PGA Tour turn to Tiger Woods in desperate bid to validate $3bn investment deal
Tiger Woods gave the PGA Tour's $3billion (£2.4bn) investment deal with Strategic Sports Group (SSG) a ringing endorsement on a conference call.
The tour announced the deal, fronted by Liverpool owner John W. Henry, on Wednesday after negotiations were completed late on Tuesday evening, bringing an immediate $1.5b (£1.2b) cash injection, with the potential for that investment to double over time. New York Mets owner Steven A. Cohen and Atlanta Falcons supremo Arthur Blank are also part of the investment group.
The deal will give almost 200 PGA Tour members the opportunity to hold equity in newly-formed PGA Tour Enterprises, seen as a reward for loyalty amid the LIV Golf breakaway. The SSG investment is not directly tied to the PGA Tour's ongoing negotiations with LIV backers the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, with merger talks that would heal the fractures in the elite game being held up by US Government scrutiny.
Many players have been left disillusioned by the leadership of PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan since the LIV Golf breakaway, but Woods had his back in Wednesday's conference call. With tour other executives and the new investors dialled in, 15-time major champion Woods took the floor and heralded a deal he believes is unlike any other in professional sports, with players given ownership of the tour.
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“Hey everyone, this is Tiger Woods,” he began, according to Golf.com. “Just wanted to say thank you, SSG, for believing in us and believing in our sport. Believing in the potential growth that we could enjoy together. Golf is an amazing sport. It has allowed communities to heal and grow.
"And we, as a team, are going to offer that according to what we believe is the true compensation and meritocracy that our sport has been built upon for all these years.
Woods has thrown his full support behind the deal Jay Monahan negotiated to create PGA Tour Enterprises. (Getty Images)“As has been described earlier, as the Tour grows, we grow. So the more we invest into the Tour, the more we get the benefits of it. Which has never been — it’s never happened in sports history. So we’re the first. Exciting for me to be able to be part of that.”
Peter Malnati, a 36-year-old rank-and-file PGA Tour member and player director with one victory back in 2015, also shared Woods' enthusiasm for the deal, despite their vastly different career arcs.
“I actually think it’s kind of fitting that you just heard from probably the greatest player to ever play on the PGA Tour — definitely the greatest of our generation — share his enthusiasm and his excitement for this deal," Malnati told investors.
"And now I’m going to tell you that, as a guy who has been on tour for 10 years and has never finished better than 86th in the FedEx Cup, this deal is equally exciting for me as it is for Tiger.”
Woods, 48, is on the road to recovery after having surgery last year to fuse his ankle. He played in the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas in December, finishing 18th, and he is expected to tee it up at Riviera Country Club for The Genesis Invitational on February 15.
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