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Golf stars at White House as PGA-LIV Saudi deal looms
Doug Ferguson • February 21st, 2025 10:52 am
Tiger Woods and Adam Scott are at a White House meeting which suggests peace is approaching in golf | Photo: AP
Tiger Woods has joined player director Adam Scott and PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan in a second White House meeting, in another sign that golf is moving rapidly towards ending the division brought on by Saudi-funded LIV Golf.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and the financial muscle behind the rival league, was scheduled to join the meeting.
According to a person who's been briefed on the meeting, President Donald Trump initiated the meeting and was also likely to be part of it.
Al-Rumayyan was in Miami Beach, Florida, on Wednesday to attend an investment summit where Trump spoke.
This is the second time in just over two weeks the PGA Tour leadership — Woods and Australia's former Masters champ Scott are on the board — has met at the White House.
Woods had to leave before the February 4 meeting because his mother died in Florida.
He said on Sunday during the CBS broadcast of the Genesis Invitational that "we have another meeting coming up."
"I think that things are going to heal quickly," Woods, the tournament host, said on the broadcast.
"We're going to get this game going in the right direction. 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."
LIV Golf launched in June 2022 and lured away top names — Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm — over the next few years with signing bonuses reported to top $US100 million ($A157 million) in some cases.
The PGA Tour, PIF and the European tour signed an agreement in June 2023, but it expired at the end of the year as the Justice Department raised antitrust concerns.
The PGA Tour brought on Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of North American pro sports owners led by Fenway Sports, as a minority partner in the commercial PGA Tour Enterprises at the start of 2024 with a $US1.5 billion ($A2.4 billion) investment.
PIF is negotiating to be a minority investor, though Monahan made it clear last week the priority was bringing all the best players together more often.
"Everything is moving forward with pace," Monahan said. "When you look at all the parties involved, there's a general enthusiasm for getting this done."
How that looks remains unclear, though Monahan did say he had a clear vision of the end product.
Currently, the top LIV players can only face Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and the majority of golf's best players at the four majors. Some LIV players also have access to a few European tour events.
Any agreement with PIF would require approval by the PGA Tour Enterprises board, the commercial outfit that grew out of the original June 2023 framework agreement.
- AP
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