Tiger Woods and his fellow player directors have met with the chairman of LIV Golf, according to PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.
Tiger Woods and his fellow player directors met in the Bahamas with PIF governor and LIV Golf chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan in a “constructive” manner, according to PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.
48-year-old Woods took his private jet into Nassau after the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.
The Albany resort, where Woods frequently parks his yacht Privacy, was the meeting place for the 15-time major champion and his fellow player directors with Al-Rumayyan.
Dan Rapaport of Barstool Sports claims that prior to their meeting, Woods and Al-Rumayyan went golfing together.
The governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which provides funding for the LIV Golf League, is Al-Rumayyan.
Significant doubts have been raised in recent months regarding the Tour and PIF’s ability to reach a peace agreement.
Jon Rahm was acquired by LIV concurrently with the established tour beginning to attract interest from investors in the United States.
Some well-known players, including Jordan Spieth, suggested it might not be necessary to reach an agreement with the PIF after the PGA Tour announced a $3 billion investment deal with Strategic Sports Group.
It’s also believed that Woods is dubious about possible Saudi funding for PGA Tour Enterprises.
However, a number of players acknowledged over the weekend that they at the very least desired to hear Al-Rumayyan out.
According to world no. 2 Rory McIlroy, the meeting ought to have taken place “months ago.”
Additionally, he seemed to rekindle his rivalry with Greg Norman by implying that Al-Rumayyan has been wronged by the two-time Open champion and LIV.
According to a memo that Ryan French, aka @acaseofthegolf, obtained on X from Monahan and distributed to PGA Tour members, the meeting was successful.
Naturally, though, the Tour is keeping the specifics of the meeting confidential.
He wrote, “As you may know, I met with Yasir Al-Rummayan, governor of the PIF, today with your PGA Tour Enterprises player directors.”
“The entire discussion was fruitful and constitutes a significant step in our due diligence procedure when choosing possible investors for PGA Tour Enterprises.
This is similar to the strategy we used to assess an investment offer from the Strategic Sports Group earlier this year.
“Yasir had the opportunity to introduce himself to our player directors during the meeting and discuss his goals, priorities, and reasons for making an investment in professional golf.
We will do our best to keep you informed as we proceed with these discussions with the PIF, but please be aware that we must uphold our position that we will not be conducting negotiations in public.
In light of this, we will not be making any more statements to the media at this time.
If you have any more questions, don’t hesitate to contact me directly or the Korn Ferry player relations team.
“Thank you,
“Jay.”
What is the likely outcome of this meeting?
Naturally, no one can predict the future, but it wouldn’t be illogical to assume that the PGA Tour wishes to maintain its dominance and the PIF merely wants a place at the top table in men’s professional golf.
After this is decided upon, both sides can focus on figuring out how to get the top players in the world back together in one location.
Even though Scottie Scheffler won a stunning match last week at TPC Sawgrass, he did so without the presence of some of the best players in the world.
Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson, and Bryson DeChambeau are a few of them.
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