Tiger Woods flew to Wilmington for a private meeting of top players to discuss the threat of the Saudi-funded breakaway ahead of the BMW Championship; “His voice carries further than anyone else’s in the game of golf,” Rory McIlroy said about Woods

Woods flew to Wilmington on Tuesday for a private meeting of top players to discuss the threat of the Saudi-funded breakaway ahead of the BMW Championship.

The 15-time major winner had not qualified for the second FedEx Cup play-off event after playing just three times in 2022 following the car accident in February 2021 which almost resulted in his right leg being amputated.

Players in the meeting were reluctant to divulge details of what was discussed, but McIlroy said: “I think the one thing that came out of it, which I think was the purpose, is all the top players on this Tour are in agreement and alignment of where we should go going forward, and that was awesome.

“We need to get the top guys together more often than we do.”

Asked about the presence of Woods, who made the journey from his home in Florida alongside Rickie Fowler, McIlroy added: “It’s impactful and I think it shows how much he cares about the Tour.

“I think it shows how much he cares about the players that are coming through and are going to be the next generation.

“Like it or not, they can’t really sell Tiger Woods anymore. The Tour had an easy job for 20 years. They don’t have Tiger – yes, they’ve got a bunch of us and we’re all great players, but we’re not Tiger Woods. We’re moving into a different era, and we just have to think about things a little differently.

“He is the hero that we’ve all looked up to. His voice carries further than anyone else’s in the game of golf. His role is navigating us to a place where we all think we should be.

“I think it’s pretty apparent that whenever we all get in the room there’s an alpha in there, and it’s not me.”

McIlroy missed the cut in the first play-off event in Memphis last week but has turned that to his advantage by undertaking extensive preparations at Wilmington Country Club, where the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings on Sunday will advance to the Tour Championship.

“It’s a good golf course,” McIlroy added. “It’s a golf course that is a little more up my alley compared to say last week in Memphis.

“I was a little rusty last week as well, but a lot more drivers off the tee [here], a lot of room off the tee. Length is an advantage here, where in Memphis it’s not really. Just my sort of golf course that I feel like I can excel on.

“I got here Friday night after the missed cut and I’ve been on the course every day since Saturday. It’s nice to get back out and prepare and get to know a new golf course, get a little bit of a head start on everyone else.

“My family are in upstate New York at their cabin, if I went there I wouldn’t have been practicing or playing, and the one thing I needed to do was practice and play.”

Tiger Woods is headed to the BMW Championship this week but not to play golf. He’s going instead to meet with a group of PGA Tour players to discuss the continued encroachment of the LIV Golf Invitational Series.

According to reports by the Fire Pit Collective and ESPN’s Mark Schlabach, Woods will be at Wilmington Country Club on Tuesday to meet with a good number of the top-20 ranked players in the world, two days before the first round of the second FedEx Cup Playoffs tournament.

One player who was invited told ESPN the meeting will include “influential PGA Tour members who haven’t defected to LIV Golf.”

There is also a PGA Tour Players Advisory Committee meeting on Tuesday. Woods’ meeting, according to ESPN, will take place after that. PGA Tour Jay Monahan has a meeting with Tour players Wednesday.

Woods was last seen missing the cut at the 150th Open Championship in July. He has spoken out against LIV several times, including at St. Andrews.

“Greg [Norman] has done some things that I don’t think (are) in the best interest of our game, and we’re coming back to probably the most historic and traditional place in our sport,” Woods said after his Tuesday practice round at the Old Course. “I believe it’s the right thing.

“I know what the PGA Tour stands for and what we have done and what the Tour has given us, the ability to chase after our careers and to earn what we get and the trophies we have been able to play for and the history that has been a part of this game. I know Greg tried to do this back in the early ’90s. It didn’t work then, and he’s trying to make it work now.

“I still don’t see how that’s in the best interests of the game.”

Norman, the CEO and public face of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf, told Fox News he offered Woods something between $700 million and $800 million to join. Woods declined.

Australian praised for his reaction after two-shot penalty in Memphis

World No 2 penalised for playing from the wrong place

Cameron Smith is being hailed for his sportsmanship after the Australian was handed a two-stroke penalty that scuppered his hopes of winning the FedEx St Jude Championship and claiming golf’s world No 1 ranking.

In a major setback before even teeing off for Sunday’s final round in Memphis, Smith was slugged with the penalty for playing from the wrong place on the fourth hole on Saturday.

