Tiger Woods continues to add to his busy schedule after announcing a new business venture, but is still yet to help the PGA Tour and LIV Golf reach an agreement

Legendary golfer Tiger Woods has announced plans to design a second golf course in Texas, as he takes on yet another major project.

Woods, 48, announced Thursday that he’s teaming up with the Bluejack Ranch brand to design another course in Aledo, Texas. In a note published on their website, Woods wrote: “I’m grateful for the encore opportunity to reteam with Bluejack National and home-towners Andy and Kristin Mitchell to design a course around this incredibly special property and community.”

He later added: “It’s extremely motivating for me to contribute to the golfing legacy of Fort Worth, and I’m excited to see what we’ll build together. We’ll share more after our next design meeting in Aledo.”

Woods remains one of several representatives from the PGA Tour holding talks with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) in an attempt to reach a deal with LIV Golf over a merger. Talks have been ongoing for over a year and Woods has been at the center of discussions but keeps finding new ventures to keep him occupied.

In addition to Woods’ new project, he’s set to debut a new golf league in January alongside fellow PGA Tour member Rory McIlroy. The high-tech golf league, TGL, will feature 24 top PGA Tour players in weekly televised matchups at an arena in Florida.

Woods and McIlroy partnered with renowned golf course architect Beau Welling to create virtual holes, which will be played in a 1,500-seater SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens. Woods and McIlroy will compete alongside big names such as Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, and Justin Rose.

With Woods heavily involved in the designs for a new course, preparing to launch TGL, and promoting clothing brand Sun Day Red, it’s left him with less time for traditional golf. Woods is now operating on a limited schedule and is next expected to play on Dec. 5 at the Hero World Challenge.

Woods’ days may be numbered in golf, but he’s been tasked with saving the future of the sport. The PGA Tour has been in talks with PIF since Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and Saudi chief Yasir Al-Rumayyan announced a shock framework agreement last June.

The deal is yet to be signed almost 18 months later, although Woods held talks with the PIF recently in New York according to ESPN. The last update Woods offered was at The Open Championship in July, as he said: “I can tell you we’re making progress. I can’t tell you more than that just because we’re not going to negotiate on the outside.

“We’ve got to keep everything at a high level and private, but things are moving and things are changing… There’s a good interchange of ideas and thoughts on how the game could look going forward. It’s just a matter of putting that all together legally.

“Obviously we have the DOJ with oversight looking into that as well and making sure that we don’t do anything improperly there, as well, but also making sure that all the players benefit from this as well as everyone who’s involved. They want to make money as well. They want to make that return.”

The LIV Golf-PGA Tour merger has been the flash point in the structure of golf competition ever since its plans came to the forefront. While the announcement happened quite a while back, there is almost constant attention on how it is going. The most recent flash in the pan was when it was revealed that some players felt that it was unfair that LIV Golfers would keep their earnings, which are in the hundreds of millions.

The report was confirmed by Matt Fitzpatrick, who was asked whether the bad blood between the two tournaments’ golfers was starting to clear. He said, “Not necessarily. I think there’s probably some players in the States, their feelings, I don’t think they would be very happy.” PGA Tour golfers such as Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, and others have been quite vocal about their strong dislike of the whole LIV Golf concept.

While many players are involved in the merger talks, it would seem that some players harbor a much stronger dislike for change than others. Rory McIlroy, particularly, has been very critical of LIV Golf from the beginning. However, his stance has somewhat softened recently as he said, “They both want the same thing too. It’s a matter of getting all the different constituents on board,”.

This week will be a big step in the saga as a joint tournament is being held at the Dunhill Golf Links in Kingsbarn where PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and LIV Golf owner Yasir Al-Rumayyan will be playing alongside several PGA Tour and LIV Golf professionals. But what does Matt Fitzpatrick think of a merger between the two tournaments?

Matt Fitzpatrick airs views

Matt Fitzpatrick had also been quite vocal about his dislike of the Saudi PIF-owned breakaway tournament, saying that he didn’t think it was fair that certain players could play in both tournaments. However, things appear to have changed as he conveyed his thought process, saying, “My issue was always, at the start, anyway, is you’ve gone over there. Like I don’t feel like it’s fair for you to try and come back and play, as well. But I would say I’ve changed on that now.” He also said that he wants to focus on himself rather than think about what is going on in the lives of other players.

The Englishman also asserted that while he never harbored a desire to leave the PGA Tour and join LIV Golf, he understood why some golfers did. He said, “I’ve always said that I understood why people went. I’ve got no issues with that. No issues at all.” While LIV Golf has lured top players from both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, the European Tour has been much more amiable in collaborating with the breakaway league. Some LIV Golf players have come back to play on the DP World Tour and more recently, LIV Golf Individual Champion Jon Rahm returned to play on home soil in a DP World Tour event.

So while all is not rosy for the merger, there is progress being made and issues being resolved. The change in perspective by Fitzpatrick and McIlroy is testament to the grinding out of an agreement for the good of the game.