Tiger expects golf to 'heal quickly' when PGA TOUR gets deal with Saudis
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Tiger Woods expects the fractured landscape of golf to “heal quickly” when the PGA Tour and the Saudi backers of rival LIV Golf reach an agreement that appears to be imminent.
Woods is the only player on the PGA Tour board without term limits and has been active in negotiations between PGA Tour Enterprises and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.
He was scheduled to join Commissioner Jay Monahan and Adam Scott for a Feb. 4 meeting with President Donald Trump. Woods flew home to Florida when his mother died unexpectedly.
“I think that things are going to heal quickly," Woods said Sunday in the CBS booth at the Genesis Invitational, where he is the tournament host.
“We’re going to get this game going in the right direction,” he said. “It’s been heading in the wrong direction for a number of years and the fans want all of us to play together, all the top players playing together and we’re going to make that happen.”
He described the negotiations as being in a “very positive place right now.” He also said another meeting was scheduled, though he did not say with whom. The transaction subcommittee involved in the PIF talks is scheduled to meet next week.
PIF, the financial muscle behind LIV Golf that has lured several top names away from the PGA Tour, is negotiating to be a minority investor. Monahan said there is more, that the negotiations also include a way to unify the rival tours.
“I think the only thing that really matters to fans and for the game is ultimately reunification,” Monahan said Wednesday. “I think everything else falls out of that.”
How that unifications unfolds — and when — has not been made clear.
LIV played its second tournament this week in Australia, which attracts its largest gallery. The new CEO of LIV, Scott O'Neil, said during the broadcast, "You don’t have to look too far past our leaderboard to know that outside of the majors, if you want to see the best players in the world, there’s only one place to see it, and that’s at LIV.”
Woods was back at Torrey Pines, a course where his eight wins as a pro includes the 2008 U.S. Open, for the first time in five years. He entered the tournament, only to withdraw Monday to process the death of his mother, Kultida.
He showed up Sunday to meet with his TGR LIV team that helped relocate the tournament from Riviera because of the wildfires, and to present the trophy to Ludvig Aberg.
During his CBS booth visit, Woods referred to his mother as his rock, and shared tales of her driving him to junior tournaments, keeping score and not letting him play golf unless he finished his homework.
“She meant everything to me,” Woods said. “Losing her has been a very hard and difficult process to go through.”
He returns to some form of competition Tuesday with his Jupiter team in the indoor TGL in south Florida.
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