Adam Scott believes that all of his fellow player directors on the PGA Tour – including Tiger Woods – should meet with LIV Golf’s Saudi backers in an attempt to thrash out a peace deal.
Reports emerged at Sawgrass on Friday that Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the £600 billion Public Investment Fund and chairman of LIV, is prepared to sit down with the golfers. Jordan Spieth, another player director on the Tour’s policy board, later confirmed that they were “being encouraged” to attend talks that might take place imminently.
It could be a hugely significant moment in the golf civil war that has been raging for more than two years since the formation of LIV, especially if Woods is around the table. He revealed last month that he has never met Al-Rumayyan, who is also chairman of Newcastle United, and for the duo to break bread would, at the very least, be symbolic. Without naming the 15-time major winner, Scott thinks it should happen.
“Ultimately the players are some of the vote going into whether a deal will happen or not, just like it was with SSG [Strategic Sports Group, which recently invested more than £1 billion in the Tour],” Scott told AP. “With the seriousness of what we’re voting on, I think it is important that we’ve all met no matter what anyone’s feelings are.”
Spieth concurs. “I think it is probably a good thing that the entire board should [meet with PIF] if there’s going to be any potential for a negotiation,” he said.
Telegraph Sport understands that the details of the gathering remain unconfirmed, with one well-placed insider speculating that Al-Rumayyan might be waiting to see who exactly is accepting the invite before he, himself, commits.
He has already met with PGA Tour officials and indeed those from the DP World Tour. In December 2022, Al-Rumayyan linked up with Rory McIlroy in Dubai and that clandestine soiree was what ultimately led to the PGA Tour signing “the framework agreement” that shocked the game last summer.
Yet since then, the Tour has accepted SSG’s private equity and player directors like Woods and Spieth have stated that a PIF investment might no longer be needed financially. Those claims infuriated McIlroy, who, despite being LIV’s most vocal critic for so long, is adamant that PIF must be included in the new order if the professional male game is to unite after so much turbulence.
McIlroy: Golf fans are losing interest
LIV highlighted its financial might by luring Jon Rahm late last year and then by adding another Ryder Cup star in Tyrrell Hatton in late January. Both would have been playing at The Players Championship, but by jumping ship they are excluded from the Tour’s flagship event and are in exile alongside earlier high-profile defectees such as Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Cam Smith. And with the Tour’s ratings plummeting so far this year, McIlroy insists that the glaring absences from this £20 million tournament further emphasise the need for a speedy and amicable resolution.
“This is the biggest tournament outside of the four major championships and we don’t have all the best players in the world here,” McIlroy said on Wednesday. “That’s a shame. I hope that changes pretty quickly because, unfortunately, I think fans are losing interest. I still think people will tune in for the majors but I would like to think that golf can be more relevant than just four weeks a year.
“So the faster we figure this thing out the better but I don’t think there is a fast solution unfortunately. But I think everyone just needs to try to put their feelings and egos aside and find a solution where we can bring all the best players back together.”
Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, claimed on Tuesday that the negotiations are “accelerating”, but stressed that “it is complicated and will take time”. There are six players on the Tour’s policy board – also including Patrick Cantlay – and, as Scott pointed out, they will have the final say if any deal is agreed between the negotiators. “If PIF thinks it’s beneficial that we meet… as far as getting on with business, yeah, let’s get on with it,” Scott said. “I would like to resolve this no matter what the outcome is. And we can all move on.”
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