Woods and McIlroy offered LIV Golf teams in released merger emails

11 July 2023 , 15:30

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Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy could feature on the LIV Golf circuit (Image: Getty Images)

Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy were reportedly offered the chance to own a LIV Golf team, following the framework agreement between the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF).

Following the shock announcement that the PGA Tour had agreed a deal with PIF last month, Tour officials are appearing in front of the U.S. Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in regard to the agreement. Ahead of the hearing many questions have been asked as to what the future holds for professional golf.

On the back of Tuesday's Senate investigation a whole host of further information on the agreement has been revealed, with the future of both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf being mapped out.

Per The Washington Post arguably two of the sport's biggest names in Woods and McIlroy were set to be offered the chance to take ownership rights of a LIV Golf team and compete on the breakaway circuit in the early stages of negotiations. This would come as a shock to many, after the PGA Tour duo had emerged as two of LIV's biggest critics over the past year.

Infamously both Woods and McIlroy called on the Saudi-backed league's bullish CEO Greg Norman to be removed from his role if the two rival tours were to every work in harmony. Speaking last November, McIlroy said: "I think Greg [Norman] needs to go, he needs to exit stage left.

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"Look, he’s made his mark but now is the right time to say ‘look, you’ve got this thing [LIV Golf] off the ground but no one is going to talk unless there's an adult in the room that can actually try to mend fences." A similar sentiment was also made by Woods.

Greg Norman's role could have been in jeopardy (Peter Van der Klooster/Getty Images)

As Rory said, I think Greg’s got to leave and then we can eventually, hopefully, have a stay between the two lawsuits and figure something out," the 82-time PGA Tour winner said last year. "But why would you change anything if you’ve got a lawsuit against you?

"They sued us first. I see that there’s an opportunity out there if both organisations put a stay on their litigation but that’s the problem, they’ve got to put a stay on it." And it appears they were almost granted their, with the documents also claiming that a proposal was made to have Norman sacked from his role.

The since unsuccessful ideas proposed between the PGA Tour and PIF, also stated a plan to make a 'World Golf Series' which would be a team championship concluding in Saudi Arabia. A representative of the PGA Tour has since confirmed these proposals did not make the framework agreement.

Joshua Lees