Tour Confidential: Tiger and Charlie Woods, the PGA Tour’s future, Part IV

1. As the Dec. 31 cutoff time for the PGA Visit/PIF/DP World Visit consolidation lingers, there’s still a lot of vulnerability on what the eventual fate of the PGA Visit, and ace golf, will seem to be. Additionally, it appears that the PIF is in charge now that LIV Golf has acquired Jon Rahm from the PGA Tour. Investigate your precious stone ball and anticipate what may be the most probable result from this expected consolidation.

At the NYT Dealbook summit, gray suit-clad Jay Monahan addresses the audience.
PGA Visit players recruit attorneys, ‘request’ replies on PIF talks
Jessica Marksbury, senior supervisor (@jess_marksbury): LIV appears to be here to stay, at least for the time being, with a well-known player like Rahm currently playing for the opposing team! I anticipate that the merger will result in a clearly defined path for Tour defectors to return. I additionally think there must be a few joint competitions later on, correct?

Alan Bastable, leader proofreader (@alan_bastable): By the stated deadline or shortly thereafter, I believe some kind of contract will be signed. LIV, as the Rahm marking reminded us, has a lot of juice/capital for the Visit not to consent to a détente of some sort or another. Additionally, no one—the Tour, the players, and most importantly, the fans—would like to see men’s pro golf essentially cannibalizing itself. Now is the ideal time to discover some center ground and let the best players on the planet contend with each other multiple times each year. Eventually, I think we land where LIV players get world positioning focuses (with LIV consenting to an organization change), and as Jess expressed, with some level of smoothness between the two visits at any rate. That feels like the main way forward.


Marksbury: Indeed, Alan. Certainly feel like world-positioning focuses must be fundamentally important for LIV.

Sean Zak, senior manager (@Sean_Zak): The best guess is that the investment’s definitive agreement will be signed in January. LIV Golf dispatches that very week as a Mark Occasion at Stone. Everybody will be blissful, realizing that Jon Rahm could be back contending with them in 2025. After 2024, LIV Golf will be part of a team golf series that will be incorporated into the schedule of the greater Tour going forward.

2. ESPN reported on Friday that the PGA Tour and the Strategic Sports Group, which is made up of well-known billionaire team owners, are planning a multibillion-dollar deal that would inject more than $3 billion into the Tour. We should get to the stray pieces of this: What exactly does this mean for the Tour and its future if this or a similar deal with a company other than the Saudi PIF goes through?

Bastable: As referenced, I think the PIF arrangement will proceed and, who knows, perhaps a third financial backer likewise comes in, and that implies the Visit will be totally loaded. The flood of venture will mean the Visit and its new board-room accomplices will have critical choices to make about how to best spend and reinvest those dollars. The Tour’s biggest challenge will be re-engaging fans, despite the already high purses, bonuses, and other revenue streams. Over the recent years, the interminable hand-wringing over players getting their monetary due has been a gigantic side road. Pushing ahead, each choice the Visit and its new accomplices make ought to be made with fans top of brain.

Marksbury: It’s a great chance to be a genius golf player, that is without a doubt! As Alan mentioned, more staggering sums for the world’s best players result from having more partners, which means more billions. Yet, in the occasion an arrangement goes through without the PIF, I think it makes things considerably more dubious. The Jon Rahm marking clarified that even LIV’s staunchest rivals can in any case be purchased, and pursuing a monetary fight won’t end well for the Visit. However, with Tiger Woods’ inclusion on the PGA Visit strategy board, obviously the players will have all the more a voice rather than they did already, so anything Visit choices are made, they’ll basically be given a more bound together front than what we’ve seen up to this point.

Zak: On the off chance that the PIF isn’t involved, then don’t expect group golf to exist much on the PGA Visit. That is one of three things the PIF brings: group golf, billions of dollars, and probably the best golf players on the planet. The Tour’s future looks worse without that. The future of the sport appears divided. The pathways to more prominent speculation change for the ladies’ down. A significant domino would stream down in manners we couldn’t in fact very envision. I’d figure the arrangement board understands that.

3. In the outcome of the Jon Rahm-to-LIV Golf news, Jordan Spieth told the Related Press: ” He probably didn’t care about the money. I accept he saw two places that neither one of the ones was in an extraordinary circumstance at the present time, and he expressed, ‘Should have the cash.'” Do you concur with Spieth?

Jordan Spieth dishes amazing interpretation of Jon Rahm’s LIV exit
Bastable: Uh, all things considered, obviously, the cash was the tipping point, however I think what Spieth was talking about was that different elements were working, and that Rahm didn’t go only for the cash. Evidently, Rahm was dissatisfied with the Tour’s current state as well as the secrecy surrounding the June 6 Tour-LIV agreement, as were many of his peers. I figure the hardest pill for Rahm to swallow will be LIV’s arrangement, which he is on the record as saying is deficient. But as was mentioned earlier, I could see that LIV will undergo changes in that direction, so Rahm’s dilemma might be resolved quickly.

