Money is apparently thicker than blood in the ongoing battle for golf supremacy between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
Three days after a top player said those who attended Tuesday’s players-only meeting led by Tiger Woods at the Hotel Du Pont ahead of this week’s BMW Championship in Wilmington, Del. meeting secret, those details began to emerge on Saturday. Chief among them: A plan in which the Tour would hold 18 tournaments with 60 players and $20 million purses, according to Sports Illustrated and The Firepit Collective.
A source also confirmed details of the meeting with The Post on Saturday.
It’s just one of many steps under discussion as the Tour tries to thwart the controversial Saudi-backed rival competition with $25 million grants and has already poached Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka for huge, reported deals. of nine digits guaranteed only to enter.
Another detail revealed was that the Tour was relinquishing its non-profit status, which The Firepit Collective Woods and Rory McIlroy, who was also present at the meeting, would support. This would cost the Tour about $20 million to $50 million annually, the report said, but that would also provide a financial freedom it doesn’t currently have.
While the Tour can’t compete with the endlessly deep pockets of LIV, which is backed by Saudi Arabia’s state wealth fund worth more than $600 billion, privatizations and thus top players can be paid just as well as LIV.
During the meeting, which lasted more than three hours, ideas were discussed about an annual stipend for players and whether the Tour should meet with LIV.
“Everyone in the room left in a better place and excited about what might be coming,” a player who attended the meeting told The Post earlier this week. “Every time you can get a group of guys like that together [in the same room], that doesn’t happen often. Maybe it should have happened a while ago.”
Woods’ presence—he flew in from his South Florida home especially for the meeting and brought Rickie Fowler with him—also went a long way with those in the room, which had over 20 players in all.
According to a source at the meeting, “the Tour may have tried” [with players] more than in the past too, which is good to see.”
Meanwhile, the Tour’s postseason ends next week at the Tour Championship in Atlanta’s East Lake, where the FedEx champion will be crowned and earn $18 million.
After that, however, it is expected that at least a handful of players will jump to LIV to take the plunge in that circuit’s next event, the following week outside of Boston. Reportedly among them is the reigning British Open camp Cameron Smith.
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