WASHINGTON — A pair of PGA Tour executives are set to field questions from members of a Senate subcommittee this morning, as Congress continues to scrutinize the golf tour’s proposed deal that would see it effectively merge with Saudi-funded LIV Golf.
PGA Tour chief operating officer Ron Price and Jimmy Dunne, the Tour board member who played a significant role in orchestrating the deal, are both scheduled to testify in front of members of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in a meeting room on Capitol Hill beginning at 10 a.m. ET.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is the chairman of the committee and has been publicly critical of the deal, which will unite the two once-warring factions in golf under the same commercial umbrella.
In excerpts of his opening remarks that were released on the eve of the hearing, Blumenthal says this isn’t simply about golf, but rather “how a brutal, repressive regime can buy influence – indeed even take over – a cherished American institution simply to cleanse its public image.”
“A regime that has killed journalists, jailed and tortured dissidents, fostered the war in Yemen, and supported other terrorist activities, including 9/11. It’s called sportswashing,” Blumenthal says.
“It is also about hypocrisy, and how vast sums of money can induce individuals and institutions to betray their own values and supporters, or perhaps reveal lack of values from the beginning. It’s about other sports and institutions that could fall prey – if their leaders let it be all about the money.”
The subcommittee initially requested testimony from PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, but he has been out with an unspecified medical issue since June 13. He is set to return to his post on Monday.
LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman. (Photo: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
Greg Norman, the chief executive of LIV Golf, and Yasir al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, were also asked to appear. But Blumenthal and subcommittee ranking member Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., said in a statement last week that the two LIV representatives said they would be unavailable “due to scheduling conflicts.”
“Consistent with our subcommittee’s practice, we look forward to working with both witnesses to find a mutually agreeable date for them to appear in the very near future,” the senators said in their statement.
The subcommittee’s inquiry into the PGA Tour-LIV Golf deal is one of two parallel probes underway in the Senate. The other is being conducted by the Senate’s finance committee and overseen by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. The Department of Justice has also been investigating the deal.
Tuesday’s hearing comes about 36 hours after The Washington Post reported that a PGA Tour board member had resigned over concerns with the deal. The newspaper reported that Randall Stephenson, the former chairman of AT&T, wrote in his resignation letter that the framework agreement “is not one that I can objectively evaluate or in good conscience support, particularly in light of the U.S. intelligence report concerning Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.”
Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, was killed at a Saudi consulate in 2018. The aforementioned intelligence report concluded that the country’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, signed off on the operation − one of several incidents that activists point to as evidence of Saudi Arabia’s widespread human rights abuses.
Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.
Ahead of a Senate hearing scheduled for Tuesday on the tentative deal, Johnson suggested he sees the agreement between the major golf organizations as necessary to preserve competition of play in the sport. He acknowledged concerns over PIF and LIV Golf’s ties to Saudi Arabia but said he wants to play a “constructive” role in bridging the gap between the two groups.
“The fact of the matter is the Public Investment Fund … if they want to invest in global sports, they’re going to invest in global sports, and you have to recognize and react to that reality,” Johnson said of Saudi Arabia in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Thursday. “I think that’s what the PGA in the end was faced with.”
“You may not like that reality. I hated to see what happened with the split, with the players at each other’s throats,” he added, referencing the creation of LIV in 2021 as a direct competitor to the PGA Tour that caused a rift in the golf community. “And I’m hoping to play a constructive role in helping bridge that gap, repair the breach.”
Two PGA Tour officials — Ron Price, the tour’s chief operating officer, and Jimmy Dunne, a PGA board member who helped broker the deal — will testify Tuesday before the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, on which Johnson is the top Republican.
It’s expected to be a closely watched hearing, with lawmakers in recent weeks raising antitrust concerns and worries over Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.
Here’s what Johnson is saying about the deal ahead of Tuesday’s hearing.
Johnson wants to see ‘purity of competition’ preserved
Johnson said he initially felt that “Congress at this point shouldn’t get involved” in the merger.
But since U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut who is the subcommittee’s chairman, initiated the inquiry, Johnson said he wants to make sure the “purity of the competition” is maintained in the new for-profit entity that would be created after the planned merger.
PGA Tour events are contested over 72 holes with the field cut at 36 holes. Nothing is guaranteed, even for the greats. The tour plans to alter some events next year. It’s a response to the LIV format of 54-hole, no-cut competitions with team and individual winners.
In an interview, Johnson indicated he would like to see the competitive nature of the PGA Tour remain unchanged by Saudi Arabian involvement and pointed to a framework agreement between the two parties that would give the PGA Tour regulatory oversight over the game of golf.
