Tiger Woods is no doubt one of the most prominent voices in golf and the 15-time major winner is one of the big drivers behind a potential deal between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
This weekend has seen suggestions that LIV and the PGA are close to a $1bn deal which would effectively end the stalemate between the two entities and allow the game to move forward.
As yet, there is no official confirmation of any sort of deal being done and just like the last few months, golf fans are essentially being left in limbo.
Still, these reports emerging suggest that something is at least rumbling on behind the scenes and as they say, there’s no smoke without fire.
Of course, one of the big problems or decisions that needs to be made is the pathway for LIV players to return to the PGA Tour without any sort of punishment.
How that will play out, remains to be seen. But it’s worth noting that the previous stances of both Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have been on this issue.
Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s stance clear on LIV golfers returning to PGA Tour events
As player director on the board for the PGA, it’s safe to say that Tiger has a lot of say in what happens and you can imagine he’s very much a key link man between the players, board, and LIV reps.
Woods himself has spoken on the issue of LIV players returning in the past and admitted it’s something he’s open to, albeit he doesn’t know how it would work.
“We’re looking into all the different models for pathways back,” Woods said previously.
“What that looks like, what the impact is for the players who have stayed and who have not left and how we make our product better going forward, there is no answer to that right now. We’re looking at a very different — varying degrees of ideas and what that looks like in the short term, we don’t know. We don’t even know in the longer term what that looks like.”
“Trust me, there’s daily, weekly emails and talks about this and what this looks like for our tour going forward.”
Likewise, fellow PGA star Rory McIlroy has also softened his stance on the LIV players making a return, despite initially being completely against the idea.
“Guys made choices to go and play LIV, guys made choices to stay here. If people still have eligibility on this tour and they want to come back and play or you want to try and do something, let them come back. I think it’s hard to punish people. I don’t think there should be a punishment,” McIlroy said.
“Obviously I’ve changed my tune on that because I see where golf is and I see that having a diminished PGA Tour and having a diminished LIV Tour or anything else is bad for both parties.”
With the likes of Bryson DeChambeau also calling for a return to the PGA Tour in some degree as well, it looks like golfers could end up getting what they want here.
Then again, it could all be smoke and mirrors and we end up in the same position come the 2025 season.
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