Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods could have been offered ownership of LIV Golf franchises as part of the negotiations to broker golf’s uneasy peace.
The PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which bankrolls LIV, have agreed to end their long-running feud and join forces.
Details of those peace talks were revealed at a US Senate hearing yesterday. It showed that the squabbling parties were spending £77million a year on legal fees between them and that, in the wake of the peace deal, Saudi Arabia had committed to invest $1billion into the game.
Among the slides shown to senators was one saying: “LIV is proposing that Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods would own teams and play in at least 10 LIV events. This and the participation of other leading players is subject to further discussion.”
It is not clear if such a proposal was put to either player, both of whom have been very outspoken in their opposition to LIV.
Even after a peace deal was reached, McIlroy said, “I still hate LIV Golf.”
The Senate hearing suggested the PGA Tour had pushed for the removal of Greg Norman as LIV chief executive at the conclusion of any final agreement although the Australian remains in his post and has been at recent LIV events.
In all, a 10-page summary document was released by the Senate sub-committee scrutinising foreign investment in American sport along with 265 pages of emails.
PGA Tour member Jimmy Dunne, who was central in instigating the peace talks, said: “If LIV takes five players a year for five years, they can gut us. My fear is if we don’t get to an agreement. They are already putting billions of dollars into golf.”
