Tiger, fellow player directors meet PIF governor, who talks through vision

Members of the PGA Tour Enterprises board, including player director Tiger Woods, were in the Bahamas on Monday for what was, for many of them, the first in-person meeting with PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan.

According to Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis, Woods was one of several player directors who joined PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan down at Albany, the tony community in New Providence. Flight-tracking accounts also placed Woods’ jet in the Bahamas, as well as planes registered to the PIF, PGA Tour and Strategic Sports Group member John Henry of Fenway Sports Group.

While both sides, the Tour and PIF, are keeping negotiations “close to the vest,” Lewis reported, the meeting would be more of the Tour’s board members “putting a face to the name” regarding PIF representatives. Lewis added that future discussions would likely focus on three main points: 1. How much PIF would invest in the for-profit PGA Tour Enterprises, 2. Where team golf fits into new entity, 3. Potential pathways back to the Tour from LIV Golf.

Initial reports of this meeting had it taking place at a private residence in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Then on Sunday, Patrick Cantlay, a player director, confirmed the meeting with the PIF governor, though Cantlay said that he didn’t “imagine anything substantive” coming from Monday’s “meet-and-greet.”

“I’m going into the first meeting with the idea of listening a lot more than talking,” Cantlay said. “I’m excited to hear all I’ll learn.”

By Monday evening, Monahan had updated PGA Tour member via memo (first reported by Monday Q Info), saying he and the six player directors (Woods, Cantlay, Webb Simpson, Adam Scott, Jordan Spieth and Peter Malnati) did indeed visit with Al-Rumayyan on Monday, and that, “The conversation throughout was constructive and represents an important part of our due diligence process in selecting potential investors for PGA Tour Enterprises. This mirrors the approach we employed earlier this year as we evaluated an investment offer from the Strategic Sports Group. During the session, Yasir had a chance to introduce himself to our player directors and talk through his vision, priorities and motivations for investing in professional golf.

“As we continue these discussions with the PIF, we will keep you updated as much as possible, but please understand that we need to maintain our position of not conducting negotiations in public. To that end, we will provide no further comments to the media at this time.”