Latest news with #PIF-PGATour
USA Today
25-05-2025
- Business
- USA Today
PGA Tour can dictate what reunification looks like and it doesn't have to include everyone
PGA Tour can dictate what reunification looks like and it doesn't have to include everyone The most tediously unshakable assumption about the division in men's professional golf is that responsibility for resolving it falls to those who didn't create it, while those who did just keep dealing from a seemingly inexhaustible deck of victim cards. The Framework Agreement was announced 719 days ago and the expectation ever since has been that the PGA Tour must engineer the reunification of a game it didn't fracture, and that its members must make concessions to facilitate the return of guys who split to LIV of their own accord. Count Scottie Scheffler among those finally pushing back publicly against that ersatz sentiment. A few days ago, he was asked about the state of negotiations, in which he isn't involved. "If you wanna figure out what's going to happen to the game of golf, go to the other tour and ask those guys," he replied. "We had a tour where we all played together, and the guys that left, it's their responsibility I think to bring the tours back together. So go see where they're playing this week and ask them.' Scheffler's comment generously grants LIV players agency they don't actually enjoy. Having sold their services, they are hostages of Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the chief of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. What they want is irrelevant and what Al-Rumayyan wants is unclear since he hasn't engaged with the Tour since a fractious meeting at the White House on February 20. And that's why the Tour should forget about any onus to build bridges and focus exclusively on what will help its business. There are three potential fields to be plowed in any reunification effort—one verdant, one barren, one finite. They are, respectively, pocketbook, product and players. Golf executives have spent years deliberating how to share in Saudi riches without upending the entire structure of the sport. A PIF-PGA Tour deal would be driven by money, regardless of any grandiloquent waffle about unity and a shared future. But the Tour doesn't need their conditional investment—it hasn't yet spent a dime of the $1.5 billion infusion it obtained 16 months ago from Strategic Sports Group. Nor does it need any component of the LIV product. There's no market of scale for team golf to exploit, no broadcast audience to co-opt, no revenue to redirect, no sponsors to covet (unless Jay Monahan has an undisclosed craving for Freddy's Frozen Custard). There's literally nothing that should entice the Tour to jettison its current model or commercial partners to make space. Which leaves players as the only thing LIV owns that the Tour does want. Just not all of 'em. Most of the 50-odd guys on LIV used to compete on the PGA Tour. How many of them are missed? Jilted loyalists might insist on none, but that's untrue. A handful are clearly missed, though the reasons why vary. Take Patrick Reed. Every entertainment product could use a villain who needs a slab of bacon strapped to his face to get a dog to lick him. Or Sergio Garcia, since it's always useful to have a reminder that age and maturity are mutually exclusive. Only a few players left a real void because they competed at a high standard and had obvious commercial value. Should the Tour be presented with an opportunity to welcome them back—whether via a deal, a defection, the demise of LIV or a contract expiration—it should do so. That needn't mean the Tour alienating its loyal members (beyond the unavoidable) since the only guys it would want back could be argued to have status that didn't expire during their LIV sojourn. Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Cameron Smith have all won major championships since 2022. The only other unquestionable status belongs to Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson, lifetime members with more than 20 wins. Beyond that, it's a grey area. For example, being top 50 or top 25 on the career money list is good for a one-time season pass; Garcia and Reed were deleted from that list when they split but would still rank 14th and 30th, respectively. The rest of the LIV roster are discards for the PGA Tour but not without utility for the DP World Tour, which likely sees value in Messrs. Hatton, Kaymer, McDowell, Stenson, Westwood and Poulter. Perhaps too for the Aussie contingent. But if any of them want status in the States, go earn it back. Johnson's LIV servitude expires this year, but he seems happily checked out from career ambition. DeChambeau and Koepka can walk away in '26 if they wish. Only Rahm has a lengthy term ahead as Al-Rumayyan's asset. LIV told its stars that any contract renewals won't repeat the huge upfront payments that first lured them to the Saudi teat, so the earnings gap between the circuits has narrowed significantly, at least for those who are competitively relevant. If all that the PGA Tour wants by way of reunification is the return of the few men who matter, then it can simply wait until they're contractually free and do what Scottie suggested, go ask 'em.