The world No 2 took a drop after hooking his ball into the water off the tee on the par-3 and incorrectly played his third shot with his ball touching the red hazard line. Instead of starting two shots off the lead, Smith’s three-under-par 67 was adjusted to a 69 and left him four behind JJ Spaun in a tie for 14th at nine under.

The wind out of his sails, Smith closed with a labouring even-par 70, never really looking like being a factor down the stretch as American Will Zalatoris edged out Austrian Sepp Straka on the third hole of a dramatic sudden-death playoff to claim his maiden PGA Tour win.

Although officials had seen Smith’s incident on Saturday, they felt comfortable that he would have known he was not allowed to play a ball that was touching a hazard line and assumed it wasn’t. Chief referee Gary Young, calling it a “crazy, unfortunate situation”, said it wasn’t until another committee member saw a TV replay on Sunday that officials decided to investigate further and to speak with Smith.

Young said “because of the geometry of the situation he [Smith] was dealing with a really small area where he’s dropping it”. “It’s basically hole high and he’s basically got a slither outside of the line and he obviously dropped the ball in that area but it came back to rest against the line.

“It was at that point he obviously thought it was OK to play it from the position and it turns out the rules do not [allow it]. You have to take complete relief from that penalty area. He wasn’t aware that no portion of the ball could be touching the penalty area line. He thought that if a portion of the ball was in the general area of the course he was safe to play it.”

Smith, who won the Players Championship in March and his first major title at last month’s 150th Open at St Andrews, would have supplanted Scottie Scheffler as world No 1 if he won the St Jude after the American missed the halfway cut at the opening event of the PGA Tour’s FedExCup playoffs. Despite the high stakes, Young said Smith accepted his penalty with grace and class.

“Cam is a complete gentleman and he took it that way,” the referee said. “He was completely calm through the whole process and once he found out it was a two-stroke penalty, he said to me, ‘the rules are the rules’. In typical, casual Cam fashion, he just accepted it and left the office that way.”

Rory McIlroy says “common sense prevailed” after three players from the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series lost a court bid against the PGA Tour to play in the FedEx Cup Play-offs.

The PGA Tour has suspended members for taking part in the breakaway series.

Australian Matt Jones and Americans Talor Gooch and Hudson Swafford sought a temporary restraining order, so they could play the first event this week.

However US District Judge Beth Labson Freeman sided with the PGA Tour.

The trio claimed the suspension was causing them “irreparable” harm.

But the judge, in her ruling, said the lucrative payments offered by LIV “are based upon players’ calculations of what they were leaving behind”.

Northern Ireland’s McIlroy, who has criticised the series, said: “From my vantage point, common sense prevailed and I thought it was the right decision.

“It lets us focus on the important stuff, which is the golf. We can all move forward and not have that sideshow going on for the next few weeks, which is nice.

“I don’t feel like it’s my job to be up here and sticking up for the PGA Tour or being a spokesperson; it’s just the role I have found myself in.

“I feel when I then get myself inside the ropes I feel that no-one can get to me and that’s really nice. It’s made the golf more enjoyable – if anything it has probably helped my golf.”

LIV Golf said it was “disappointed” in the judgement, adding: “No-one gains by banning golfers from playing.”

The three are among 11 players – including Phil Mickelson and Ian Poulter – contesting their suspensions with an anti-trust lawsuit against the PGA Tour.

However, only Jones, Gooch and Swafford had been seeking the restraining order to allow them to take part in the FedEx Cup Play-offs.

The $75m (£62m) three-tournament event starts in Memphis on Thursday.

McIlroy said that he has “a little more respect” for the LIV Golf players who did not put their names to the suit.

He added: “It’s become a little more personal because of that.”

Two-time PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas also agreed with the ruling.

“You can have your cake, but you don’t need to eat it, too,” he said.

“And they got their fair share of a large, large amount of cake – go eat it on your own means. You don’t need to bring it on to our tour.”

Earlier, world number one Scottie Scheffler had spoken of his frustration at seeing the players suing the PGA Tour.

“Those guys kind of made their decision to go join another tour and they broke the rules and regulations of our tour, and now they’re trying to sue us, which is definitely a bit frustrating,” Scheffler said.

“It’s kind of part of it now. Guys are going to leave. There’s another tour going on and now they’re suing us, so there’s a lot going on.”

Reports in Australia have claimed Open champion Cameron Smith and Australian compatriot Marc Leishman will be among those players joining LIV Golf in the near future.

Smith would not be drawn on the matter when asked on Tuesday.

Scheffler, though, has ruled out being among their number, despite the $25m (£20.72m) purse on offer at its events, saying it was never his “dream” to chase “financial benefits”.

