Tiger Woods now has the opportunity to finally help unify the professional game by offering an olive branch, so to speak, to LIV Golf duo Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm.
Woods is still the biggest name on the PGA Tour, despite the fact that he hasn’t played competitively in over a year.
Meanwhile, DeChambeau and European Ryder Cup hero Rahm are the two biggest draws on the LIV Golf league.
It’s such a shame that we, as fans, don’t get to see the best players in the world compete against each other on a consistent basis outside of the four major championships.
A merger between the PGA Tour and LIV is no closer to happening now than it was two or three years ago.
One of the main sticking points is believed to be LIV’s insistence on a team format remaining in any kind of join venture with the PGA Tour.
The players who stayed on the PGA Tour have a lot to thank LIV Golf for, not least the lucrative purses which they now play for since the emergence of the Saudi-backed outfit.
While the PGA Tour’s stance that players who left to join LIV are banned from competing in their events is a fair one, Woods now has a big opportunity to lay the foundations for a potential merger in the future.
Tiger Woods could unify golf by making Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm an offer
17 players have already been confirmed in the field for the Hero World Challenge starting on December 4th, including 11 of the top 20 players in the world.
However, there are still three remaining spots available, known as ‘tournament exemptions’.
Woods gets to choose which players get those spots, so why not make a statement by inviting DeChambeau, Rahm and one more LIV player, perhaps Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Joaquin Niemann or dare I say it, Phil Mickelson?
Now, as we all know, the Hero World Challenge is not a PGA Tour sanctioned event.
It does appear on the PGA Tour schedule but the tournament is run and managed by Woods’ organization, TGR Live.
And it has no FedEx Cup points or official PGA Tour money on offer.
The Hero World Challenge does offer world ranking points, and that would obviously appeal to the likes of DeChambeau and Rahm.
There is seemingly no rule that would actually prevent LIV players from competing at the Hero World Challenge and after all, if Tiger really wanted to, he has the power to make it happen.
Something has to change in the world of professional golf going forward and maybe something like DeChambeau and Rahm being invited to play in the Hero World Challenge by Woods is the turning point that is required.
Whether LIV players competing at the Hero World Challenge could be possible
Due to tensions between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, including DeChambeau and Rahm in the Hero World Challenge field may well receive some pushback.
However, there is a real chance to take a big step towards unifying the two tours here.
As things stand, it seems like neither side is willing to budge.
The PGA Tour stuck by their guns and didn’t even allow DeChambeau to play in the Procore Championship last month, alongside his Ryder Cup teammates.
Now Tiger Woods can make a big statement by inviting DeChambeau and Rahm to come and play in the Hero World Challenge at Albany Golf Club in the Bahamas in December.
Can you imagine the excitement surrounding Woods’ tournament in December, if DeChambeau and Rahm were included in the field alongside the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele?
The TV ratings would be off the charts and it would give everyone involved with the game a glimpse of what the future may hold for our wonderful game.
It would not only serve as a kind of peace offering to LIV Golf but it would also give DeChambeau and Rahm the chance to turn up and prove that they both should still be considered as two of the best golfers on the planet.
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