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How Tiger Woods became part of Trump's inner circle
Unlike hostile receptions for other White House visitors of late, Tiger Woods was welcomed by Donald Trump for the most gushing exchange of mutual praise. 'Tiger, Tiger, Tiger,' chanted the US president during one press event as he stood shoulder to shoulder with the golfing great. 'Let me ask you, is there anybody like our Tiger?' Trump asked the assembled throng. 'He's the greatest.' Woods, in turn, stood proudly alongside the president wearing a Presidential Medal of Freedom he had received from Trump in 2019. 'It's an honour to be here with you, Mr President,' he said. Meetings had been arranged in part because Trump had boasted before the election he could sort out golf's civil war in '10 to 15 minutes'. PGA tour commissioner Jay Monahan and player director Adam Scott joined the pair that day in key talks with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and the financial muscle behind LIV Golf. But as golf now edges towards ending divisions, it is another union of relations – with Woods confirming he is dating Trump's former daughter-in-law – that underlines close-knit connections behind two American powerbroker families. Woods has never overtly declared his political leanings, but ties with various Trump relatives in recent months have become impossible to miss. 'Love is in the air and life is better with you by my side,' Woods said on Sunday in a social media post of his relationship with Vanessa Trump, who is said to remain close with her former father-in-law. Vanessa's eldest daughter Kai, 17, and Woods's children Charlie, 16, and Sam, 17, all attend the same school. Charlie and Kai, who recently committed to playing golf at the University of Miami, are both highly rated amateurs. In February, rumours first circulated of a potential relationship between Woods and Vanessa as he was seen arriving at the Genesis Invitational car park with Kai, just days after announcing he was grieving the death of his mother, Kultida. Lengthy and ongoing Saudi PIF-PGA Tour negotiations have inevitably seen Woods also spend more time than ever with President Trump. The pair have been out on the golf course together privately in recent months while at the same time spearheading negotiations for a sporting peace deal. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Joe Clark (@joeplays_golf) Both Woods and Trump have controversial histories in their personal lives. But for the president, there is a genuine love of golf that has undoubtedly fuelled his enthusiasm to welcome Woods to the extended family. White House records show he has played a round at his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida eight weekends in a row since returning to power. There are, of course, also major business advantages to be gained. In April, Trump National Doral Miami will play host to a LIV tournament for the fourth consecutive year, while Trump-owned courses in Virginia and New Jersey have also served as venues for LIV events. Golf has been Trump's staunchest supporter among sports, with combat sports like the Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Wrestling Entertainment equally vocal in their backing yet lacking the heritage and clout that golf brings. It has not always been smooth sailing for Trump, though. In 2021, and in response to Trump's role in the Capitol Hill riots, the PGA stripped Trump Bedminster of the right to host the 2022 PGA Championship. Trump was infuriated by the decision – just as he has been with the R&A's refusal to take the Open back to Turnberry since he took ownership in 2014. But that has done little to diminish his influence on the sport and inevitably, when leaders for the PGA and PIF announced a 'framework agreement' in June 2023 to merge the rival tours, Trump hailed it as a 'big, beautiful and glamorous deal for the wonderful world of golf'. Should Keegan Bradley's Team USA regain the Ryder Cup this September at Bethpage, expect the White House invitation to go out to the 12 winning golfers for a reception with the president. That has not always gone to plan, with the Philadelphia Eagles yet to appear in Washington DC since winning the Super Bowl in February – having refused to attend when they last became NFL world champions during Trump's first term in office – and basketball team Golden State Warriors being disinvited when star player Steph Curry expressed reservations about accepting any invitation in 2017. Woods, for his part, has been cautious about any major expressions of support for Trump and the Republican party. In August 2018, after Woods was pressed about his friendship with Trump, he said: 'You have to respect the office. No matter who is in the office, you may like, dislike personality or the politics, but we all must respect the office.' Woods refused to be drawn, however, when asked to express a view on Trump's impact on race relations. Trump at the time responded on X: 'The Fake News Media worked hard to get Tiger Woods to say something that he didn't want to say. Tiger wouldn't play the game – he is very smart.' Now, however, Woods is far less risk-averse in expressing his commitment to another Trump. 