Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods are set to team up to spearhead a new PGA Tour ‘stadium’ competition amid the body’s battle against LIV Golf.
The lucrative LIV Golf series is funded by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and it has divided golf, leaving the PGA and DP World Tours fractured after the new series poached some of the sports biggest names. Several of the world’s most prominent players have decided to switch to LIV Golf, including the likes of Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, and Dustin Johnson.
Woods and McIlroy have been two of the biggest supporters of the PGA Tour as the traditional tour has been divided by the controversial new Saudi-backed LIV Golf series. The duo have seemingly taken it upon themselves to lead the retaliation against the breakaway tour.
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Their plan was shared with fellow professionals during the players-only meeting to discuss the response to the rise of LIV Golf in Wilmington, Delaware last week. According to Golfweek, they proposed a series of one-day events that will be staged before a live audience in a non-green grass stadium environment which will showcase cutting-edge technology, too.
The events will be hosted by the PGA Tour and will be integrated into their schedule to complement other tournaments rather than conflict. They will reportedly launch in 2024, running from January through to March with a finale scheduled for later in the season.
The proposed project has been years in the making for both Woods and McIlroy, and the pair presented the plans in an attempt to derail the momentum of LIV Golf. The project - along with their united stance against the series with Woods reportedly turning down an $800 million offer to join - reportedly brought them closer together.
The meeting where Woods and McIlroy last presented their plans lasted 3.5 hours as they pitched the idea as a long-term opportunity for players to build equity in the enterprise, which will have private funding as well as corporate partnerships and sponsors. The proposal was reportedly received well by the 22 players who attended the meeting and the plan has been passed onto PGA Tour chief Jay Monahan.
After the meeting, McIlroy lavished praise on Woods, labelling him as the ‘alpha’ of the group. On the 15-time major champion’s determined approach to helping the PGA Tour, McIlroy said: “We're all great players but we're not Tiger Woods.
“He is the hero that we've all looked up to and his voice carries further than anyone else's in the game of golf. His role is navigating us to a place where we all think we should be.
“I think it's pretty apparent that whenever we all get in the room there's an alpha in there and it's not me. He cares a lot.”
The Northern Irishman added: “It shows how much he cares about the tour, it shows how much he cares about the players that are coming through and are going to be the next generation.
“He's carried the tour for a long, long time. Players that were his contemporaries, we've all benefited from that.”
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