He said: “I’m not going to speak about the guys that are going to LIV and all that speculation. If that’s what they want to do, that’s what they want to do.

“The PGA Tour is where I want to play and it continues to be the place where the best golfers in the world play.”

-6 H Shibuno (Jap); -5 J Korda (USA); -4 L Duncan (Sco), G Lopez (Mex); -3 C Boutier (Fra), MJ Lee (Aus), J Ewart Shadoff (Eng), M Stark (Swe), IG Chun (Kor)

Japan’s Hinako Shibuno made a flying start at the AIG Women’s Open before claiming a one-shot lead after the first round at Muirfield.

Shibuno, the 2019 champion, had birdies on the first three holes before carding eight in total for a six-under 65.

Jessica Korda hit a 66, while Scotland’s Louise Duncan and Mexico’s Gaby Lopez are a further stroke back.

“It has been a long time since I’ve played this well, especially putting,” said Shibuno, 23.

Jodi Ewart Shadoff led England’s hopefuls as her three-under 68 put her in the top five, while 2018 champion Georgia Hall is five shots off the pace after a 70 and Charley Hull finished on level par in a group including Alice Hewson and Ireland’s Leona Maguire.

American Korda recovered from an early bogey to record four birdies and an eagle on the 17th, despite having to play in borrowed clothes as her luggage had failed to arrive in Scotland.

“If anyone knows anyone at the Zurich airport that would like to put my suitcase on the one flight a day that they have coming into Edinburgh, I’d deeply appreciate it,” said the world number 14.

Playing in the first group at 06:30 BST alongside former champion and local resident Catriona Matthew, Duncan also recorded an eagle on the 17th. Four birdies and two bogeys matched her score from the opening round at Carnoustie 12 months ago – when she finished 10th while still an amateur.

The 22-year-old only made her professional debut in last week’s Women’s Scottish Open, missing the cut.

“I think the key is I didn’t take it too seriously,” said Duncan. ” I just went out and enjoyed my warm-up.

“I haven’t had a paycheck and still feel like I’m an amateur. I’m rolling with the punches and we’ll see where it takes me.”

Two-time Solheim Cup captain Matthew, 52, struggled to a five-over-par 76, making double bogeys on the first and 10th and failing to make a single birdie.

Phil Mickelson and Ian Poulter are among 11 LIV Golf players who have filed a lawsuit against the PGA Tour in order to challenge their suspensions.

The PGA Tour has suspended all of its members who have signed up to the controversial Saudi-backed LIV series, which is in its inaugural season.

The 2020 US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau has also put his name to the anti-trust lawsuit.

The group argue that the PGA Tour is trying to harm their careers.

“The Tour’s conduct serves no purpose other than to cause harm to players and foreclose the entry of the first meaningful competitive threat the Tour has faced in decades,” the lawsuit states.

“The purpose of this action is to strike down the PGA Tour’s anti-competitive rules and practices that prevent these independent-contractor golfers from playing when and where they choose.”

In a letter responding to the lawsuit that was sent to PGA Tour members, commissioner Jay Monahan said the organisation would not back down.

“These suspended players – who are now Saudi Golf League employees – have walked away from the Tour and now want back in,” he said.

“It’s an attempt to use the Tour platform to promote themselves and to freeride on your benefits and efforts.

“To allow re-entry into our events compromises the Tour and the competition, to the detriment of our organisation, our players, our partners and our fans.

“The lawsuit they have filed somehow expects us to believe the opposite, which is why we intend to make our case clearly and vigorously.”

The PGA Tour suspended those who joined up with the breakaway series in June, though those players were still able to compete at the subsequent US Open and last month’s Open Championship.

Six-time major winner Mickelson and other major champions including Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed and Sergio Garcia were among those suspended.

Poulter was also suspended by the the European-based DP World Tour after they followed the PGA Tour’s lead.

That move prompted 16 players to threaten legal action if the bans were upheld and Poulter was able to compete at the Scottish Open after his ban was lifted pending a full appeal.

Carlos Ortiz, Peter Uihlein, Jason Kokrak, Pat Perez, Abraham Ancer, Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones are the other plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the PGA Tour.

Gooch, Swafford and Jones are requesting temporary relief to allow them to compete in the FedEx Cup play-offs, which start next week.

Norman insists that LIV Golf could turn its attention to the women’s game

LIV Golf CEO and Commissioner Greg Norman has insisted that a women’s golf league is in the “forefront of my mind” as the breakaway venture continues to earmark areas for growth.

