Jordan Spieth CONFIRMS he and other PGA Tour directors including Tiger Woods are being ‘encouraged’ to meet Saudi PIF boss Yasir Al-Rumayyan as talks go on over end to golf’s civil war

Jordan Spieth has confirmed that he and other PGA Tour board members are being invited to meet with the head of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, as talks ‘accelerate’ over a possible end to golf’s civil war.

Spieth is one of six player directors for the new PGA Tour Enterprises, along with Tiger Woods, Patrick Cantlay, Peter Malnati, Adam Scott and Webb Simpson.

Spieth was speaking after round two of The Players at TPC Sawgrass, a few days after PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said talks on a merger with the PIF were ‘accelerating’.

“We’re encouraged to potentially meet with them at some point,” the three-time major champion said. ‘We probably feel that our membership should know times and what could happen.’

Spieth said he believes the entire board should meet with the PIF if a deal is struck.

“Maybe it’s just a meeting,” he added. “But of course we are encouraged, which I think is probably a good thing, that the entire board must, if there is to be the potential for a negotiation.”

Spieth also played down his apparent disagreement with Rory McIlroy during the first round of The Players on Thursday. An eight-minute delay followed after McIlroy pulled a drive left into the water as the Northern Irishman appeared to be debating with Spieth, his playing partner, over the correct spot for his drop.

Spieth appeared to question whether McIlroy’s drive had bounced before crossing the red hazard marker. That would have sent McIlroy 250 yards back up the green to a spot in front of the tee box for his third shot.

‘I was just listening to the conversation with Rory and Viktor (Hovland),’ Spieth insisted. ‘Rory had said: “We think it crossed up there, it could have been back there, so it seems somewhere in between.” “But then it sounds like something you should probably confirm with a rules officer, and then he did and it was all good.”

Spieth was heard to suggest that eyewitnesses had told him the ball had bounced the wrong side of the fairway.

‘You don’t really need somebody from the outside to say that, but I heard from like TV members, so I told him when we walked off the tee that they had said that,’ Spieth insisted.

‘I thought it was important to be honest… they said it definitely hit above, Rory and (McIlroy’s caddy) Harry (Diamond). So I thought, “Why don’t you just take care if they catch it.”

Spieth added, “I think all anybody wants is for you to put the ball where it’s going to go, and in our sport, especially on a golf course like this … you get some situations where it can be really hard to know for sure.” Spieth missed the cut at TPC Sawgrass after finishing round two at two over par.