“It’s just not the same thing,” Johnson said of the competition in the LIV compared to the PGA Tour. “And that’s certainly what I want to make sure is preserved — is the purity of the competition.”
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson will be part of a Senate hearing on Tuesday regarding the PGA Tour and LIV Golf deal.
What are the concerns with the deal?
The deal drew quick criticisms from both PGA Tour fans and lawmakers on Capitol Hill following its surprise announcement in early June.
Some lawmakers have questioned whether the deal, which would effectively create a single international golf organization, violates antitrust law. And Senate Democrats have said the deal raises questions about allowing a country with a history of human rights abuses to have a major stake in a U.S. institution, accusing Saudi Arabia of “sportswashing” their record.
In a letter to PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan last month, Blumenthal said the tour’s decision to make a deal with LIV after being in outspoken opposition to the group — they suspended players who joined LIV — raises “serious questions regarding the reasons for and terms behind the announced agreement.”
Johnson on Thursday called antitrust concerns “a legitimate issue” but indicated he believed courts would rule “in favor of sports competition.”
“In general, they’ve looked past those technical violations and say it’s necessary for these sports leagues to cooperate, to collude, in order to maintain the type of competition that the public wants and I would say even demands,” Johnson said of antitrust decisions.
Patrick Reed hits his tee shot on the ninth hole during the Pro-Am tournament as part of the LIV Golf Washington D.C. 2023 event at Trump National Golf Club outside Washington DC. (Photo: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports)
What about ‘sportswashing’?
Johnson said he, too, has concerns over Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, noting he doesn’t think “there’s anything the Saudis can do to wash away” abuses like the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The term sportswashing refers to a country’s attempt to use sports to improve its image. Saudi Arabia has made inroads into a number of sports, including with the purchase of professional soccer clubs and players, in recent years.
“There are certain realities that you simply can’t wash away,” Johnson said. “They may attempt to do it. I’m not sure how good their attempt will ever be, because as we’re talking here, everybody is fully mindful of the, as I said, the Khashoggi assassination.”
But he said the deal brokered by Dunne, the PGA Tour board member, was “for the good of the game of golf” and suggested working with a country like Saudi Arabia, whose investment fund reaches into the $700 billions, could be a fact of life.
“Should we be buying oil from Saudi Arabia?” Johnson quipped when asked about concerns over Saudi Arabia becoming involved in a U.S.-based organization.
“There’s just certain realities in the world that you, whether you like it or not, have to accept,” Johnson said. “One of the realities is I’d rather as a U.S. government be dealing with Saudi Arabia rather than antagonize them and have them go rushing into the arms of our adversaries like China or Russia.”
What does Johnson expect at the hearing?
Tuesday’s hearing, titled “The PGA-LIV Deal: Implications for the Future of Golf and Saudi Arabia’s Influence in the United States,” will give the PGA Tour “the opportunity to describe the challenge it faces in managing professional golf,” according to Johnson.
He said he hopes to hear from PGA Tour officials about the “existential” challenges LIV Golf posed to the tour and “why they ended up reaching out to them and trying to work with them, rather than fighting them in court, which nobody knew the outcome other than the lawyers would make a lot, a lot of money.”
He called the tentative framework “amorphous,” noting its lack of detail and unanswered questions about what golf will look like moving forward but suggested the litigation between the PGA Tour and LIV was not sustainable.
“When you’ve got unlimited funds willing to get into any kind of business venture, it’s just not a fair competition,” Johnson said. “It wasn’t a fair fight between the PGA and Saudi Arabia. It simply wasn’t.”
What’s next?
LIV Golf CEO & Commissioner Greg Norman hi-fives spectators on the 12th hole during day two of Liv Golf Adelaide at The Grange Golf Course on April 22, 2023 in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)
LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman and Yasir al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund who would serve as board chairman of the new golf entity, will not attend the hearing due to “scheduling conflicts,” Johnson and Blumenthal said.
The senators in their statement said the pair “have valuable information to share about the operations of the Public Investment Fund, the future of LIV Golf and Saudi Arabia’s plans to invest in golf and other sports.”
But Johnson on Thursday told the Journal Sentinel it was “hard to say” whether the committee would hear from either Norman or al-Rumayyan in the coming weeks.
He suggested the PGA Tour-LIV Golf deal was not top-of-mind for him.
“From my standpoint, if I were chairman of the committee, I would be concentrating on what we got wrong during the pandemic. I would be concentrating on the fact that we’re more than $32 trillion in debt,” Johnson said.
He added: “This hearing will hopefully give the PGA an opportunity to explain itself, whether the Saudis, whether the other side wants to take an opportunity to explain themselves, that would be up to them.”
