Advertisement

PGA Championship live: Tiger Woods says there is 'a long way to go still' in PGA Tour/PIF negotiations

Tracking all the news as the PGA Championship nears its start.

What's the state of a potential working agreement between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf?

That will be a top-of-mind question from a jam-packed media session Tuesday at Valhalla Golf Club, site of this week's 106th PGA Championship.

What, if anything, will Tiger Woods say? And how will LIV Golf, via the voices of Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka, respond?

Stick here for the answers.

Here's a look at Tuesday's interview schedule (all times EDT):

  • 9 a.m.: Justin Thomas

  • 9:30: Max Homa

  • 10:30: Michael Block

  • 11:00: PGA news conference

  • Noon: Tiger Woods

  • 12:30 p.m.: Jordan Spieth

  • 1:00: Jon Rahm

  • 3:00: Brooks Koepka

  • 3:30: Scottie Scheffler

  • 4:00: Xander Schauffele

LIVE COVERAGE IS OVER10 updates
  • Life is good for Scottie Scheffler

    It's pretty good being Scottie Scheffler these days. He's won four of the last five tournaments he's played, he's the proud owner of a second green jacket, and he and his wife just welcomed their first child, a boy, into the world. Not a bad little run there.

    "Definitely rested going into this week for sure," Scheffler, who's been off the course for three weeks, said Tuesday. "I don't really feel like any rust has accumulated. I was able to practice and play a lot at home. I'm able to do stuff at home to simulate tournament golf, especially on the greens, competing and gambling with my buddies, I don't really want to lose to them, either, so I was able to simulate a little bit of competition at home."

    Now, he's preparing to take on bigger game than his buddies can bring: The PGA Championship, a tournament where he tied for second last year. He's the odds-on favorite, and he's coming in well-rested ... at least, from a golf perspective. He's spent the last week or so changing diapers, but he's also attempted to unplug a bit and gain some perspective.

    "It was a nice time to reflect a little bit on my career so far and where my life has gone," Scheffler said. "I married my high school sweetheart and I always wanted to play professional golf and now I'm here. I was sitting there with a newborn in my arms and the green jacket in the closet. It was a pretty special time, I think, at home."

    He also acknowledged that he's got his eye on an Olympic berth. ("Be a nice little thing to be able to trash talk to my buddies about when they say golfers aren't athletes. I can claim I'm an Olympian.")

    Before then, though, he's got three more majors to knock off, starting this week. Scheffler tees off at 2:13 p.m. on Thursday alongside Wyndham Clark and Brian Harman.

  • Tee times are out. Plan your PGA Championship viewing accordingly.

    Tee times are out for the PGA Championship. Here are some of the notables:

    • Tiger Woods, Adam Scott, Keegan Bradley: 8:04 a.m.* Thursday, 1:29 p.m. Friday

    • Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose: 8:15 a.m.* Thursday, 1:40 p.m. Friday

    • Cam Smith, Hideki Matsuyama, Viktor Hovland: 8:26 a.m.* Thursday, 1:51 p.m. Friday

    • Brooks Koepka, Max Homa, Jordan Spieth: 8:37 a.m.* Thursday, 2:02 p.m. Friday

    • Collin Morikawa, Phil Mickelson, Matthew Fitzpatrick: 1:51 p.m. Thursday, 8:26 a.m.* Friday

    • Rickie Fowler, Jon Rahm, Cam Young: 2:02 p.m. Thursday, 8:37 a.m.* Friday

    • Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman, Scottie Scheffler: 2:13 p.m. Thursday, 8:48 a.m.* Friday

    (All times ET. *-10th tee start.)

  • Rory McIlroy files for divorce from wife Erica after seven years of marriage

    More non-golf news breaking the week of the PGA Championship: Rory McIlroy has filed for divorce from his wife Erica Stoll after seven years of marriage, according to documents filed in Palm Beach County, Florida. The couple have a three-year-old daughter, Poppy.

    It's been a turbulent professional week for McIlroy, and now his personal matters are coming to light. He indicated last week that he would not be pursuing a spot on the PGA Tour's Policy Board, but later was invited to help negotiate a deal for the future of men's golf between the Tour and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Shortly afterward, McIlroy put on one of the great performances of his career to win the Wells Fargo Championship on Sunday.

    The very next day, McIlroy filed the notice in Palm Beach County. TMZ was the first to report the news.

    Later this week, McIlroy will be attempting to win his fifth major at the PGA Championship. The event is being held at the same Valhalla Golf Club where McIlroy won his most recent major, 10 years ago.

  • Tiger on PGA Tour-LIV negotiations

    When asked about where negotiations are between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, Tiger gave a non-answer answer:

    "We're working on negotiations with PIF (the Saudi-backed fund behind LIV Golf). It's ongoing. It's fluid, it changes day to day. Has there been progress? Yes ... We're making steps. It may not be giant steps, but we're making steps."

