Tiger Woods details glaring LIV Golf sacrifice days before start of The Open
Tiger Woods discussed the Ryder Cup captaincy in a press conference ahead of The Open at Royal Troon and revealed his reasons for avoiding the responsibility for the United States
Tiger Woods has revealed he turned down the opportunity to captain the United States' Ryder Cup team with negotiations between PGA and LIV Golf too time consuming.
Keegan Bradley was confirmed as taking the role last week for the 2025 match at Bethpage Black, Long Island, New York. Woods had been favourite to take the position amid negotiations with former PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh.
The 15-times major winner suggested his commitments to the tour have ensured he does not have the time to take on more responsibilities. Woods added that negotiations with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), who are the owners of LIV Golf, and the development of Tomorrow's Golf League proves time consuming.
Woods was part of a delegation that met with PIF in New York last month after the fund came to a framework agreement to create a new for-profit entity with the PGA 13 months ago. The parties hope to reunify the sport after LIV broke away in 2022 seeing golf's top talents unable to face each other on a regular basis.
"The decision was very difficult for me to make," explained Woods. "My time has been so loaded with the tour and everything and what we're trying to accomplish. I'm on so many different subcommittees that it just takes so much time in the day, and I'm always on calls.
"I told Seth that I just didn't feel like I could do the job properly. I couldn't devote the time.
"I barely had enough time to do what I'm doing right now, and add in the TGL starts next year, as well as the Ryder Cup. You add all that together and then with our negotiations with the PIF, all that concurrently going on at exactly the same time, there's only so many hours in the day.
"I just didn't feel like I would be doing the captaincy or the players in Team USA justice if I was the captain with everything that I have to do."
Woods quickly becomes a candidate to take Ryder Cup captaincy in 2027 when the competition arrives at Adare Manor, in County Limerick. The veteran golfer was non-committal over the prospects.
"As I said, I'll put my hat in the ring again when I have more time and I feel like I can devote myself to a Ryder Cup," he explained. "As of right now, I've got so many different things I'm juggling and trying to get right at the same time for all the players that are a part of the PGA Tour. It's one of those things where you just can't get it wrong."
Related
Share this page
Guest Posts by Easy Branches
