Tiger Woods has reportedly voted against Rory McIlroy‘s re-inclusion to the PGA Tour policy board as the organisation looks to negotiate a deal with the Saudi Arabian-backed breakaway league LIV Golf.
It had been confirmed on Thursday that McIlroy, who resigned from his position on the PGA Tour board in November amid frustrations over the role, would not be returning to the position with the World No 2 stating that ‘old wounds had re-opened’.
Webb Simpson, who will resign from his post on both the PGA Tour policy board and his position as a director of PGA Tour Enterprises, had indicated that McIlroy was to take over both of his positions.
Despite that, The Telegraph reports that the remaining five player-executives on the board – which comprises of Tiger Woods, Patrick Cantlay, Peter Malnati, Adam Scott and Jordan Spieth – had voted against the decision to re-integrate McIlroy.
The outlet claims that Woods, a long-standing ally of McIlroy’s, was one of those who voted against the four-time major winner’s inclusion, with the votes being cast 3-2 for the 35-year-old to be excluded from the board. The other two members who voted against McIlroy’s re-inclusion are not yet known.
Tiger Woods has reportedly voted against Rory McIlroy rejoining the PGA Tour board
Webb Simpson was to leave his role on the board asking for McIlroy (pictured) to take over
Woods and McIlroy have long been allies but opinions may differ on the PGA Tour LIV merger
It appears that after holding talks with the current board members over a return, McIlroy’s vision of a merger with LIV Golf’s backers – the £60billion Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund – did not fit with those of the board.
While McIlroy has previously urged golf’s feuding factions to reach an agreement over the peace talks. But that has come contrary to the views of Woods who has previously claimed that the PGA Tour doesn’t need LIV’s cash, following the PGA’s recent deal with the Strategic Sports Group.
‘Financially, we don’t [need that] right now. 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. Anything beyond this is going to be obviously over and above. We’re in a great position right now.’
Having been one of the breakaway circuit’s staunchest cricits, McIlroy has made a U-turn on his previous views, claiming that the PGA Tour and LIV Golf need to reach an agreement quickly and that golf’s current ecosystem was ‘not sustainable‘. ‘I think I can be helpful,’ he said in April, when asked what he could bring to the board amid the negotiation talks.
It comes amid reports from Golf Digest that Woods and McIlroy’s relationship has ‘soured over the past six months’ yet ‘remains cordial’.
Woods (right) has previously stated that the PGA Tour does not need LIV Golf’s cash
The Northern Irish golfer (left) said that talks to rejoin the PGA Tour board had been ‘messy’
Jordan Spieth (left) and Patrick Cantlay (right) also sit on the PGA Tour’s policy Board
Mail Sport understands that McIlroy and Cantlay have also not seen eye-to-eye previously on the deal between the PGA Tour and LIV, while the Northern Irishman has also held ‘tense phone calls’ with Spieth over the future of the game.
On Wednesday at the Wells Fargo Championship, McIlroy opened up on the ‘messy’ talks that had taken place between himself and the PGA Tour board members.
‘It just got pretty complicated and pretty messy,’ he stated.
‘With the way it happened it opened up some wounds and scar tissue from things that have happened before. And I think there was a subset of people on the board who were uncomfortable with me coming back on for some reason.’
Despite that, he added that there was no ill feeling between him or any other of the board members following the decision.
‘I put my hand up to help. I wouldn’t say it was rejected. I would just say it was a complicated process to put me back on there so that’s all fine. No hard feelings and we’ll all move on.’
McIlroy had also revealed that his exasperations of fronting the PGA Tour’s response to LIV over the last few years had led to his decision to resign from the policy board in November, stating: ‘(It’s) not what I signed for whenever I went on the board.’