    "I'm not going to comment on negotiations, but we're making steps."

  • Tiger on the state of his game ... and body.

    "My body's OK. It is what it is. I wish my game was a little bit sharper."

    "I'm always going to feel stiffness and soreness in my back, I just need other body parts to feel better."

    Says because he hasn't played much, he relies entirely on practice.

  • Interviews are back on

    ... and Tiger Woods is now speaking with media.

  • PGA Championship play suspended at 9:50 a.m. for weather concerns

    The weather horn sounded as Max Homa was offering up his final thoughts on Tuesday morning, clearing all players off the course. With dangerous weather in the area, the PGA Championship made the decision to halt play. With thunderstorms in the forecast for the rest of the day, this could be the end of the line for any competition on Tuesday. We'll keep you updated as events warrant.

  • Max Homa on the state of the men's game: 'Hopefully at some point everybody can find the plot again'

    At his Tuesday morning press conference, Max Homa offered up some trenchant commentary on the state of the men's game. Here's his answer in full:

    "It's been a bit tricky. I do feel like the internet probably makes it seem worse than it really is. It's a very small community and they're incredibly loud. So I think if you spend a lot of time on the internet, it does feel like professional golf is crumbling.

    "It's tough to decipher, because when we're on the grounds of events, it's amazing. Last week at Quail Hollow was awesome. Felt no different at Bay Hill. Felt no different — The Players felt no different. So it's odd, it doesn't feel like it's dying, yet you hear a lot of very valid complaints on the internet.

    "So I think it's been, it's very troubling. I don't like where it's going. It's got to be exhausting to be a casual golf fan at this point in time. I don't know why you would want to hear about the business side of this game.

    "As a fan of other sports, I do not care about the business side of what the Lakers and Dodgers are doing. So, yeah, it is troubling, however, it's just difficult because we come here and yesterday was slam packed and it was awesome and everyone just seems like in such a good — in such good spirits to just see us playing a somewhat meaningless practice round to their point of view.

    "So it's tough to kind of completely figure out. I hope at some point soon we can just get back to entertaining people and playing golf and seeing who shoots the lowest score and not talking about what our Player Advisory Council is going to do and who — the fans of golf should not know who is on the board. Like that just seems like a pretty obvious one. So that would be the goal going forward.

    "So I think, you know, in some positive light as a fan of just the game of golf, the benefit is golf is thriving. That's cool. Men's professional golf might be in a weird spot, so hopefully we can continue to get more people to play golf and then once everybody can get this thing figured out hopefully we get those people playing golf to also enjoy watching a little bit of golf. We have a lot going on here, but hopefully at some point everybody can find the plot again."

  • Justin Thomas on handling pressure: 'You can't just flip the switch'

    The 2024 PGA Championship will be a home game for Louisville native Justin Thomas, the first tournament — of any level — that he's played in his home city. But he doesn't believe that will add any more pressure to his game: "The good news is," he smiled on Tuesday morning, "I is have a pretty easy time putting a lot of pressure on myself already, so that shouldn't be too much of an adjustment."

    Thomas has been dealing with some substantial pressure lately. He owns two PGA Championship trophies, but wins have been difficult to come by in recent years. He's one of the game's marquee players, and yet he hasn't won a tournament since that 2022 PGA Championship. He struggled in 2023, failing to even qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs, and missed the cut at this year's Masters.

    "I finally feel like at least this year I know I've been playing well enough to win," he said. "But I just have to kind of keep trusting what I'm doing and understand I'm working on all the right things and know that it will happen. I just can't force the issue or press because that usually doesn't end well."

    He concedes that the effect of pressure on his game is a difficult challenge to overcome. "It's tough. It's a lot harder than improving your wedge game. It's not like I can just go out and set a TrackMan down and work on hitting my numbers," he said. "You can't just want it to get better and it magically gets better ... You can't just flip the switch."

    One factor that isn't impacting Thomas' game — the ongoing discussions about the future of the sport between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. "I'm just trying to play as good a golf as I possibly can and try to win golf tournaments. That stuff's very important, but to me it's not as important as winning major championships and winning tournaments," he said. "If I could choose which one, I know which one I would choose, so that's the thing that I think I need to give attention to."

  • PGA Championship week begins with gray skies, uncertainty

    LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Good morning from brisk, gray Kentucky, where the PGA Championship is two days away. Today, the conversations will take center stage: Tiger Woods, Brooks Koepka, Scottie Scheffler and many others are slated to speak, as well as the PGA's leaders.

    A certain topic of conversation: The news that Jimmy Dunne, one of the architects of the surprise "framework agreement" of last June that ended hostilities between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, has resigned from his PGA Tour post. Dunne cited "no meaningful progress" as a reason for his departure, which comes as frustrating news for anyone wanting to see golf unified again at more events than just the majors. Any chance for unification now likely won't happen until the 2026 season, if it happens at all.