Close-Lipped Tiger Woods Refuses to Spare LIV Merger Details After Masters Collapse: ‘Don’t Know if We’re Closer But..’

Tiger Woods doesn’t have any clear idea if an agreement between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf is close. After ending his Masters bid at 16-over through four rounds, Woods said, “I don’t know if we’re closer, but certainly we’re headed in the right direction.” Notably, the five-time Masters champion spearheaded a meeting with the PIF Chief, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, last month. 

The Bahamas meeting was also the first time the sitting PGA Tour Policy Board members met with the man behind LIV Golf. Reportedly, all the player directors and the PGA Tour commissioner, Jay Monahan, were present at the rendezvous. After the Albany meet, a PGA Tour player-director admitted that Yasir Al-Rumayyan came with his visions for the future of professional golf. However, the landscape he painted was on a different terrain than what the Tour had in mind. 

Despite that, Tiger Woods said the meeting was ‘positive, and that’s the most important part. “That was a very positive meeting, and I think both sides came away from the meeting feeling positive,” the veteran golfer said in the post-round address to the media. Woods carded his worst major round on the moving day. The veteran carded 10-over 82 in a hellish round, picking up eight bogeys and two double-bogeys. 

The PGA Tour and the PIF have been locked in talks since last June. The original deadline of December 31 was extended without setting a new one. In between, Jay Monahan has secured a $3 billion investment from Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of billionaire sports team owners headed by Fenway Sports Group. 

Tiger Woods has been appointed as the vice president of the newly formed for-profit PGA Tour Enterprises, headed by Monahan himself. Although there seemed to be a lull in merger activities after SSG’s involvement, it received a boost after the Albany meeting. Jay Monahan, in a memo to players, revealed that the finer details can’t be disclosed at the moment. Woods, too, followed the same lines, even though he took the front seat a month ago. 

A very engaged Tiger Woods headed the discussion 

Allegedly, Tiger Woods played golf with the PIF Governor in his Albany resort, Webb Simpson, a sitting Tour Policy board member said, that the veteran golfer “was very engaged.” “Outside of our meeting he’s been super engaged along the way. He’s a great leader and I really think he’s taken the position of our leader and we rely on him a lot,” Sports Illustrated quoted him as saying. Simpson also said that Yasir Al-Rumayyan was very forthright in admitting that growing the game globally was his key plan. 

Both Yasir Al-Rumayyan and Greg Norman, the LIV Golf CEO, traded with caution after SSG’s involvement was announced. Monahan said that the door for PIF to be a part of the PGA Tour Enterprises remains open. Norman, and Al-Rumayyan, sounded hopeful that SSG’s involvement is a step in the right direction for all the parties involved.