As if there were any questions about how a potential détente might work between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, Tiger Woods reiterated the ground rules Tuesday.
LIV Golf must get rid of CEO and commissioner Greg Norman and drop its lawsuit against the PGA Tour.
Neither seems likely to happen, and Woods left little doubt that those two conditions would have to be met by LIV Golf before any discussion of what comes next could begin. Until then, Woods doesn’t see much movement.
“Not right now, not with their leadership, not with Greg there and his animosity towards the tour itself. I don’t see that happening,” Woods said Tuesday at Albany Golf Club in the Bahamas before the Hero World Challenge, an unofficial PGA Tour event that benefits his TGR Foundation.
“As Rory (McIlroy) said, and I said it as well, I think Greg’s got to leave and then we can eventually, hopefully, have a stay between the two lawsuits and figure something out. But why would you change anything if you’ve got a lawsuit against you? They sued us first.”
Woods was an organizer of a player-only meeting in Delaware this summer in which many of the concepts that led to the creation of 12 “elevated events” in 2023 were presented. He has continued to be involved in subsequent conversations as the tour grapples with LIV Golf.
Woods’ comments about the ongoing battle between the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and LIV Golf underscored the fractured nature of the professional game. The 15-time major champion withdrew from the Hero World Challenge due to plantar fasciitis in his right foot, which developed as he ramped up preparation to play 72 holes this week.
Along with McIlroy, their managers and tour commissioner Jay Monahan, Woods has worked behind the scenes to revamp the PGA Tour in the face of the LIV Golf threat, even as he remains intent on returning to competitive golf as he continues to cope with the effects of a near-fatal auto accident 21 months ago.
This was to have been Woods’ first competitive event since mid-July in the Open Championship at St. Andrews, but the foot proved to be too painful for him to walk four rounds. Woods does, however, intend to play the PNC Championship with his 13-year-old son, Charlie, and a televised match with McIlroy, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth in the next two weeks. He will be able to use a cart in those events.
“I can hit golf balls,” Woods said. “It’s the walking that just hurts.”
As for his playing schedule next year, Woods said he hopes to play the four major championships and perhaps one or two other events. He set a goal to play the 2022 Open Championship and wound up playing three majors, making the cut in the Masters, withdrawing from the PGA Championship after three rounds and missing the cut at St. Andrews.
Without going into details, Woods said he underwent multiple surgical procedures last year related to the injuries suffered in the single-vehicle rollover incident near Los Angeles in 2021.
“I don’t have much left in this leg, so gear up for the biggest ones and hopefully, you know, lightning catches in a bottle and I’m up there in contention with a chance to win, and hopefully I remember how to do that,” Woods said.
One month shy of his 47th birthday, Woods remains at the center of the golf universe. He recently won the Player Impact Program for the second straight year despite playing just nine competitive rounds last season.
Woods was an organizer of a player-only meeting in Delaware this summer in which many of the concepts that led to the creation of 12 “elevated events” in 2023 were presented. He has continued to be involved in subsequent conversations as the tour grapples with LIV Golf.
There were reports that Woods turned down an offer of more than $700 million to join the Saudi-backed LIV Golf initiative. He remains a steadfast defender of the PGA Tour, while acknowledging the need for the tour to evolve.
“There’s been some ebb and flow, some give and take from players and the commissioners and their staff. I think this year more so than any other time that we’ve had the openness to be able to talk to our commissioner and say these are things that we want to get better on the tour, and here’s a list of them, and priority, too,” Woods said.
“Jay sat through a lot of these meetings, a lot of the conference calls, and with Rory and I talking to him too as well. I think we made some great changes, but how do we also replenish players that have left? That’s obviously giving more opportunities for players that are coming into the game that are younger, collegiate or amateur, more access to it.
“The game has gotten younger, period. I mean, guys are winning majors in their mid-to-early 20s. But also, we want to get younger kids coming in here and playing the game of golf and experiencing the tour and experiencing what it’s like to play in major championships and hopefully win them.”
Woods’ limited-field, no-cut Hero World Challenge receives Official World Golf Ranking points and is used by LIV Golf as an example of why its 48-player, no-cut events deserve world-ranking points, a central point of contention for the new organization.
Recent changes to the ranking system have created more controversy – the PGA Tour’s season-ending event at Sea Island had one top-50 player but awarded more ranking points than the DP World Tour Championship, which featured McIlroy, Jon Rahm and other marquee players.
“They’ve spent probably close to $2 billion this year. Who’s to say they can’t spend $4 or $5 billion next year?” – Tiger Woods
Woods called the rankings “a flawed system” and said it needs to be changed. Whether LIV Golf events ultimately receive world-ranking points is uncertain.
As for a path forward to end the current battle, Woods doesn’t see a clear one.
“No one knows. Right now, it’s – there’s a lot of animosity, especially from their leadership, and they want to be a validated tour with world-ranking points and they’re buying up tours around the world,” Woods said.
“I don’t know what their endgame is. It might be just being an official member of the golf ecosystem and being recognized with world-ranking points. I think that’s what their intended goal is.
“They’ve spent probably close to $2 billion this year,” said Woods, alluding to the Saudis’ oil-rich Public Investment Fund, which backs LIV Golf. “Who’s to say they can’t spend $4 or $5 billion next year? We just don’t know. It’s an endless pit of money. But that doesn’t necessarily create legacies, either. You want to compare yourself to Hogan; you want to compare yourself to Snead; you want to compare yourself to Nicklaus. You can’t do that over there, but you can on this tour.”