PGA Tour set for pivotal PIF meeting following latest investment decision

At last week’s Hero World Challenge, Tiger Woods expressed frustration with the slow speed of the PGA Tour’s investment decisions.

Things have certainly sped up.

After a series of Policy Board meetings that continued over the weekend, the PGA Tour informed its membership on Sunday that they’d selected the Strategic Sports Group, which it described as a “consortium of U.S.-based professional sports team investors led by Fenway Sports Group.”

The group includes Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, Boston Red Sox owner John Henry, Boston Celtics Wyc Grousbeck and more.

The move comes in the wake of World No. 3 Jon Rahm’s defection to LIV, a shocking development made official on Thursday. That signing was the first time a PGA Tour player had committed to LIV since the two sides entered into a framework agreement on June 6th. That framework agreement has a deadline of Dec. 31. The timing hardly seems like a coincidence; LIV is eager to establish leverage as the Tour decides its next move.

The decision also comes ahead of an anticipated meeting: PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and PIF governer (and LIV chairman) Yasir Al-Rumayyan are set for an in-person sitdown this week, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Before this weekend, three investment partners had been in the running for PGA Tour partnership: the Fenway group, Acorn Growth Companies and F1 owner Liberty Media. Now that the board has elected to move forward with the SSG it clears the way to advance discussions with LIV’s financial backer.

“We also anticipate advancing our negotiations with PIF in the weeks to come,” the letter read.

The Policy Board stated that they’d arrived at the decision “unanimously.” The board consists of players Patrick Cantlay, Charley Hoffman, Peter Malnati, Webb Simpson, Jordan Spieth and Tiger Woods as well as independent directors Ed Herlihy, Jimmy Dunne, Mark Flaherty, Joe Gorder and Mary Meeker.

You can read the complete letter from the Policy Board below:

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We’ve just concluded a series of PGA TOUR Policy Board meetings and would like to provide you with a significant update.
 
Over the past several days, we have met to thoroughly review, discuss and debate the extremely strong proposals submitted by a final set of outside investors.
 
Yesterday, we unanimously agreed to further negotiate with Strategic Sports Group (SSG), a consortium of U.S.-based professional sports team investors led by Fenway Sports Group. Below is a full list of the investors involved in this potential partnership with PGA TOUR Enterprises. 
 
We also anticipate advancing our negotiations with PIF in the weeks to come. Further, the DP World Tour will continue to be an important part of the process as we build toward PGA TOUR Enterprises. 
 
Please know that while we can’t get into more details at this time, we are very confident in an eventual, positive outcome for all players and the PGA TOUR as a whole. 
 
We look forward to sharing more details in the very near future.
 
Regards,
PGA TOUR Policy Board

The PGA Tour also provided a list of investors in the Strategic Sports Group:

Dylan Dethier

Golf.com Editor

Dylan Dethier is a senior writer for GOLF Magazine/GOLF.com. The Williamstown, Mass. native joined GOLF in 2017 after two years scuffling on the mini-tours. Dethier is a graduate of Williams College, where he majored in English, and he’s the author of 18 in America, which details the year he spent as an 18-year-old living from his car and playing a round of golf in every state.