It has been nearly eight months since the PGA Tour and PIF announced their plans to merge the two enterprises. However, the $3 billion merger has only gotten delayed over time. Meanwhile, the PGA Tour partnered up with SSG to create a for-profit entity, the PGA Tour Enterprise. The deal with PIF was left hanging as the PGA Tour formed its new board members.
One crucial member of the board is Tiger Woods, who was promoted to vice chairman. Though not playing much for his career at the moment, Woods holds an important place on the board. Despite this, Rory McIlroy’s former agent, Andrew ‘Chubby’ Chandler, believes that Woods no more has the authority to bring the merger to the front page.
In an Essentially Sports Exclusive, the former manager of the four-time major champion sat for an interview with Aravind S Menon and shared his honest thoughts on TGL while also shedding light on the PGA Tour betraying Rory McIlroy. During the chat, he also highlighted how the PGA Tour and PIF merging may not be in the hands of Tiger Woods.
When Menon asked Chandler if Woods was the only player to bring bifurcated parts of the golf world together, he bluntly said, “No. He’s too anti-LIV [Golf] to do it.” During the ES Exclusive interview, the ex-agent of McIlroy continued to explain why Woods would be unsuitable. “I think it needs somebody more, more neutral than that, but I don’t know who the person is,” said Chubby.
In the ES Exclusive interview, organized in collaboration with Betideas’s host, Duncan Wright, Chandler shared more of his perspective on Woods’s diminishing influence. He explained, “Tiger can only do so much if he’s not playing. He’s not affecting viewing figures or anything now.” “I’m not sure you’ll be able to persuade 48 LIV players that they should pay back off the fee [penalty fee to return on the PGA Tour] or I don’t think that’s gonna happen,” he continued.
Chandler was certain that not all LIV Golf pros would want to return to the PGA Tour if the PGA Tour-PIF does happen in the future and the Tour enforced a penalty charge. The future of PIF with the PGA Tour looks bleak as of late, but a recent move by Yasir Al-Rumayyan sparks a ray of hope that the merger may be finalized soon.
The PGA Tour currently plays at the TPC Sawgrass – Stadium Course in Ponte Vedra Beach for the 50th PLAYERS Championship. Per sources of Golf Week and The Golf Channel, player directors like Jordan Spieth, Webb Simpson and more have been encouraged to meet Yasir Al-Rumayyan to further merger talks.
It seems like all six PAC directors may be meeting with the PIF’s head in a bid to finalize the merger. The news was confirmed by Spieth as he revealed at the post-match press conference, “We’re being encouraged, obviously, which I think is probably a good thing that the entire board should if there’s going to be any potential for a negotiation.”
Whether the meeting will end up with the two parties getting together or not will remain a mystery for a while. However, it is certainly a huge step in the direction of churning out a final agreement, even if it results in the PGA Tour and PIF going on different paths.
