Tiger Woods has joined PGA Tour officers in New York, the place tour management is assembly with Saudi Public Funding Fund (PIF) representatives. The PGA Tour and its new traders from the Strategic Sports activities Group (SSG) hope to strike a deal that sees the PIF be a part of SSG as one other billion-dollar investor. The perimeters additionally hope to unite skilled golf as soon as once more.
The PIF, after all, bankrolls LIV Golf, which is conducting its particular person championship this week in Chicago. The PGA Tour, in the meantime, begins its FedEx Cup Fall collection in Napa, California, on Thursday.
Mark Schlabach of ESPN first reported the information of the assembly.
The 2 sides—along with the DP World Tour—signed an preliminary framework settlement on Jun. 6, 2023, which settled all lawsuits between the events and set a deadline of Dec. 31, 2023, to strike a proper deal. However that deadline has come and gone.
Two weeks in the past, on the Tour Championship in Atlanta, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan stated that officers on each side haven’t agreed to a deadline. He added that we “don’t wish to prohibit ourselves that manner.”
But, Monahan, with out offering any element or perception into the progress of those negotiations, did point out that the precedence of reaching an settlement has been “enhanced.”
“That’s a direct results of dialogue and dialog and beginning to discuss concerning the future, future product imaginative and prescient, and the place we will take our sport,” Monahan stated in Atlanta on Aug. 28, 2024.
“I believe once you get into productive conversations, that enhances the probability of optimistic outcomes, and that enhances the spirit of these very conversations. I believe that’s the place issues stand.”
These conversations are persevering with this week in New York, signaling strokes of progress.
Satirically, Monahan and PIF Governor Yasir al-Rumayyan unveiled the framework settlement reside on CNBC’s ‘Squawk on the Road,’ stunning the sporting world from CNBC’s studios in Decrease Manhattan.
Officers concerned with this deal additionally met in New York in early June 2024 in the course of the second spherical of the Memorial Event—Rory McIlroy needed to tune in through Zoom. McIlroy isn’t current this week, nevertheless. He’s at Royal County Down for the Irish Open, however it’s unclear if he phoned in remotely once more.
Woods, in the meantime, is joined in New York this week by Adam Scott, one other member of the transactional subcommittee, per Schlabach’s report. PGA Tour Enterprises chairman Joe Gorder, who can be the Govt Chairman of Valero, and Fenway Sports activities Group proprietor John W. Henry are additionally concerned in these discussions.
Jack Milko is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By way of. Be sure you try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You’ll be able to observe him on Twitter @jack_milko as nicely.
