Tiger Woods Surprised & Frustrated With Nature Of Truce Talks

Tiger Woods used his press conference at the Hero World Challenge to reveal his surprise and frustration at the secretive way in which a potential peace deal in golf’s civil war was agreed and said: “That won’t happen again.”

Woods will compete for the first time this week since having ankle surgery in April and believes he is now fit enough to play in one tournament a month in 2024. He also made it clear that he has no interest in being named US Ryder Cup captain for the match in 2025.

However, the questions in his pre-tournament press conference in the Bahamas were predominantly about the future shape of men’s professional golf after he took on a major role in those discussions by becoming a player-directory on the PGA Tour’s policy board.

FULL PRESS CONFERENCE

The world of golf was stunned when a framework agreement between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) was announced on June 6, with a deadline of December 31 for a deal to be finalised.

“I would say my reaction was surprised as I’m sure a lot of the players were taken back by it, by what happened so quickly without any input or any information about it, it was just thrown out there,” said Woods.

“We were very frustrated with what happened. We were all taken back by it. It happened so quickly without any of our involvement. No one knew. That can’t happen again.

“How do we do that is having six player directors so we control the board and we control what we’re going to do.

“Jay [Monahan, PGA Tour commissioner] has been a part of the direction, he understands what happened prior to that can’t happen again and won’t happen again, not with the players that are involved and not with the player directors having the role that we have.”

Woods, who said he totally understood why Rory McIlroy had stood down as a player-director this month, is relishing the opportunity to have a “lasting impact” on the future of the PGA Tour as the future of LIV Golf and the players who joined the breakaway are decided.

“There is a way in which we can all benefit from team golf, it’s just how do we do it? We’re just trying to figure out that process now,” said Woods.

“We’ve been doing it for months, trying to figure out how that all works, what does that landscape even look like and where do we play and what impact does it have on our PGA Tour schedule?

“As far as a pathway [for LIV players], we’re still working on that. There’s so many different scenarios. That’s why I said there’s a lot of sleepless hours trying to figure that out.

“Everyone involved wants a return, that’s just part of doing deals, but we have to protect the integrity of our Tour and what that stands for going forward.”

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