'We look forward to our journey through life together,' he says of his blossoming relationship with Vanessa. Donald Trump has always craved credibility in golf. With the Trump family connection with the biggest superstar the game has known now secured, the president's annoyance at his courses continually being denied a major will only intensify. If this was a love ignited by the school gates then be sure that the relationship announced on Sunday by Tiger Woods and Vanessa Trump was forged at the country club. Two divorced adults, with two talented golfing children, this meeting of two famous, if not infamous, families will clearly give the 15-time major winner more focus on the golf course. Not on his own game, however. Woods, 49, is in the midst of a long and depressingly familiar recovery from injury after an operation on his snapped Achilles earlier this month. He is all but written off for the season and instead faces exhaustive recuperative sessions on the physio table and in the gym and on the range. Yet in the meantime he has another role to fulfil. Of course, with his son, Charlie, Woods's summer was always going to centre around following the 16-year-old around Florida and beyond as he tries to carve his own name in US junior golf and so escape what is, perhaps, the biggest paternal shadow ever cast in the game. Charlie is at a critical time of his development to see if he has the wherewithal to make a living out of his maddening sport and it is fair to say that he would be stretched to find a better mentor. Yet will his father now also provide fairway guidance to his partner's offspring? The Trump clan will certainly be praying for this to be part of the deal. It was surely nothing more than a coincidence that on the Sunday the thoroughly un-Tiger-like statement dropped on to his social media channels – it actually began 'love is in the air' – Charlie and Kai Trump, Vanessa's daughter and the president's granddaughter – had both been competing at the Sage Valley Invitational, maybe the most prestigious junior tournament in the world. Alas, these were not the most rousing results for the Woods-Trump brigade, an alliance already coined the 'Axis of Eagle'. Kai finished 24th in a field of 24, while Charlie was tied 25th out of 36. Kai, 17, is signed up for Miami University next year, but stands at 815th in the American Junior Golf Association rankings. In the boys division, Charlie ranks 838th. In truth, this pair of students at Benjamin School – the £29,000-a-year establishment close by the respective family homes in the southern Florida enclave of Palm Beach and Jupiter where Charlie's sister, Sam, also attends, as do Kai's four siblings – have a long, long way to travel even to approach their lifelong dreams. Yet with the red-shirted one in their corner, they have all the necessary motivation and nous to give it the best crack. It will be fascinating to chart their progress over the weeks and months, particularly with Woods at the helm. Except this could be a double-sided wedge, as it has the potential for Woods to achieve his competitive rush during the down months. And with the stability that has for such long periods been missing from his private life, this added purpose must surely be good news for the fans praying for another comeback. Who knows, this could yet turn out to be a marriage made in Jupiter – if not quite heaven. Inevitably, the industry will frantically delve further into the meaning of the Tiger-Trump amalgamation. Vanessa and Don Jnr, her former husband, are said to enjoy an amicable relationship and this will calm fears that any acrimony could impact the ongoing negotiations between the Saudi Public Investment Fund and the PGA Tour. Woods is a key figure as far as the Tour is concerned and President Trump has placed himself at the centre of those discussions, because of his affinity with the sport and the kingdom and because of his own business interests, naturally. Woods has played golf with Trump recently and also visited the White House, and the denizen of the Oval Office will be thrilled to have the icon on his side and, just about, in his tribe. Trump has always craved respect in the professional game and, forever with an eye on the bottom time, will be hoping that with a rich golf club portfolio boasting courses such as Turnberry and Doral, this connection will prove fruitful. However, in a time of great uncertainty, what this could mean to the sport at large remains unknown. Intrigue is in the air. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