Marksbury: With the consolidation approaching, I think Rahm saw a method for trading out in a gigantic manner, while as yet feeling certain that he could likely ultimately get back to the Visit one day on the off chance that he needed. His significant exclusions are secure into the indefinite future, so he likely didn’t feel he had truly anything to lose by hopping.

Zak: Individuals could forget when you said something, yet they remember what you said. Furthermore, more than anybody not named McIlroy, Woods, or perhaps Horschel, Rahm was relentless in his lack of engagement with LIV Golf. That he was so happy with flipping on his new suppositions was an update on how conclusions change. It doesn’t matter to me whether I agree with Spieth or not. It’s about Rahm telling himself, OK I’ve done something contrary to what I’ve said. I don’t figure individuals will fail to remember that.

4. Tony Finau seemed to put those rumors to rest when he posted on Instagram that he was excited for his 10th season on Tour and used the hashtag #imnotleaving. There were also rumors that he would join Rahm at LIV Golf. Could large names like Finau influence others to remain on the PGA Visit, or did Rahm leaving basically tell the playing golf world that nobody is protected?

Tony Finau squashes LIV tales, Jon Rahm suspended right away
Bastable: Rahm’s takeoff was an update that it’s senseless to attempt to make expectations about where any player could land.

Marksbury: Recall every one of the promises of faithfulness to the Visit from players like Dustin Johnson in 2022? So much for that! Tony may not be leaving, but Rahm’s change of heart on LIV is clear evidence that we never know what’s going on behind the scenes or what will ultimately influence a player.

Zak: Players and their families are likely to have lengthy conversations over the holidays. Considering Rahm’s relationships with Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, and a multimillion-dollar contract, I believe the distinction lies in the fact that not many Tour followers are as distinctly LIV-adjacent as he was. I simply cannot see any additional massive pieces switching sides.

5. Tiger Woods and child Charlie collaborated at the PNC Title, completing T5 out of 20 at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando, Fla. (The group of Bernhard and Jason Langer won.) Anything we can gather from Tiger’s down in a hit-and-chuckle occasion like this? And how did you feel about Charlie’s performance in his fourth appearance?

At the PNC, Charlie Woods draws attention. What’s more, he has some good times with 3 exceptionally striking words
Bastable: Ehh…it’s hard to draw any hard conclusions from cart golf because the biggest questions about Woods these days are about his ability to walk 72 holes. However, even if an E-Z-GO is involved, it’s nice to see him make two starts in three weeks. Also, Charlie? In the same way as other world class junior players in 2023, buddy has serious speed! That much was evident when he drove it through the green on a 320-yard par-4. Like his dad, he’s amusing to watch play.

Marksbury: Alan is right; we don’t know much about Tiger’s prospects this week other than the fact that he finished the rounds and appears to be in great physical shape, which is huge! I as of late returned to his physical issue timetable for a story, and I’m actually surprised by what his body has experienced throughout recent many years. Charlie, on the other hand, crushes his beautiful swing. He is 14 years old and has a pretty enviable swagger while playing from 6,500 yards in front of a global audience. It’s amazing to see.

Zak: Other than the PGA Tour negotiations, it does not appear that Woods is currently working hard. He didn’t hit a lot of good shots. However, he claimed to be removing rust. I believe there’s a lot of rust, yet he has many days before the Beginning Invitational.

Concerning Charlie, he truly raises a ruckus around town out of the ball. On many of their drives, he was the same length as Justin Thomas. Yet, we realize the game is considerably more than that. For a 14-year-old, he’s great. Yet, there are great many great 14-year-olds. However, i’m eager to watch his movement!

6. While Tiger and Charlie dominate the media coverage of this event, which other duo caught your attention?

As a result of Team Langer’s birdie blitz, they win their fifth PNC Championship Bastable: Intense not to see the value in the Langers hurrying up Sunday. Bernhard, who has been playing Champions Tour for 26 years, is awed by his peers, and now his 23-year-old son, Jason, will be envious of his friends who work in investment banking back at the office. Seeing Sam Woods, on the sack for her dad, in real life was additionally fun. Sam stays under the radar in the public eye — the last time we saw her was in 2022, when she gave a moving discourse at her dad’s Reality Golf Corridor of Notoriety enlistment — so was cool to see her stirring it up with her father and little brother.

Marksbury: I believe I’m presently a Stricker family stan. Steve brought home the Charles Schwab Cup championship without playing in the last competition — that is the way well his PGA Visit Champions season went for this present year. Steve’s better half, Nicki, qualified during the current year’s U.S. Senior Ladies’ Am, his senior little girl, Bobbi, contends on the Epson visit, and his more youthful little girl, Izzi, is making a beeline for Wisconsin to play school golf the following fall. All in all, WHAT A FAMILY. Steve and Izzi additionally played extraordinary this week, completing directly in the center of the pack. Aspirational!

Zak: Jess, I’M THE WISCONSIN Fellow. Will McGee, a 12-year-old boy, and his mother, Annika Sorenstam, had a great spring for me. They strolled up the eighteenth connected at the hip as Will said he would have liked to partake in the occasion. They shared a blissful tears interview with NBC subsequently. Great energies as it were. Enjoyable to watch.