The ‘Tiger Woods Rule’ is happening (but PGA Tour still tight-lipped on PIF talks)

The PGA Tour says “there is still work to do” as it tries to thrash out an agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

In an email to players titled “Policy Board Meeting Summary – June 2024”, the Tour confirmed that the meeting between the governing body and members of the PIF board, including governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, did happen, and a follow up involving the PGA Tour policy board and PGA Tour Enterprises board took place last week in Connecticut.

The email said that, as part of the discussion items, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan “provided an update on the recent PIF meetings”.

It continued: “As we’ve said in the past, we can’t negotiate in public, but we are making progress. Two weeks ago, members of our PGA Tour Enterprises Transaction Subcommittee met in New York with Yasir Al–Rumayyan, as well as members of his team.

“During that meeting, we reached consensus on several items, but both parties recognise that there is still work to do to reach a final agreement.

“Our talks are ongoing with the goal of developing a shared vision for the future of professional golf that is pro competitive and provides players with the best global opportunities.

“Your player directors have been crucial in the process, their insights and perspectives are steering us towards a positive outcome. And we will keep you updated as additional work is accomplished.”

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Speaking ahead of the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands, Monahan told reporters he understands why people are frustrated – “I know you’re eager to know more” – but reiterated that “it was a very productive discussion”.

He added: “I’d like to give you more. But I would say to you that there are a lot of important aspects that we talked about in that meeting, aspects that would be important towards the final agreement that we got consensus on, and there are a number of areas that we recognise that we weren’t going to but identify. That’s what we’re focused on.

“A lot of people seem to think that there are things that are happening that aren’t happening, but ultimately we’re the arbiters of that.

“Listen, I understand there’s a lot of attention and there’s going be a lot of opinions and a lot of rumours. It’s part of the position I and all of us find ourselves in. We’re focused on trying to get to the right outcome for our players, for our fans, for the game of golf. That’s where our focus is.”

One thing both parties did make progress on, though, is agreeing a lifetime exemption rule for Tiger Woods.

First reported last week, the 82-time PGA Tour champion will receive his own sponsor exemptions for Signature Events starting from next season.

Woods, who has been playing a restricted schedule and has only appeared in the three majors so far in 2024 as well as a brief showing at the Genesis Invitational, does not qualify for the big-purse, limited-field Signature Events, but will be exempt going forward as a winner of more than 80 titles.

Monahan explained: “It was important to our membership, it’s something we talked about with the PAC, it was important to our player directors, it was important to our board, it’s important to me because the man, as the exemption says, has won more than 80 events.

“Any event he’s ever played in he’s made it bigger, he’s made it better, he’s drawn more eyeballs to it, and as an organisation we wanted to celebrate his exceptionalism in that manner.”

The Tour also approved to increase the number of players at the Signature Events to 72 – with a number of alternates to maintain that number should anyone pull out.

Alex Perry is the Associate Editor of bunkered. A journalist for more than 20 years, he has been a golf industry stalwart for the majority of his career and, in a five-year spell at ESPN, covered every sporting event you can think of. He completed his own Grand Slam at the 2023 Masters, having fallen in love with the sport at his hometown club of Okehampton and on the links of nearby Bude & North Cornwall.

Associate Editor