Jordan Spieth was questioned over the PGA Tour’s future with potentially aligning with LIV Golf at this week’s John Deere Classic, but kept his cards closed to his chest
Jordan Spieth has admitted he runs the risk of ‘getting in trouble’ when it comes to discussing the progress of the PGA Tour’s negotiations with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF).
The PGA Tour remain in ongoing discussions with their Saudi counterparts, with a deal expected to bring an to end to their hostilities with their LIV Golf rivals. One man who has some involvement in the plan is Spieth, with the American currently a player director on the PGA Tour’s policy board.
This week, the three-time major champion’s focus will be centred around his work on the course rather than off it, as he tees it up at the John Deere Classic with the Open Championship at Royal Troon right around the corner.
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Ahead of this week’s event though attention once again turned to the proposed ‘merger’ in Spieth’s pre-tournament press conference. The former Masters champion was quizzed on the ongoing negotiations, and was asked whether he saw a peace deal on the horizon, which would allow LIV players to return to the Tour.
Spieth however was keen to keep his cards close to his chest. “That’s an extremely loaded question that I could get in a lot of trouble answering,”he responded. “I’ll just say things of that nature take a little bit of time, but they’re very active. That’s about as far as I can go for you.”
He was then pressed on whether he would like to see an agreement finalised sooner rather than later, and whilst this is something he is onboard with, Spieth wants to ensure the process is done correctly. “I would like to see it done right for everyone,” he went on. “So the timing is the timing.
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“Obviously if anything can be done right and done sooner, that’s great. But I would rather see it done correctly and done the right way for golf going forward for the longest amount of time, regardless how long that takes to get there, yeah.” It was first thought that a deal between the two sides would be completed at the end of 2023, six months on from the initial framework agreement announcement last June.
This deadline however was missed, and 13 months later, the world of professional golf still remains split in two. Following meetings in New York in June, Fire Pit Collective’s Alan Shipnuck reported that a ‘draft agreement’ had been signed between the PGA Tour and PIF, however Tour commissioner Jay Monahan revealed to his players that there was still work to be done.
“Both parties recognise that there is still work to do to reach a final agreement,” he wrote in a memo last month. “Our talks are ongoing with the goal of developing a shared vision for the future of professional golf that is pro competitive and provides players with the best global opportunities.”