LOS ANGELES — Tiger Woods said Tuesday he"s been approached by organizers of a proposed Premier Golf League and said he has "delved into the details" trying to understand how the new circuit would work. "My team"s been aware of it and we"ve delved into the details of it and trying to figure it out just like everyone else," Woods said of the proposed 18-event tour. Its events would run from January to September with 48-player fields in a four-man, 12-team format battling for $10 million purses at 54-hole events. There would be an individual $2 million top prize at each event, as well as team prize money. "There"s a lot of information that we"re still looking at and whether it"s reality or not, but just like everybody else, we"re looking into it," Woods said. Organizers are aiming to draw the top players from the US and European PGA Tours, but it"s not yet clear how players could compete on the new circuit and maintain their ties with the tours that made them stars. "We"ve been down this road before," Woods noted as he spoke to reporters at Riviera Country Club prior to teeing it up on Thursday in the US Tour"s Genesis Invitational. He cited the World Golf Championships as an elite series created to bring together the world"s best golfers at events outside the four major championships and the US tour"s Players Championship — which consistently draws a strong international field. "So this is a natural evolution," he said, while remaining non-comittal on what the venture"s actual chances for success might be. "Whether or not things like this are going to happen, ideas like this are going to happen going forward." Woods would be 46 if the league meets its aim of starting in 2022, but there"s no doubt he would be a top draw on any star-driven circuit. But the ties of players like Woods to the established tours and their sponsors — he serves as host of this week"s event at Riviera which benefits his charitable foundation — make the matter complicated. Five-time major winner Phil Mickelson said last month that he found the proposal "intriguing." In releasing plans for the league, the World Golf Group said it was their intention "to work with, rather than challenge, existing tours." But Golf Channel reported that PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan had sent a letter to players saying in the tour"s opinion the proposed league schedule is in conflict with the PGA Tour. He noted that PGA Tour members are restricted to a limited number of non-tour "conflicting events" per season. PGA Tour regulations also state that a member "cannot have a financial interest in another player," a rule that could scupper Premier Golf League team ownership by any player that wants to maintain US tour membership. Woods weighs in on golf"s distance dilemma Woods says "bifurcation" in the rules of golf to allow recreational players to use different equipment from professionals should be considered in the quest to curb ever-increasing hitting distance in the game. "It"s on the table whether we bifurcate or not," Woods said, noting that differing equipment rules could keep the game more enjoyable for the less-skilled while still limiting the distance professionals could hit the ball in competition. "We want to keep the game enjoyable, we want to keep having more kids want to come play it," he said of the argument for allowing more forgiving clubs and balls designed to maximize distance for recreational use. Critics of the bifurcation solution argue that amateur golfers like knowing they use the same equipment as the pros. Different equipment standards could make transitioning from the amateur to professional ranks more difficult. But with advances in fitness and equipment, professionals are hitting the ball further and further. Woods, who has watched — and helped inspire —the evolution over the course of his career believes it can"t continue. "We"ve come a long way and what"s been crazy is that I"ve been a part of all that," he said. "When I first started on tour I beat Davis Love in a playoff (in 1996) and he was using a persimmon driver. If you could carry it 270 (yards) you took a lot of trouble out of play. "Now guys are hitting hybrids and five-woods 270 in the air. "The game has evolved and changed and we"re running out of property trying to design courses that are 7,800 to 8,000 yards," Woods said. Equipment isn"t the only reason, he noted. "When I came out it was just Vijay (Singh) and myself in the gyms and now it seems like everyone has their own trainer and physios and guys got bigger, stronger, faster, more athletic like all sports." Woods was weighing in on the issue after the US golf Association and the Royal & Ancient, which oversee the world rules of golf, issued key findings of their Distance Insights Project this month. The governing bodies said they want to break the "ever-increasing cycle of hitting distance" — which threatens to make some established courses obsolete and alters the balance of skills needed to be successful in the game. Longer courses are also less environmentally friendly, and contribute to longer round times that turn off many, the investigation found. "I"ve always said that the game of golf is fluid, it"s moving," Woods said. "Part of the discussion going forward is do we bifurcate or not. It"s going to be probably even well after my career and my playing days that we figure that out." — AFP