AUGUSTA, Ga. — Justin Thomas shakes hands with Tiger Woods after their practice round prior to the 2023 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 04, 2023. | Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Justin Thomas spoke about the PGA Tour adding Tiger Woods to its player policy board ahead of the Wyndham Championship.
Ahead of the Wyndham Championship, Justin Thomas discussed the PGA Tour’s move to add Tiger Woods to its player policy board.
He is the first player to speak on the record about this decision, which was announced roughly an hour before Thomas talked to the media in Greensboro, North Carolina.
“I’m obviously excited to have Tiger [work] on behalf of the players,” Thomas said. “We’ve been dealt some roadblocks if you will, or just some difficult circumstances. I think he takes it seriously that he will be a part of paving the way for the future and the current—I guess I don’t know if you want to call it structure or whatever—of the PGA Tour.”
The roadblocks Thomas speaks of are relative to the PGA Tour’s pending deal with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), the beneficiary of LIV Golf.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and PIF Governor Yasir al-Rumayyan announced a ‘framework agreement’ on Jun. 6, which shocked the world.
It shocked players too, as nobody knew that tour officials were working behind the scenes with the PIF.
Where the tour goes from here remains to be seen, hence the move to bring Woods in as a PGA Tour policy board member.
Thomas was another player surprised by the news, but he also knows what Woods means to golf.
“I think it would be very easy for someone like him, all he’s done, just kind of like, ‘what do I need to do, I’ve made the Tour what it is,’ [especially with] where it’s at financially, all the sponsors, and TV deals,” Thomas added.
“It would be pretty easy for him to just hide under a rock for the rest of his life and be fine. But that’s not who he is; he wants to continue to see the PGA Tour grow and succeed.”
Photo by Stuart Kerr/R&A/R&A via Getty Images
ST ANDREWS, Scotland — Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods shake hands before the Past Champions Dinner prior to The 150th Open at St Andrews Old Course on July 12, 2022.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer helped form the PGA Tour and grow it into what it is today.
Those two titans of the game passed on that legacy to Woods, who wants to develop the PGA Tour even further for future generations.
Now Woods, perhaps the greatest golfer of all time, will play an essential role in key decision-making.
“We want to have a say in what’s going on because it is our tour,” Thomas added. “How it’s structured and how it looks is important to us. So we would like to have a little bit of a say-so on how that looks.”
Woods will have plenty of influence going forward, to the delight of Thomas and likely plenty of other players.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.
