Tiger Woods will be the ONLY player to join PGA talks with Saudi PIF as five-man negotiating team is revealed
Tiger Woods will be the only player on the five-man team involved in negotiations with the Public Investment Fund as the PGA Tour tries to strike a deal with LIV Golf’s Saudi backers.
Woods joined the PGA Tour board in August 2023, becoming the sixth player director and the only one whose term on the board knows no bounds.
According to the tour, Woods will serve on the “transactions subcommittee” on the PGA Tour Enterprises board. The subcommittee will conduct day-to-day discussions as PIF strives to become a minority investor.
Also on the subcommittee are PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, chairman Joe Gorder, John W. Henry of Fenway Sports Group and Joe Ogilvie, a former tour player who was appointed director liaison in March.
The subcommittee reports back to the full board.
Tiger Woods will be the only player involved in the negotiations with the Public Investment Fund
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan (pictured) will also be part of the subcommittee
The developments capped off a day that began with Rory McIlroy loses the inside track when he gets back on the board as Webb Simpson’s replacement when board members opposed his return.
“I think there was a segment of people on the board that maybe didn’t like me coming back for some reason,” McIlroy said at the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina, which featured a $20 signature event million is played.
Simpson had offered to resign, but only if McIlroy replaced him. When a player director resigns, the other players on the board must unanimously agree on a successor. McIlroy resigned from the board in Novemberand the players chose Jordan Spieth to replace him.
The seven players – Woods, Spieth, Simpson, Ogilvie, Patrick Cantlay, Adam Scott and Peter Malnati – sit on the boards of the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Enterprises, the commercial entity that agreed to a deal with Strategic Sports Group as a minority investor.
That deal included an investment of $1.5 billion, which could be as much as $3 billion.
McIlroy was willing to return, believing he could help resolve the divisions in the golf world that have left behind some of the best players on two tours. McIlroy sees reunification in some form as the ultimate goal and rubbed players the wrong way when he suggested earlier this year that LIV players would return without punishment.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan is governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund
“Today’s news is in no way a commentary on Rory’s important perspective and influence,” Monahan said in a statement. “It is simply a matter of sticking to our board process, whereby a tour player becomes a board member.
“The fact that Webb will remain a member of the PGA Tour Enterprises policy and board until the end of his term provides the continuity needed at this crucial time,” he said. “We are making progress in our negotiations with the PIF.”
McIlroy will certainly continue to be involved in an unofficial capacity based on his two years of experience on the board and his voice in the game. He was the only European tour member on the PGA Tour board, and McIlroy built relationships on several continents during his career.
He had said on one British Football Podcast early this year that he met the PIF Governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai at the end of 2022 and that he returned home and encouraged the tour board to meet him.
Rory McIlroy will not return to PGA Tour board after ‘old wounds’ reopened in ‘messy’ talks
The framework agreement between the PGA Tour, the European Tour and PIF was announced on June 6, with a deadline for completion by the end of 2023. Negotiations continue with little progress.
Woods was among the player directors who went to the Bahamas on March 18 – Monahan and Henry were also present – to meet with Al-Rumayyan.
Woods said of that meeting during the Masters: “I don’t know if we’re any closer, but we’re definitely going in the right direction. That was a very positive meeting, and I think both parties left the meeting with a positive feeling.”
Gorder is the chairman and CEO of Valero, the title sponsor of the Texas Open. He has been named the inaugural chairman of the board of PGA Tour Enterprises.