons I declined to serve on the board! I believe it became quite messy and complex, and given how it unfolded, I believe some scar tissue and old wounds from earlier events were exposed. For whatever reason, there was a portion of the board members who might not have been comfortable with me returning.
“If there are individuals on there who feel uncomfortable with me returning, I believe that would be the best course of action. The American has since chosen to stay in his position, despite Simpson’s original plan, as revealed by the Guardian in April, to resign from his position to allow McIlroy to return.
McIlroy continued, “I think [Webb] has reached a point where he feels comfortable doing that and I just sort of keep doing what I’m doing.” “I raised my hand to offer assistance, and while I wouldn’t say it was turned down, there was a difficult procedure I had to go through before I could return. We’ll all move on and that’s okay. No hard feelings.”
