The PGA Tour has claimed it has made progress amid negotiations with LIV Golf’s Saudi backers in recent months.
The Tour has said that its talks with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund have accelerated, culminating most recently in an in-person meeting in New York City Friday.
PGA Tour Enterprises’ entire Transaction Subcommittee, a group that includes 15-times major champion Tiger Woods, was present at the latest meeting with Public Investment Fund (PIF) Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan.
However, the US-based circuit did not provide any details from the face-to-face meeting as negotiations continue over a year on from the bombshell news of the ‘merger’ between the two warring sides of golf.
‘We want to get this right, and we are approaching discussions with careful consideration for our players, our fans, our partners and the game’s future,’ the tour said in a statement released Saturday morning.
The PGA Tour has claimed it has made progress amid negotiations with LIV Golf’s Saudi backers (pictured Rory McIlroy, left, and commissioner Jay Monahan, right)
The Tour’s committee met with Public Investment Fund (PIF) Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan
PGA Tour Enterprises is the commercial group that came out of the framework agreement announced a year ago among the PGA Tour, PIF and the European tour.
PGA Tour Enterprises brought on Strategic Sports Group, which invested an initial $1.5 billion earlier this year. Negotiations are ongoing to bring in PIF as a minority investor, and there has been more activity than previously believed.
Rory McIlroy, who joined Woods and Adam Scott on the transaction committee, said it has been meeting with PIF representatives every Monday, Wednesday and Friday over the last couple of weeks. The tour referred to negotiations as ‘accelerated’ in recent months.
Friday’s meeting was the first in-person discussion since players and board members met with Al-Rumayyan in the Bahamas the day after The Players Championship in March.
The tour said the committee and PIF have been meeting ‘multiple times weekly to work through potential deal terms and come to a shared vision on the future of professional golf.’ It said only that ‘more progress was made’ in New York.
‘We remain committed to these negotiations, which require working through complex considerations to best position golf for global growth,’ the tour said.
15-times major champion Tiger Woods is a member of the Transaction Subcommittee
Woods and Scott are on the full PGA Tour Enterprises board, along with player directors Jordan Spieth, Webb Simpson, Patrick Cantlay and Peter Malnati.
McIlroy resigned from the PGA Tour board last November, and there was an unsuccessful attempt by Simpson to have McIlroy replace him. McIlroy, the strongest voice who has gone from heavy criticism of LIV to being more willing to compromise, is part of the transaction committee and ultimately does not have a vote.
But he has relationships with both sides of the table. McIlroy had said he would be more in listen mode when the business leaders – Al-Rumayyan and his team at PIF, a PGA Tour Enterprises committee that includes four SSG investors – sorted through details.
‘We’re there to maybe give a perspective from player´s point of view,’ McIlroy had said Thursday. ‘But, I mean, this is a negotiation about an investment into PGA Tour Enterprises. This is `big boy´ stuff, and I’ll certainly be doing more listening than I will be talking.’
