Tiger Woods, PGA Tour officials meet with Saudi PIF in New York

Tiger Woods and PGA Tour officials are meeting with representatives of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in New York this week as talks continue around unifying the professional game.

ESPN reported that the meetings, which will begin on Tuesday, are scheduled to last several days.

The PIF is the funding source for LIV Golf, which wraps up its third season this month with tournaments outside Chicago and Dallas. The PIF is reportedly willing to invest $1 billion in PGA Tour Enterprises, the for-profit entity created after the Tour received a multibillion-dollar investment from Strategic Sports Group.

Woods is part of a “transaction subcommittee” of the PGA Tour Policy Board, specifically tasked with negotiating a deal with the PIF. Rory McIlroy is also among the Tour players on that subcommittee, along with John Henry of Strategic Sports Group and Joe Gorder of Valero Energy. Gorder is also a member of the PGA Tour’s board of directors.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan is also part of the group. Last month, at a news conference before the start of the season-ending Tour Championship, Monahan said both sides were “at the table” but that negotiations would take time and There was no deadline for an agreement.

“From what we hear from the fans and from the players, we’re both in a position to bring together the best players in the world. I think that’s a worthy and ambitious goal,” Monahan said in Atlanta.

The PGA Tour, PIF and DP World Tour signed a “framework agreement” on June 6, 2023, with a deadline of December 31 of that year to reach an agreement. That date passed without an agreement being reached.

PGA Tour and LIV Golf stars to face off in December in a televised match, with Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler taking on Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau in Las Vegas. McIlroy confirmed details of the event to Golf week, leading to speculation that the event was created by players and not necessarily their respective leagues.