Every successful athlete in the world likes to control his or her own world. Nobody over the past 25 years has done a better of that than Tiger Woods. That’s why it’s a bit surprising that Woods expressed his surprise at the slowness of this past June’s framework agreement between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf’s Public Investment Fund.
In as candid as Woods’ gets about anything – including his own health – the Striped One spoke today ahead of this week’s Hero World Challenge at the Albany Golf Course in the Bahamas. Woods is serving a dual role of host and competitor in the event. It will be his first rounds of competitive golf in six months.
“I would say my reaction was surprised, just like I’m sure a lot of the players were taken back by it – what had happened so quickly and without any input or any kind of information about it,’’ Woods said of the agreement.
“It was just thrown out there. I was very surprised that the process was what it was. We were very frustrated with what happened and we took steps going forward to ensure that the player involvement – we were not going to be left out of the process like we were.’’
A sort of “unofficial’’ official deadline for a formal agreement always has been Dec. 31, but Woods seemed to make that date for “official.’’
“December 31 is coming up very quickly, so there’s a timetable there. We would like to implement some of these changes that have not taken place. The guys – all the player directors have spent so many hours and worked tirelessly to ensure we have the best deal for all the players involved on the entire PGA Tour.
“All the parties are talking and aggressively working on trying to get a deal done. We’re all trying to make sure that the process is better too as well, and so implementation of governance is one of the main topics – getting the deal done and making sure it gets done the right way.’’
Tiger Woods said the players still have multiple options, but we would like to have a deal done on Dec. 31.
“That’s what the agreement said in the summer, and all parties understand that. But, there are other options out there.”
Photo: Getty Images