Tiger Woods says talks between PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s PIF are ongoing

LOS ANGELES — Tiger Woods said he is not opposed to the Public Investment Fund investing in the PGA Tour and that negotiations with officials of Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund are ongoing.

“Ultimately, we would like PIF to be a part of our tour and our product,” Woods said Wednesday during a news conference before The Genesis at Riviera Country Club. “Financially it's not the case at the moment, and the sums they were put on the table with and what we initially agreed in the framework agreement, they're all the same numbers.

“Anything beyond that will obviously be beyond that. We're in a position right now [where] I hope we can improve our product in the short and long term.

Beyond that, Woods, the player director on the PGA Tour board, didn't offer many details about a potential deal with the PIF and what the tour's future might look like.

The PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF signed a framework agreement on June 6 to consolidate their assets into a new for-profit entity, PGA Tour Enterprises. The framework agreement had a deadline of December 31. No agreement was reached and the deadline was extended.

On January 31, the PGA Tour reached an agreement with Strategic Sports Group (SSG), a consortium of billionaire sports team owners led by John Henry and Tom Werner of Fenway Sports Group, which could inject up to $3 billion in PGA Tour Enterprises. . The new company launched the next day.

A potential PIF deal could inject an additional $3 billion or more into PGA Tour Enterprises.

In a memo to players on Feb. 7, the PGA Tour said it would grant more than $1.5 billion in equity in PGA Tour Enterprises to past, current and future members over the next several years. Under the plan, $930 million in initial player equity grants will be awarded to 193 PGA Tour members who will fall into one of four categories.

“At the end of the day, we're trying to provide the best entertainment possible, and to do that we have to play the best players,” Woods said. “We want to involve the history and traditions of our tour, and have the trails, the accessibility, all the intangibles that have made the PGA Tour what it is today and what it has been , and I hope it continues to be.” better.

“And how can we do that? That's why we have a group like SSG to give us information and help and try to create the best tour possible.”

SSG investors include, among others, Mark Attanasio (Milwaukee Brewers), Arthur Blank (Atlanta Falcons), Wyc Grousbeck (Boston Celtics) and Steve Cohen (New York Mets).

“The consortium that they have at SSG, the partners that have come together to be part of this group, are quite remarkable, to be honest with you, in the sports industry,” Woods said. “They are incredible leaders. At a time when we need great leadership moving forward, I think this sparks some incredible ideas that can make this tour better, and we look forward to that.”

Asked about possible paths back to the PGA Tour for players who joined the LIV Golf League over the past two years, Woods described it as an ongoing process.

“We're looking at all the different models of return pathways,” Woods said. “What that looks like, what the impact is for players who stayed and didn't leave, and how we improve our product going forward, there's no answer to that right now.

“We're looking at different degrees of ideas, and what it will look like in the short term, we don't know. We don't even know what it will look like in the long term. Believe me, there are daily emails and weekly. and talk about that and what that looks like for our upcoming tour.”

Woods said the PIF endgame has changed during more than eight months of negotiations since a framework agreement was signed on June 6.

“From what their representatives have discussed with us, it's been changing and it's been evolving for a few months to where it is now,” Woods said.

Asked if it was a good or bad development, Woods said: “I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing. It's an ongoing, fluid process.”

Woods, 48, will make his first start in an official PGA Tour event since withdrawing from the weather-delayed third round of the Masters in April. He limped heavily during the first major tournament of the season due to severe pain in his right foot and ankle.

The 15-time major winner underwent fusion surgery on April 19 to treat post-traumatic arthritis he suffered in the car crash. This procedure left him sidelined for almost eight months.

“How the body feels day to day and the difficulty of trying to train and prepare for an event, just the overall aging process of it all, that has been the trick and the challenge,” said Woods. . “I’ve since had my ankle fused, so it’s different.

“[I’m still] trying to get used to the new sensations of the body. That's always the challenge. And the challenges of preparing for the tour, that's what we've been trying to do over the last few weeks, trying to make sure that I'm in good shape and ready to play this event. »