As Tiger Woods made his return to the PGA Tour at his Genesis Invitational, he spoke to reporters Wednesday afternoon in Los Angeles about the state of the tour, specifically whether he believes negotiations with the Saudi Public Investment Fund should continue.
Simply put, Woods is in favor of a merger however it may happen.
“Ultimately, we would like to have PIF be a part of our tour and a part of our product,” Woods said at Riviera Country Club, according to Yahoo Sports.
“Financially, we don’t right now, and the money that they have come to the table with and what we initially had agreed to in the framework agreement, those are all the same numbers. Anything beyond this is going to be obviously over and above.
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“We’re in a position right now [where] hopefully we can make our product better in the short term and long term.”
The PGA Tour announced recently that Strategic Sports Group was investing up to $3 billion to launch PGA Tour Enterprises. It’s a deal that would allow players equity in the company and to compete with the rival LIV Golf tour.
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However, Woods isn’t the only player who believes unification would benefit everyone in the game of golf. Jordan Spieth, a fellow board member with Woods, said it would be a “positive thing” if the merger were to go through, though it isn’t necessarily needed now after the SSG investment.
Despite the investment, negotiations are still ongoing.
“At the end of the day, we’re trying to provide the best entertainment. And, in order to do that, you have to have the best players play,” Woods explained.
“We want to have the history, involve the history and the traditions of the history of our tour and have the pathways, accessibility, have all of the intangibles that have made the PGA Tour what it is right now and what has been, and hopefully what it will continue to be even better.
“How do we do that? That’s the whole idea of why we have a group like SSG to provide us with information and help and trying to create the best tour we could possibly have.”
Both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf wanted to find common ground and solidify the merger by the end of 2023, but that never came to fruition.
And while the disapproval in those who left the tour for LIV Golf has lessened, there are some, like world No. 1-ranked golfer Scottie Scheffler, who believe there should be some sort of discipline if the merger goes through.
Others like Rory McIlroy, however, have let their guards down and are willing to open their arms again for a merger.
“We’re looking into all the different models for pathways back,” Woods said. “What that looks like, what the impact is for the players who have stayed and who have not left and how we make our product better going forward, there is no answer to that right now. We’re looking at very different, varying degrees of ideas, and what that looks like in the short term we don’t know. We don’t even know in the longer term what that looks like.”
Woods is just personally hoping to remain healthy and stay on the course. It starts at the Genesis Invitational this week.
Where Woods and the game of golf go from there is still up in the air.
