Update: Tiger Woods arrived in Wilmington, Delaware, the site of this week’s BMW Championship, on Tuesday for a private meeting with a select number of players to discuss the future of the PGA Tour and how it can be improved amid its ongoing battle with LIV Golf.
The meeting was held at an off-course hotel and lasted three and a half hours. Several top PGA Tour stars were present, including Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy, and Jordan Spieth, according to the Associated Press.
Woods previously held a similar meeting with a handful of players at the JP McManus Pro-Am in Ireland in July, according to ESPN. He wanted to bring the ideas from that meeting to a broader number of PGA Tour members.
The players are expected to take their suggestions on improving the tour to PGA commissioner Jay Monahan and other tour administrators.
“It was about all the top players getting on the same page,” a player who attended the meeting told ESPN. “It was a good meeting.”
Tiger Woods is scheduled to meet with several of the world’s top golfers on Tuesday to rally support for the PGA Tour amid a steady flow of players leaving the tour for LIV Golf.
The meeting will occur at the BMW Championship in Wilmington, Delaware, following a PGA Tour Player Advisory Council meeting. It will involve many of the top 20 golfers in the world and “other influential PGA Tour members” who have remained on the PGA Tour and refrained from joining LIV Golf, according to ESPN.
A player invited to the meeting was quoted anonymously by ESPN, saying the meeting is “to get the top 20 players in the world on the same page on how we can continue to make the PGA Tour the best product in professional golf.”
Woods, who himself reportedly turned down an offer between $700 million and $800 million to join LIV Golf, has been a vocal critic of players who left the PGA Tour.
“I disagree with it,” Woods said in July. “I think that what they’ve done is they’ve turned their back on what has allowed them to get to this position.”
Several past major champions, including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, and Bubba Watson, have been enticed to join the new Saudi government-funded circuit with guaranteed contracts reportedly worth between $100 million and $200 million.
The Telegraph of London reported last week that world No.2 Cameron Smith of Australia is allegedly set to join LIV Golf, which would make him the highest-ranked golfer to join LIV. Smith recently won the 250th British Open, one of golf’s four major tournaments held each year, hosted at St. Andrew’s golf course in Scotland.
The 46-year-old Woods, arguably the greatest golfer of all time with 15 major victories and 82 PGA Tour wins to his credit, has openly questioned what LIV Golf would mean for the future of the sport.
He has specifically shared his concerns over younger players, whose opportunity to compete in majors could be jeopardized by competing for LIV.
LIV Golf is yet to be recognized by the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), so players do not receive world ranking points from LIV events.
OWGR points are used to determine exemptions and competitors for the four majors: the Masters, the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open, and The Open. LIV Golf submitted its application for OWGR recognition last month and is awaiting a ruling.
“Some of these players may not ever get a chance to play in major championships. That is a possibility,” Woods said. “We don’t know that for sure yet. It’s up to all the major championship bodies to make that determination. But that is a possibility, that some players will never, ever get a chance to play in a major championship, never get a chance to experience this right here, walk down the fairways at Augusta National. That, to me, I just don’t understand it.”
The PGA Tour has taken a hardline stance against players who have defected, banning them from all PGA Tour events. However, those with proper qualifications have been permitted to play in majors which fall outside the purview of the PGA.
Tuesday’s meeting is taking place a week after a federal judge in California denied a temporary restraining order filed by three players — Talor Gooch, Matt Jones, and Hudson Swafford — who had defected from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf and wanted to compete in the PGA’s FedEx Cup playoffs.