Tiger Woods says he never received scripted comments, purportedly prepared by the PGA Tour, that now are part of a federal lawsuit.
Multiple outlets reported Monday that the remarks are among 357 pages of emails and other documents included in an antitrust lawsuit involving the PGA Tour filed in the 15th Judicial Circuit in Palm Beach County, Fla. The comments linked to Woods reportedly were prepared for him to deliver to players at a meeting at the Travelers Championship in June 2022.
At the time, the LIV Golf circuit recently had completed its first event, and Woods was among those working to buoy the PGA Tour following player defections. He attended a players meeting in Wilmington, Del., last August to discuss the PGA Tour’s response to LIV.
According to Golf Digest, which reviewed the documents, the talking points prepared for Woods include him saying PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan was “the right guy for this war” and that tour players should denounce Saudi-funded LIV Golf.
“Do what I did: tell the Saudis to go [expletive] themselves. And mean it,” read the comments.
Woods reportedly turned down hundreds of millions to join LIV. On Sunday night on Twitter, Woods wrote that he didn’t attend the Travelers Championship last year and that he never saw nearly two full pages of talking points reportedly prepared for him.
“In response to the talking points memo released this weekend, I have never seen this document until today, and I did not attend the players meeting for which it was prepared at the 2022 Travelers,” Woods wrote.
The 35-word Twitter post marks Woods’ first public comments about the proposed merger between the LIV, DP World Tour and PGA Tour.
According to GolfChannel.com, the remarks written for Woods also included one about his teenage son, Charlie: “You know, Charlie is a pretty good player … maybe some day he will be a professional golfer at the highest level. When and if that happens, I want him to be a PGA Tour member, and I want the PGA Tour to look like it does now — only better.”
Woods, 47, has been sidelined from competitive golf much of the past two years after sustaining a serious right leg injury in a single-car crash in February 2021. In April, he underwent surgery to address lingering issues related to the injury.