PGA Tour has begun its preparations to make sure they give a tough fight to LIV Golf. Ahead of the BMW Championship, a player meeting was held among the PGA Tour players to determine the future of the 92-year-old Tour. Tiger Woods led the meeting, taking responsibility for all the big decisions. We take a deeper look at the meeting as more inputs from the meeting have been made public.
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Previously, it was revealed that two appeals were set by the players given to the PGA Tour commissioner, Jay Monahan. The first was to make sure the best players face each other more often. Secondly, to make sure the PGA Tour stars don’t face the LIV golfers in any event apart from the Majors.
However, with the help of famous golf journalist Alan Shipnuck, more details from the meeting were revealed. As per the source, Woods and fellow golfers have proposed to make a Tour within a Tour.
What did Tiger Woods and fellow golfers decide?
According to the reports, Woods and the 15 PGA Tour golfers gathered to discuss creating a tour within the tour. It would consist of 18 no-cut competitions with the top 60 players vying for $20 million in prize money.
In the newly compressed January-August calendar, this almost equates to two WGCs every month. With less talented players being forced to compete in lower-wattage tournaments for far less money, such a setup would formalize the divide between the Tour’s haves and have-mores.
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Similar format to its rival Tour, some of the LIV Golf players had a satirical response to their former Tour for copying the format of the lucrative series. One of the unnamed Saudi-funded Tour players said, “The best part is the lower-tier guys [on Tour] don’t even know what is coming.” As for the LIV’s lower-level athletes, some of them will now be moved to the Asian Tour which has been revitalized by a $400 million Saudi investment.
Does Woods support the decision?
Many elite players have confidence in the self-made billionaire. Last month at Adare Manor, at JP McManus’s pro-am event, Woods first assembled a select group of golfers to talk about changing the PGA Tour. Tiger and Rory McIlroy are said to support the Tour’s decision to renounce its nonprofit status, which would require the Tour to pay taxes (estimates range from $20 million to $50 million annually). This topic of discussion came up at the most recent meeting.
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For a 46-year-old whose playing days are undoubtedly numbered, Woods’ new position as an activist is an intriguing move. Since he was a young child, when he posted a list of Jack Nicklaus’s professional accomplishments above his bed, he has been an amateur golf historian.
Tiger is very concerned about leaving a lasting legacy. He is also aware that a severely weakened PGA Tour does not add to his mythology. Woods is a ruthless businessman as well, though. His decision to reject a 9-figure deal with LIV Golf, in itself speaks volumes.
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What do you think of the new proposed format? Let us know in the comments section below!
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