Even though it feels like Tiger Woods makes an annual, splashy return at the Genesis Invitational, this one is different in so many ways. There’s his body, another year older, more of his bones fused than last year. There are the clothes draped on that body, a new brand he launched Monday. (Sorry, Nike.) There’s his looper, Lance Barrett, who’s new to the bag, and new to the hoopla of Tiger World. There’s Woods’ position within PGA Tour government, as a player director on the Tour’s policy board, and the only one with an indefinite term. A leader as long as he wants to be. Under that umbrella, there’s also a completely different array of questions. Have you met with the Saudi PIF? Why do you consider SSG the best investment partner? How should the pro game be reunified?
Woods sat in front of the press Wednesday for his customary 25 minutes. No one’s press conferences last quite as long as his. For Woods, it was his first time speaking publicly in two months. The longer he stays away, the more topics pile up. While that may come with the territory of being Tiger Woods, there’s one issue with that territory — he’s not great at candidly wading through it.
Answering questions is hard right now, for both the greatest player who ever lived and all the other guys, too. Rory McIlroy resigned from the Policy Board last fall after months and months as the Tour’s de facto speaker of the house. Charley Hoffman’s board term ended in December, and he says that makes him happy. The decisions at hand are difficult! Jordan Spieth, another board member, answered business questions during the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and then promptly had a ‘pretty frank’ phone call with McIlroy about how he was doing it.
When it comes to Woods, though — a man who deserves both sympathy and respect for what he’s done in the game — it’s easy to forget that he volunteered for this new, highly scrutinized, more public-facing position. It’s easy to forget he was catapulted into a governance position by a quasi-coup, when 41 top players sent a letter to Commissioner Jay Monahan last July. A letter that didn’t ask for Woods to have a place on the policy board. A letter that demanded it.
The reasons are obvious. The majority of the membership has spent their lives idolizing him, and he’s clearly interested in being their leader. Woods’ opinion holds more weight than any player who ever lived, considering the Tour has profited off his unique marketability like no athlete sport has ever seen. Woods is no doubt throwing his weighty opinion around behind the scenes, but when it comes to sharing what matters most with the public, he’s far from forthcoming.
On the topic of PIF investment, Woods said the negotiations are ongoing. “Ongoing” and “fluid.” The same words everyone has used for months.
“Ultimately we would like to have PIF be a part of our Tour and a part of our product,” Woods said. “Financially, the monies that they have come to the table with and what we initially had agreed to in the framework agreement, those are all the same numbers. Anything beyond this is going to be obviously over and above. We’re in a position right now, hopefully, [where] we can make our product better in the short term and long term.”
When it comes to Tour business, Woods speaks like a careful CEO, concerned his words might move stock prices. Does he know the end goal of all this mega-money golf interest from the Saudi PIF?
“From what their representatives have discussed with us, yes and no, because that changes and that evolves from a few months ago to what it is currently now.”
Whether that’s a good kind of change or a bad kind, Woods said he didn’t know. What we do know is that the money arriving in the game will benefit players. But will the fans get anything out of it?
Article originally appeared on: Golf.com