The details of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy's players-only meeting at the BMW Championship have been revealed, per reports from No Laying Up and The Fire Pit Collective.
The meeting, comprising 22 PGA Tour players, reportedly consisted of finding a proposal that would significantly change the PGA Tour in an effort to combat the loss of several top talents to LIV Golf. Per No Laying Up, players present at the meeting were unanimous in support of agreed-upon terms.
Among the biggest proposed changes: elevating several events currently on the PGA Tour — up to 15 — to "elite" status. That would entail bigger purses, more limited fields (subject to exemptions and weekly qualifiers) and a commitment by the tour's top players to participate in those events.
The Fire Pit Collective also provided details on the proposal, reporting as many as 18 tournaments would be elevated to "elite" status. Said tournaments would feature a no-cut field of 60 players, with proposed purses of $20 million. That would match the current record set at the 2022 Players Championship.
To compare, none of golf's four majors has reached that mark: The PGA Championship is the richest, with a $17.5 million purse; the Masters and U.S. Open have purses of $15 million; and the Open Championship has a purse of $14 million.
The proposal also includes provisions that the remaining tournaments on the tour would be used to offer qualifying spots for the top-tier events. The provision would also dictate that players exempt for elite tournaments must play at least three non-elite tournaments.
These non-elite tournaments would maintain their current purses, though would at least offer lower-tier players the opportunity to access the bigger tournaments.
The players reportedly present at the meeting include, in alphabetical order:
- Sam Burns
- Patrick Cantlay
- Tony Finau
- Matt Fitzpatrick
- Rickie Fowler
- Tyrell Hatton
- Max Homa
- Billy Horschel
- Viktor Hovland
- Kevin Kisner
- Shane Lowry
- Rory McIlroy
- Collin Morikawa
- Joaquin Niemann
- Jon Rahm
- Xander Schauffele
- Scottie Scheffler
- Adam Scott
- Jordan Spieth
- Justin Thomas
- Tiger Woods
- Cameron Young
- Will Zalatoris
The proposal itself would not result in any policy changes to the PGA Tour; No Laying Up reports the next step would be for the players to submit their proposal to the tour to assess its feasibility.
