Tiger Woods joins another White House meeting as PGA Tour moves closer to Saudi deal

Tiger Woods joined PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and player director Adam Scott in a second White House meeting Thursday with President Donald Trump, another sign the sport is moving rapidly toward ending the division brought on by Saudi-funded LIV Golf.

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and the financial muscle behind the rival league, also was part of the meeting.

“Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, we have initiated a discussion about the reunification of golf,” the PGA Tour said in a statement signed by Monahan, Woods and Scott.

The tour said it would share more details when appropriate, adding: “We are committed to moving as quickly as possible.”

“We share a passion for the game and the importance of reunification,” the statement said. “Most importantly, we all want the best players in the world playing together more often and are committed to doing all we can to deliver that outcome for our fans.”

Trump said later at a Black History Month reception, where he acknowledged the presence of Woods, Scott and Monahan, “We had some interesting discussions.”

Woods entered the room with Trump and went on stage with him wearing the Presidential Medal of Freedom he received from Trump in 2019. Trump prodded him to speak and those in attendance began to chant, “Tiger, Tiger.”

It was the second time in just over two weeks that PGA Tour leadership — Woods and Scott are on the board — met at the White House. Woods had to leave before the Feb. 4 meeting because his mother died in Florida. He played golf with Trump on Feb. 9.

Woods had said during the CBS broadcast of the final round at the Genesis Invitational that “we have another meeting coming up.”

“I think that things are going to heal quickly,” Woods, the tournament host, said on the Sunday broadcast. “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.”

LIV Golf launched in June 2022 and lured away several top names — Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm — over the next few years with signing bonuses reported to top $100 million in some cases.

The PGA Tour, PIF and the European tour (commercially known as the DP World Tour) signed an agreement in June 2023, but it expired at the end of the year as the Justice Department raised antitrust concerns.

The PGA Tour brought on Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of North American pro sports owners led by Fenway Sports, as a minority partner in the commercial PGA Tour Enterprises at the start of 2024 with a $1.5 billion investment.

PIF is negotiating to be a minority investor, though Monahan made it clear last week the priority was bringing all the best players together more often.

How that looks remains unclear, though Monahan did say he had a clear vision of the end product. He had said at Torrey Pines last week Trump's goal was golf “operating under one tour with all the top players playing on that one tour.”

Asked to clarify “one tour” and how that relates to LIV Golf, Monahan said it meant reunification. The statement Thursday mentioned the best players competing more often.

Currently, the top LIV players can only face Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and the majority of golf's best players at the four majors. Some LIV players also have access to European tour events.

Any agreement with PIF would require approval by the PGA Tour Enterprises board, the commercial outfit that grew out of the original June 2023 framework agreement.

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Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf