Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy team up with PGA Tour to introduce unique one-day competitions, reports

Details of this week’s megawatt meeting in Delaware among the biggest golf stars on the planet who discussed the future of both the sport and the PGA Tour are scant, but here it is and there’s a The roadmap is starting to be revealed. Apparently, one of those signs will be a series of “non-green, stadium environment” competitions supported by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, held over a single season and run as a single season. a one-time competition starting in 2024, according to Golfweek.

While details on these events are scarce, Golfweek reports that PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan is open to discussing parts of this venture if not fully disclosed later this week at The Tour Championship ends the season. It remains to be seen exactly what these televised events – reported to a live audience – might look like, but it’s interesting to consider their future existence given that McIlroy’s. spoke earlier this week after the starry meeting room and before the BMW Championship.

“We need to meet the top people together more often than we do,” McIlroy said. While he talks about golf tournaments like the Genesis Invitational and Memorial, the same concept can be applied to these events. Here’s more info from Golfweek.

It is presented as a long-term opportunity for players to build equity in the business, which will have private funding in addition to corporate partnerships and sponsors. According to a source close to the chat, the suggestion was well received by players in the room.

It looks like much of what the future of the PGA Tour will look like – whether it’s off-course one-off tournaments or potential teams like LIV Golf has done or whatever else – is driven. at least in part by the idea of ​​equity, which is a big selling point for business-minded modern golfers like McIlroy and others.

Part of the fun here is that depending on how things are structured, it seems likely that anything the PGA Tour does regarding private equity will require them to give up their nonprofit status and become a non-profit. into a for-profit company. It is something that is said to be under research and will allow private money to flow in from many different places.

While this sequence of events seems far more comprehensive and more continuous than any one-off bout the pros have been involved in over the past few years, it also won’t be McIlroy’s first time. and Woods teamed up on a match-specific -TV event together. They are part of the Payne’s Valley Cup in 2020 with Justin Rose and Justin Thomas also participating.

When McIlroy was asked about the action steps that have been taken by the sport’s superstars, he was irked, but there’s a lot going on behind the scenes and it’s largely down to the players. , who effectively run this members-only tournament. .

“That’s what we’re doing, right? Short-term, medium-term, long-term,” he said. That’s what we have to figure out. “

Obviously figuring it out means, among other things, branding and some fan interest in golf. Whether that leads to a skill contest or a long-running one – the contests Bryson DeChambeau has entered in recent years have been both engaging and drawing solid viewerships – remains to be seen. However, it’s clear that the biggest names in the sport – literally the two biggest names in golf in the world – are all in the fight to grow and increase the PGA Tour’s presence as facing LIV Golf in progress.