Speaking to the Herald and The Age, the Australian said: “That’s always been in the forefront of my mind to be honest with you because I have been a staunch proponent of them.

“I’ve played with a lot of LPGA players over the years and I think their value has risen recently, there’s no question about it. If there’s an opportunity for us to have an open conversation and dialogue with women, I’m very much at the forefront of that.”

Earlier this year, LPGA Tour Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan hinted that she would engage with LIV Golf if it can help promote the women’s game. “I would engage in a conversation if it would achieve our aim of promoting women’s golf but there needs to be input from players and sponsors. There’s a lot of factors to consider before we do business with LIV Golf,” she said.

Whilst the enormous financial investment of the Saudi-backed organisation could raise the profile, and purses, of the women’s game, it is not without controversy, which perhaps explains Marcoux Samaan’s wariness at striking a deal with the Greg Norman-fronted group.

The immediate focus for Norman however, is the launch of the 2023 Golf League: “Right now to be honest with you, I’m completely locked and loaded with what we’re doing because we’re launching the [men’s] league in 2023, and we’ve got a lot of work to do to get that up and running.”

The LIV Golf Series will rebrand to the LIV Golf League from 2023, with 48 players and 12 established team franchises competing in an expanded 14-tournament schedule – and an enormous $405m total prize purse, a huge increase on the $225m on offer for this year’s eight-tournament Series.

One of its priorities will be to formalise television broadcasting rights, with numerous reports suggesting a deal with Fox Sports 1 is nearing. The deal will purportedly see LIV Golf purchase airtime from the media giant and in turn sell its own commercial asset to make the deal financially viable.

The former World No.1 played down the reports, asking that “no one should draw any conclusions about potential media rights given that we are still in the middle of negotiations with several outlets.” He added: “We’re in discussions right now and we have a lot of NDAs [non-disclosure agreements] signed by broadcasters.”

Should an agreement between LIV Golf and Fox Sports be reached, it would be somewhat of a full circle for the venture’s CEO and Commissioner. Norman was with the media company as their Lead Golf Analyst for a little over a year before they parted ways in 2015.

Lahore Garrison Greens emerged as title winners in the 3rd Pakistan Golf Federation (PGF) Inter Club Golf Tournament 2022 that concluded at the sublime Islamabad Golf Club Golf Course on Sunday.

The 20-member winning team was captained by Raja Asif Mehdi while its members were amateurs Damil Ataullah, Nouman Ilyas, Capt Zain ur Rehman, Ahmad Sultan Kayani, senior amateurs Raja Asif Mehdi, Ikramulhaq, Tariq Mehmood, M Shafi, ladies Ghazala Yasmin, Suneya Osama, Zahida Durrani, boys Rayyan Ilyas, M Mikail, Abdur Rahim Osman, girls Bushra Fatima, Hadiyah Osama, Adina Ataullah, Tayyab Tahir, Jamshed Matloob and Yahya Ahsan.

The Lahore Garrison Team achieved triumph through an adhering cohesive effort by the Captain Raja Asif Mehdi plus a superb all-round display by its young as well as experienced members. Overall, Lahore Team aggregated a team score of 2,758 and the most gratifying element was that they prevailed over the runners-up Karachi Golf Club Team by a margin of 140 strokes, an incredible attainment indeed.

Karachi Golf Club Team ended up as runners up with a team score of 2,898 followed by Islamabad Golf Club at 3,012 and Peshawar Golf Club at 3,060. For Karachi noteworthy ones were Omar Khalid Hussain and Syed Yashal Shah.

At the conclusion of the end, President PGF Lt Gen (R) Muhammed Hilal Hussain handed over the champion team trophy to Lahore Garrison Golf Team Captain Raja Asif Mehdi in the presence of Asad IA Khan, VP PGF, Ajaz Ahad Khan, Secretary, Taimur Hassan Amin, President Asia Pacific Golf, Secretary of Islamabad Golf Club Sheharyar Afridi and participating golfers. Arshad Saeed Kundi was the Tournament Director supported by Chief Referee, Lt Col Zahid Iqbal and the enterprising one Malik Kamran of PGF.

Rory McIlroy has called on LIV golfers to take a leading role in mending the fractured relationship between the sport’s rivalling tours.

The four-time major winner has been one of the most outspoken critics of the Saudi-funded series.

“I would just say the ball is in their court,” McIlroy told BBC Sport.

“If they want to come to the table and try to play nicely within the sandbox that’s already created, the opportunity is there.”

