Woods not opposed to PGA Tour and Saudi-backed PIF deal
Tiger Woods says negotiations between the PGA Tour and Public Investment Fund are continuing and he is not opposed to a possible investment but added that the tour doesn’t need their money.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is the monetary backing of LIV Golf, and the PGA Tour received good news last month, reaching a deal with Strategic Sports Group that could add up to $3 billion to the tour. In exchange, SSG received a 25% stake in PGA Tour Enterprises.
“Ultimately, we would like to have PIF be a part of our tour and a part of our product,” Woods said ahead of The Genesis at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. “Financially, we don’t right now, and the monies that they have come to the table with and what we initially had agreed to in the framework agreement, those are all the same numbers.
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“Anything beyond this is going to be obviously over and above. We’re in a position right now (where) hopefully we can make our product better in the short term and long term.”
Last June, the PGA Tour, the Public Investment Fund, and the DP World Tour signed a framework agreement to create PGA Tour Enterprises, with a Dec. 31 deadline. A deal still has not been consummated.
“At the end of the day, we’re trying to provide the best entertainment, and in order to do that you have to have the best players play,” said Woods, who is one of six golfers named as a player director on the PGA Tour’s policy board. “We want to involve the history and the traditions of our tour, and have the pathways, accessibility, all of the intangibles that have made the PGA Tour what it is right now and what has been, and hopefully what it will continue to be even better.”
Woods was also asked about former PGA players most recently Jon Rahm who jumped to the LIV Tour to secure a big payday, making their way back on the tour.
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“We’re looking into all the different models for pathways back,” Woods said. “What that looks like, what the impact is for the players who have stayed and who have not left, and how we make our product better going forward, there is no answer to that right now.”