Tiger Woods hasn’t been on the PGA Tour Policy Board for very long. Less than a month, to be exact. But according to fellow board member and friend Rory McIlroy, he is already making an impact.
“He’s certainly been spending more time on it than I have,” McIlroy told reporters on Wednesday, via Sports Illustrated. “He’s been talking to some people. He’s been talking to a lot of people. He’s really engaged in just trying to get the best outcome for the players on the PGA Tour. So I think his difference has been felt already.”
Woods was added to the board at the beginning of August, after upwards of 40 players signed a letter requesting Woods be added to the board immediately. That move came shortly after the bombshell announcement that the PGA Tour is trying to merge with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund — and players were largely kept in the dark about it.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan didn’t offer much more transparency about the proposed merger in his State of the PGA Tour address on Tuesday. A “framework agreement” for the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the PIF is supposed to be in place by the end of the year, and a plan is supposed to be in place for how LIV Golf defectees will rejoin the PGA Tour. From how little Monahan divulged on Tuesday, it doesn’t sound like players are any more in the know than they were before.
But McIlroy, who also serves on the policy board, appears confident that Woods’ presence will help the players be heard this time around.
“His presence on there will only continue to grow as we head towards that December 31st deadline,” McIlroy said.
Woods joins McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, Webb Simpson, Charley Hoffman and Peter Malnati as a fellow player director on the board. Adding him to the board helps ensure that “governing documents are being amended to assure that player directors must have involvement in and approve major decisions,” Sports Illustrated summarized. It also gives players a majority vote on the policy board when it comes to major matters, including the proposed framework agreement with the PIF.
While Woods is busy making moves on the policy board, McIlroy is dialed in this week trying to win another FedEx Cup at the 2023 Tour Championship. He tees off at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta on Thursday.
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Matt Fitzpatrick of England may not have come away with the BMW Championship trophy on Sunday, but his stellar week at Olympia Fields (Ill.) Country Club did something perhaps more important: It assured him entry into next week’s Tour Championship, where the FedEx Cup is on the line.
Fitzpatrick entered the week No. 40 in the FedEx Cup points standings and vaulted to No. 10 by tying for second at the BMW behind winner Viktor Hovland of Norway. Only the top 30 players after Sunday’s action advanced to the season-ending Tour Championship.
Hovland, who fired a 61 that included a 7-under 28 for his back nine, moved from seventh to second in the standings. Scottie Scheffler — the 54-hole co-leader with Fitzpatrick — moved past Spaniard Jon Rahm into the top spot.
That means Scheffler will begin Thursday at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta at 10 under par, with a two-stroke advantage over Hovland in the staggered-start format.
The last man into the field of 30 was Austria’s Sepp Straka, and the first man out was Sahith Theegala. Both Straka and Theegala bogeyed their final holes on Sunday, but it came at a greater cost to Theegala, who began the week No. 31 in points and failed to surpass any of his peers. Straka tied for 37th place (2 over) at Sunday’s tournament to drop from 24th to 30th in the points standings. Theegala tied for 15th place on Sunday with a round of 67 and 6-under total.
Rahm tied for 31st at the BMW, his second straight below-average week to open the three-week FedEx Cup playoffs. That dropped him from first to fourth for East Lake.
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