Since the new series launched in June, tensions have been high between LIV and the established PGA and European Tours.

Three players and LIV Golf are proceeding with a lawsuit filed against the PGA Tour over its decision to suspend players who participated on the new circuit. Eight LIV golfers – including Phil Mickelson and Ian Poulter – have removed themselves from the case.

A vocal opponent of the new series, McIlroy has maintained there will always be scope for “peace talks” between the tours, but warned that now is not the best time to engage in such dialogue.

“Right now with two lawsuits going on, and how heightened the rhetoric has been, I think we just need to let it cool off a little bit,” he said.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen with this lawsuit. No-one’s going to want to talk to anyone when it’s hanging over the game, so I don’t know what happens there.

“I’ve probably said a few things that are maybe too inflammatory at times, but it just comes from the heart and how much I hate what this is doing to the game.

“It has been an ugly year [but] there’s a solution to everything.

“If we can send rockets to the moon and bring them back again and have them land on their own I’m sure we can figure out how to make professional golf cohesive again.”

Earlier this month, LIV golfers wrote to the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) asking that its events are awarded ranking points.

As it stands the circuit is not recognised by the OWGR, meaning participants are at risk of sliding down the world rankings and consequently missing out on entry into the sport’s four majors and qualifying for the Olympics.

“The only ones that are prohibiting them for getting world rankings points are themselves,” McIlroy said.

“It’s not as if they [the OWGR] created this criteria out of thin air a few months ago to try to prevent LIV [players] from getting points.

“I think if they were to pivot, have cuts, have a minimum field of 75, have more of a merit-based system where there’s a meritocracy for how to get on the tour… there’s a bunch of stuff where they don’t meet the criteria yet, but if they were to change and meet all those points then there’s obviously no reason not to give them world ranking points.

“I’m certainly not for banning them from majors, but my only thing is with the way the world rankings are now, if someone that hasn’t won the Masters before can’t garner enough world ranking points to be eligible, then I think that’s entirely on them.

“They knew the risks going in, and actions have consequences.

“That was a risk that they were paid for ultimately. If some of these guys that don’t have exemptions in the majors don’t qualify for them, I have no problem with that because they knew that going in.”

LIV Golf is nearing a deal to purchase air time for its tournaments on U.S. cable television, multiple sources have told Golfweek. The potential agreement — which is still being finalized — is with Fox Sports 1.

While media companies typically pay sports leagues a substantial rights fee to air their products, the deal would not see LIV receive payment, said a source familiar with the discussions. Instead, LIV — which is controversially financed by the Saudi Arabian regime’s Public Investment Fund — would buy time on the cable channel to air its events, a move that will be widely interpreted as a failure to attract serious commercial interest in what it is offering.

Just two weeks ago, the CEO of LIV, Greg Norman, said he was fielding intense interest from media companies eager to broadcast LIV tournaments.

“We’re talking to four different networks, and live conversations where offers are being put on the table,” he told ESPN. “They can see what we’re delivering.”

A well-placed industry executive says LIV struck out with approaches to multiple broadcasters, including NBC, CBS, Disney, Apple and Amazon, and that Fox Sports got involved only at the behest of Lachlan Murdoch, the executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corp. Last month, Sports Business Journal reported that Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of Donald Trump, had been calling broadcasters trying to generate interest in a LIV television package. In 2021, Kushner’s private equity firm, Affinity Partners, secured $2 billion in funding from the Saudi Public Investment Fund.

“There were people at Fox who wanted nothing to do with this,” the source said. “They were forced to do it.”

LIV requested a rights fee for year two of any deal and a guaranteed time slot on network television but both proposals were rejected by Fox, according to a source familiar with the specifics of the conversations. It is believed Fox has offered to re-evaluate network placement at a later date. LIV will also be responsible for the production of its tournament broadcasts and for selling commercial sponsorships during its time slots, two tasks that would usually fall to a broadcast partner.

“Any advertiser who touches this will get blasted,” a longtime sports TV executive said. “It’s a weak product but it’s a tainted product on top of that.”

LIV has been widely criticized as a sportswashing effort by the Saudi regime to distract attention from its poor human rights record. A LIV tournament staged this summer at Trump Bedminster in New Jersey drew protests from the families of September 11 victims, who point to Saudi involvement in the terrorist attacks.

Sources say the LIV-Fox deal is nearing completion but has not yet been formally inked, and it remains unclear if it will take effect in 2023 or earlier. LIV has three remaining events scheduled in 2022. All will be played next month, in Bangkok, Thailand; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; and at Trump Doral in Miami.