How Tiger Woods became part of Trump's inner circle
Unlike hostile receptions for other White House visitors of late, Tiger Woods was welcomed by Donald Trump for the most gushing exchange of mutual praise. 'Tiger, Tiger, Tiger,' chanted the US president during one press event as he stood shoulder to shoulder with the golfing great. 'Let me ask you, is there anybody like our Tiger?' Trump asked the assembled throng. 'He's the greatest.' Woods, in turn, stood proudly alongside the president wearing a Presidential Medal of Freedom he had received from Trump in 2019. 'It's an honour to be here with you, Mr President,' he said. Meetings had been arranged in part because Trump had boasted before the election he could sort out golf's civil war in '10 to 15 minutes'. PGA tour commissioner Jay Monahan and player director Adam Scott joined the pair that day in key talks with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and the financial muscle behind LIV Golf. But as golf now edges towards ending divisions, it is another union of relations – with Woods confirming he is dating Trump's former daughter-in-law – that underlines close-knit connections behind two American powerbroker families. Woods has never overtly declared his political leanings, but ties with various Trump relatives in recent months have become impossible to miss. 'Love is in the air and life is better with you by my side,' Woods said on Sunday in a social media post of his relationship with Vanessa Trump, who is said to remain close with her former father-in-law. Vanessa's eldest daughter Kai, 17, and Woods's children Charlie, 16, and Sam, 17, all attend the same school. Charlie and Kai, who recently committed to playing golf at the University of Miami, are both highly rated amateurs. In February, rumours first circulated of a potential relationship between Woods and Vanessa as he was seen arriving at the Genesis Invitational car park with Kai, just days after announcing he was grieving the death of his mother, Kultida. Lengthy and ongoing Saudi PIF-PGA Tour negotiations have inevitably seen Woods also spend more time than ever with President Trump. The pair have been out on the golf course together privately in recent months while at the same time spearheading negotiations for a sporting peace deal. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Joe Clark (@joeplays_golf) Both Woods and Trump have controversial histories in their personal lives. But for the president, there is a genuine love of golf that has undoubtedly fuelled his enthusiasm to welcome Woods to the extended family. White House records show he has played a round at his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida eight weekends in a row since returning to power. There are, of course, also major business advantages to be gained. In April, Trump National Doral Miami will play host to a LIV tournament for the fourth consecutive year, while Trump-owned courses in Virginia and New Jersey have also served as venues for LIV events. Golf has been Trump's staunchest supporter among sports, with combat sports like the Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Wrestling Entertainment equally vocal in their backing yet lacking the heritage and clout that golf brings. It has not always been smooth sailing for Trump, though. In 2021, and in response to Trump's role in the Capitol Hill riots, the PGA stripped Trump Bedminster of the right to host the 2022 PGA Championship. Trump was infuriated by the decision – just as he has been with the R&A's refusal to take the Open back to Turnberry since he took ownership in 2014. But that has done little to diminish his influence on the sport and inevitably, when leaders for the PGA and PIF announced a 'framework agreement' in June 2023 to merge the rival tours, Trump hailed it as a ' big, beautiful and glamorous deal for the wonderful world of golf '. Should Keegan Bradley's Team USA regain the Ryder Cup this September at Bethpage, expect the White House invitation to go out to the 12 winning golfers for a reception with the president. That has not always gone to plan, with the Philadelphia Eagles yet to appear in Washington DC since winning the Super Bowl in February – having refused to attend when they last became NFL world champions during Trump's first term in office – and basketball team Golden State Warriors being disinvited when star player Steph Curry expressed reservations about accepting any invitation in 2017. Woods, for his part, has been cautious about any major expressions of support for Trump and the Republican party. In August 2018, after Woods was pressed about his friendship with Trump, he said: 'You have to respect the office. No matter who is in the office, you may like, dislike personality or the politics, but we all must respect the office.' Woods refused to be drawn, however, when asked to express a view on Trump's impact on race relations. Trump at the time responded on X: 'The Fake News Media worked hard to get Tiger Woods to say something that he didn't want to say. Tiger wouldn't play the game – he is very smart.' Now, however, Woods is far less risk-averse in expressing his commitment to another Trump. 