Tiger Woods, Rickie Fowler among PGA Tour players conferring amid LIV Golf strife

Tiger Woods arrived in Wilmington, Delaware, the site of this week's BMW Championship, on Tuesday to meet with a select number of players to discuss the future of the PGA Tour and how it might be strengthened in its ongoing battle with LIV Golf for the best players in the world.

Woods, a 15-time major champion, flew to Delaware from Florida, along with his friend Rickie Fowler, who didn't qualify for the second leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

PGA Tour stars Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay and others were expected to attend the meeting, which was being held at an off-course hotel.

Sources told ESPN on Monday that Woods was meeting with several of the world's top 20 golfers and other influential players to make sure they were all on the «same page» in terms of the PGA Tour's future.

Woods had similar discussions with a handful of players at the JP McManus Pro-Am in Ireland in July, sources told ESPN, and he wanted to bring their ideas to a wider audience of PGA Tour members.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan wasn't invited to the meeting. He is scheduled to host players in an informal question-and-answer session on Wednesday, a tour official told ESPN. Monahan has been hosting the meetings at tournaments for the past few months.

A source told ESPN that it wasn't expected to be an «all hands on deck» meeting with Woods. A number of past major champions, including Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson, have defected to LIV Golf, which is luring players away from the PGA Tour with guaranteed contracts worth as much as $100 million to $200 million, as well as $25 million purses for each of its events.

Last week, the Telegraph of London reported that Open Championship winner Cameron