Court documents stemming from a lawsuit filed against the Pga Tour revealed new details in the organization’s battle with LIV Golf—and by extension, the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF) that the tour is in talks to partner with.
The documents were made publicly available as part of a suit filed by attorney Larry Klayman, who is seeking class-action status on an antitrust claim against the PGA Tour. He alleges that the tour’s ban on LIV Golf players prevents the best golfers from competing against each other and harms the fans.
Among the details in the over 350-page document were plans for a town hall-style meeting, led by PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, that never happened before the 2022 Travelers Championship just over a year ago.
It also appeared from the documents that Tiger Woods was expected to be at the meeting. Talking points were included for Woods, who supposedly may have said that “I think Jay is working his ass off” and Monahan is “the right guy for this war. He’s a fighter.”
At the ‘22 Travelers, Monahan held a player meeting to discuss LIV defections. He and his team planned for Tiger to speak and even scripted his speech.
“First, do what I did: tell the Saudis to go fuck themselves”
This is a must read!
Huge credit to @desertdufferLLG again. pic.twitter.com/KjeBJ9ibIH
— Flushing It (@flushingitgolf) July 1, 2023
The documents continue on to have Woods tell the players, “First, do what I did: tell the Saudis to go f— themselves. And mean it. Second, tell the world—over and over any chance you get—that you will be sticking with the PGA Tour because you are part of something bigger than yourself.”
Woods wrote on Twitter that he didn’t attend this meeting and was unaware of the talking points until the documents were released.
In response to the talking points memo released this weekend, I have never seen this document until today, and I did not attend the players meeting for which it was prepared at the 2022 Travelers.
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) July 2, 2023
The documents also revealed that DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley was meeting with people from the PIF as late as July 2021—six months after the “strategic alliance” between the DPWT and PGA Tour was announced and just under a year before LIV Golf teed off for their first event in June 2022.
Cover Image Via SBNation
