SAN DIEGO — Tiger Woods was not part of the PGA Tour meeting on Feb. 4 with President Trump, but his mood in the aftermath matched the optimistic outlook of commissioner Jay Monahan earlier in the week as it relates to a deal with the Public Investment Fund.
Woods, 49, whose mother, Kultida, died during the time when the meeting with Trump was scheduled, made an appearance at Torrey Pines during the final round of the Genesis Invitational, a tournament that benefits his TGR Foundation.
Monahan and Adam Scott, a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board along with Woods who also went to the meeting, expressed similar positivity during a Wednesday meeting here with reporters.
“We’re in a very positive place right now,” Woods said while in the CBS broadcast booth with Jim Nantz and Trevor Immelman. “We had a meeting with the President. Unfortunately, I had some other circumstances that came up, but Jay and Adam, they did great during the meeting, and we have another subsequent meeting coming up.
“I think that things are going to heal quickly. We're going to get this game going in the right direction. It's been heading in the wrong direction for a number of years and the fans want all of us to play together, all the top players playing together and we're going to make that happen.”
Woods has originally planned to play the Genesis Invitational, which was moved from Riviera Country Club near Los Angeles due to the wildfires. He withdrew Monday saying he was not prepared after the death of his mother.
The 15-time major champion had been scheduled to join Monahan and Scott for a meeting with Trump before his mother died.
Woods and Monahan have typically been tight-lipped or offered little in the way of meaningful information as it related to the ongoing negotiations with the PIF, which backs LIV Golf.
The framework agreement was announced on June 6, 2023, and the complicated talks having seemingly languished at times while the PGA Tour and DP World Tour continue separately from LIV Golf, which just staged its biggest event in Australia, where Joaquin Niemann won Sunday.
That is why Woods’s words and those of Monahan earlier seemingly suggest something is imminent.
“What it means is the reunification of the game, which is what we have been and are focused on,” Monahan said Wednesday. “Candidly, that's what fans want. So when you talk about reunification, that's all the best players in the world competing with each other and against each other.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Tiger Woods Optimistic for PGA Tour-LIV Golf Deal: ‘Things Are Going to Heal Quickly’.
