1661034524 PGA Tour Players Only Meeting Reveals LIV Golf Details

PGA Tour Players-Only Meeting Reveals LIV Golf Details

In the ongoing battle for golf supremacy between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, money is apparently thicker than blood.

Three days after a top player said those at Tuesday’s players-only meeting chaired by Tiger Woods at the Hotel Du Pont ahead of this week’s BMW Championship in Wilmington, Delaware, took a “blood oath” when it came to the matter , Details to keep meetings secret, these details began to emerge on Saturday. Chief among them: A plan where the tour would hold 18 tournaments with 60 players and $20 million in prize money, according to Sports Illustrated and The Firepit Collective.

A source also confirmed details of Saturday’s meeting with The Post.

Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy were among more than 20 players at a players-only meeting Tuesday to discuss how to combat LIV Golf.Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy were among more than 20 players at a players-only meeting Tuesday to discuss how to fight LIV Golf.AP/Getty Images

It’s just one move of many being debated as the tour seeks to thwart the controversial Saudi-backed rival league, which boasts $25m purses and already boasts Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka poached for huge, reported nine-figure deals guaranteed just to play.

Another detail to be revealed was talk of the tour relinquishing its charitable status, which The Firepit Collective said 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 it would also provide financial freedom it doesn’t currently have.

While the tour can’t match LIV’s endlessly deep pockets, backed by Saudi Arabia’s more than $600 billion sovereign wealth fund, privatizations and therefore top players like LIV could be well paid.

Other ideas discussed at the more than three-hour meeting included an annual stipend for players and whether the tour should meet with LIV.

“Everyone in the room left in a better place and looking forward to what might be to come,” a player who was at the gathering told The Post earlier in the week. “You can always bring a group of guys together like that [in the same room], that doesn’t happen often. Maybe it should have happened a while ago.”

Wood’s presence — he flew in from his home in South Florida specifically for the meeting and brought Rickie Fowler with him — was also a big step for those in the room, which totaled more than 20 players.

According to a source at the meeting, “The tour may have tried [with players] also more than in the past, which is good to see.”

Meanwhile, the Tour’s postseason will conclude at next week’s Tour Championship in Atlanta’s East Lake, where their FedEx Champion will be crowned and earn $18 million.

After that, however, at least a handful of LIV players are expected to compete at the circuit’s next event the following week outside of Boston. Reportedly among them is reigning British Open camp Cameron Smith.