Business of Sport Tiger Woods joins LIV Golf-PGA Tour merger talks By Gavin Gibbon September 11, 2024, 10:54 AM Darren Lee/Cal Sport Media/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect Tiger Woods is on the PGA Tour policy board 'transaction subcommittee' whose job it is to broker a deal with PIF, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund Negotiations to try to unite golf New York meeting with PIF Talks expected to last ‘multiple days’ Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is reported to be due to meet Tiger Woods and officials from the PGA Tour this week in New York as negotiations continue to bring the fractured sport of golf together under one umbrella. The PIF-sponsored LIV Golf series, which this month completes its third season, turned the sport on its head. The rebel competition, based on 54-hole events instead of the traditional 72-hole format, with no cuts, lured many of the game’s greatest players with a reduced calendar of events, a team format and huge prize pots. NewsletterGet the Best of AGBI delivered straight to your inbox every week The first LIV Golf event boasted $25 million in prize money. The American golfer Dustin Johnson, the former world number one, claimed the inaugural tour championship title in 2022, pocketing prize money of $18 million. After a bitter row and threats of legal action from both sides, a peace deal was brokered in June last year between the PGA Tour, PIF and DP World Tour, formerly the European Tour. As part of this, PIF reportedly promised to invest $1 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises, a for-profit company established after the tour received a $3 billion dollar investment from Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of American sports team owners and investors led by Fenway Sports Group. It promised to find an agreement by the end of 2023, although that deadline passed without a resolution. Saudi sports push ‘winning global audiences’ LIV Golf players ineligible for PGA Tour membership renewal LIV Golf brokers peace deal with global rivals Woods is part of a PGA Tour policy board “transaction subcommittee” whose job it is to broker a deal with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Talks started on Tuesday this week, according to a report by ESPN, and were expected to last “multiple days”. Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, who is also part of the board, said last month: “You look at where we are right now, we’re in regular dialogue, we have the right people at the table with the right mindset. “I see that in all these conversations on both sides, that creates optimism about the future and our ability to come together. At the same time, these conversations are complex, they’re going to take time.” PIF, LIV Golf and Tiger Woods have been approached for comment.
