Tiger Woods says he’s excited to be making “sports history” with the new deal allowing players to become equity owners of the new PGA Tour Enterprises company
An excited Tiger Woods proclaimed the PGA Tour’s deal with SSG as “sports history” when addressing the playing membership shortly after the huge $3bn investment was completed.
Players will take part ownership of PGA Tour Enterprises, a new company running the sport, in the form of equity shares, in a move that Woods is said to be thrilled with.
The Strategic Sports Group consortium – led by Fenway Sports Group and also including New York Mets owner Steve Cohen’s Cohen Private Ventures, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, and former Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry – is preparing to inject the money into PGA Tour Enterprises which will increase the for-profit entity’s valuation up to around $12 billion.
And according to Golf.com’s Sean Zak, Woods was fired up at the prospect of making sports history with the players owning a piece of their sport for the first time.
According to Golf.com, Woods addressed the players via a conference call when announcing the deal, firstly saying: “Thank you, SSG, for believing in us and believing in our sport. Believing in the potential growth that we could enjoy together.
“Golf is an amazing sport,” Woods added. “It has allowed communities to heal and grow. And we, as a team, are going to offer that according to what we believe is the true compensation and meritocracy that our sport has been built upon for all these years.
“As has been described earlier, as the Tour grows, we grow. So the more we invest into the Tour, the more we get the benefits of it.
“Which has never been – it’s never happened in sports history. So we’re the first. Exciting for me to be able to be part of that.”
Equity will be shared out to PGA Tour players depending on certain factors such as “career accomplishments, recent achievements and Tour status, with grants vesting over time” according to Jay Monahan.
And even though players like Woods and Rory McIlroy will likely get a lot more than the average PGA Tour player, fellow Policy Board member Peter Malnati says it’s still an exciting deal for players like him just as much as the elite.
“I’m going to tell you that, as a guy who has been on Tour for 10 years and has never finished better than 86th in the FedEx Cup, this deal is equally exciting for me as it is for Tiger,” said Malnati.
“I have seen and felt and been a part of the frustration, the distrust, the chasm in our organization.
“And I can sit here today and tell you honestly that today is a day to celebrate. Today is a day of incredible optimism. I’m exhausted from this process, but I am so energized by what is to come.”