'We look forward to our journey through life together,' he says of his blossoming relationship with Vanessa. Donald Trump has always craved credibility in golf. With the Trump family connection with the biggest superstar the game has known now secured, the president's annoyance at his courses continually being denied a major will only intensify. If this was a love ignited by the school gates then be sure that the relationship announced on Sunday by Tiger Woods and Vanessa Trump was forged at the country club. Two divorced adults, with two talented golfing children, this meeting of two famous, if not infamous, families will clearly give the 15-time major winner more focus on the golf course. Not on his own game, however. Woods, 49, is in the midst of a long and depressingly familiar recovery from injury after an operation on his snapped Achilles earlier this month. He is all but written off for the season and instead faces exhaustive recuperative sessions on the physio table and in the gym and on the range. Yet in the meantime he has another role to fulfil. Of course, with his son, Charlie, Woods's summer was always going to centre around following the 16-year-old around Florida and beyond as he tries to carve his own name in US junior golf and so escape what is, perhaps, the biggest paternal shadow ever cast in the game. Charlie is at a critical time of his development to see if he has the wherewithal to make a living out of his maddening sport and it is fair to say that he would be stretched to find a better mentor. Yet will his father now also provide fairway guidance to his partner's offspring? The Trump clan will certainly be praying for this to be part of the deal. It was surely nothing more than a coincidence that on the Sunday the thoroughly un-Tiger-like statement dropped on to his social media channels – it actually began 'love is in the air' – Charlie and Kai Trump, Vanessa's daughter and the president's granddaughter – had both been competing at the Sage Valley Invitational, maybe the most prestigious junior tournament in the world. Alas, these were not the most rousing results for the Woods-Trump brigade, an alliance already coined the 'Axis of Eagle'. Kai finished 24th in a field of 24, while Charlie was tied 25th out of 36. Kai, 17, is signed up for Miami University next year, but stands at 815th in the American Junior Golf Association rankings. In the boys division, Charlie ranks 838th. In truth, this pair of students at Benjamin School – the £29,000-a-year establishment close by the respective family homes in the southern Florida enclave of Palm Beach and Jupiter where Charlie's sister, Sam, also attends, as do Kai's four siblings – have a long, long way to travel even to approach their lifelong dreams. Yet with the red-shirted one in their corner, they have all the necessary motivation and nous to give it the best crack. It will be fascinating to chart their progress over the weeks and months, particularly with Woods at the helm. Except this could be a double-sided wedge, as it has the potential for Woods to achieve his competitive rush during the down months. And with the stability that has for such long periods been missing from his private life, this added purpose must surely be good news for the fans praying for another comeback. Who knows, this could yet turn out to be a marriage made in Jupiter – if not quite heaven. Inevitably, the industry will frantically delve further into the meaning of the Tiger-Trump amalgamation. Vanessa and Don Jnr, her former husband, are said to enjoy an amicable relationship and this will calm fears that any acrimony could impact the ongoing negotiations between the Saudi Public Investment Fund and the PGA Tour. Woods is a key figure as far as the Tour is concerned and President Trump has placed himself at the centre of those discussions, because of his affinity with the sport and the kingdom and because of his own business interests, naturally. Woods has played golf with Trump recently and also visited the White House, and the denizen of the Oval Office will be thrilled to have the icon on his side and, just about, in his tribe. Trump has always craved respect in the professional game and, forever with an eye on the bottom time, will be hoping that with a rich golf club portfolio boasting courses such as Turnberry and Doral, this connection will prove fruitful. However, in a time of great uncertainty, what this could mean to the sport at large remains unknown. Intrigue is in the air.