(Editor’s note: This version of the story has been modified. The deal between the two sides is not, technically, considered a merger, but rather a business arrangement.)
Among all the questions about the partnership between the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, the money behind the LIV Golf League, there is one that many people haven’t considered.
What if the deal falls through?
Not because many PGA Tour players are somewhere between concerned and furious with the new structure proposed by the three entities. Some players are stunned by the PGA Tour’s hypocrisy in the matter, but that won’t stop the deal.
But what if the United States government, specifically the Department of Justice and the U.S. Senate permanent committee on investigations, believes that the deal is illegal at worst and just plain rotten at best? It’s possible, you know, as both the DOJ and the Senate have launched investigations into the six-page framework agreement that was leaked to The Athletic only days after it was handed over to the government.
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The next step couldn’t possibly be to just go back to April when none of this deal had been agreed to or discussed in public. So what would happen?
The wide-ranging conversation started with a simple question: do you want this deal to be consummated?
DETROIT – Peter Malnati was in a Residence Inn at the Toronto Airport on Tuesday morning, June 6, when his phone rang at 7:36 a.m., informing him of the PGA Tour’s blockbuster agreement with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund.
Malnati, 36, whose lone win came at the 2016 Sanderson Farms Championship, is in his first year on the PGA Tour policy board. On Tuesday, he and the nine other board members met for approximately eight hours in person. (Lunch was served at noon, there were two five-minute breaks and the meeting wrapped around 8 p.m.)
“Entering the Framework Agreement put an end to costly litigation,” the Policy Board said in a statement. “Management, with input from our Player Directors, has now begun a new phase of negotiations to determine if the Tour can reach a definitive agreement that is in the best interests of our players, fans, sponsors, partners, and the game overall.”
On Wednesday, after a lengthy practice session, Malnati spoke to Golfweek about the meeting and shed some new light on the task ahead, including how the Tour must earn back player trust, Commissioner Jay Monahan’s health, the formation of player committees to dole out discipline to LIV defectors and reward loyalty for those who stayed.
The wide-ranging conversation started with a simple question: do you want this deal to be consummated?
“I never wanted this deal to happen,” Malnati said. “But now that we’re apparently in a position where it was needed for some reason, I want to see the PGA Tour succeed and there are smart people that are telling me that this deal is going to set up the PGA Tour for long-term success. It’s still a hard pill to swallow because like I never turned down an offer (from LIV) and never had an offer. They never had any interest in me and that’s perfectly understandable. I’m the 250th-ranked player in the world. But even hypothetically had LIV made me a significant offer, it was never on the table for me to accept that offer because I didn’t want to be associated with the Saudis and the PIF. I never would have accepted an offer there. And people always said, ‘Well, everyone has a number.’ I didn’t have a number. So the fact that unbeknownst to any of us that choice was potentially made for us that we’re going to partner with PIF, that was really hard to swallow, for sure.
“So your question was, do I want this deal to happen?
“I think ultimately now I’m in a place where I’m going to say, ‘Yes.’ I think I understand it more. I think I want the deal to happen. Because I think it’s long-term what’s best for the PGA Tour. I don’t think it’s as much of a merger, I don’t think we’re going to be controlled by LIV. In fact, that’s one of the principal elements that the Board is going to ensure if we go forward, that there will be protections in the agreement that PIF can never be anything more than a minority investor in what we do. With those safeguards in place, I think, yes, I want to see a good deal done for the PGA Tour and its members.”
To dispense with the necessary off the top: any PGA Tour player is welcome to dislike or dispute whatever point he chooses in my work, and for any reason he sees fit. I might even take on board some of the criticisms posted to social media Thursday, though not the monstrous cheap shot about my “fluffy adjectives.” But I write an opinion column, and those opinions don’t require the approval of professional golfers, some of whom seem discomfited by commentary that isn’t affirming and flattering.
What irked some was a column critical of Patrick Cantlay, who has been discreetly rallying fellow members against the proposed deal between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund. That Cantlay has profound misgivings about the agreement should be welcomed since it represents a potentially poor settlement for his tour. The basis for his opposition matters, however.
Most elite PGA Tour players aren’t troubled by doing business with the Saudi government, the moral argument never having been a serious consideration. Nor are those opposed to this deal bent on salvaging the reputation of their Tour, which has performed a rhetorical backflip that would be the envy of Simone Biles. A few might still be upset about the secretive process toward the agreement, but even that has largely dissipated. For a handful of key guys, the concern is leverage, as in where can they find it? A deal that takes a competitor off the board, to use Jay Monahan’s words, also takes leverage from players who would no longer have a spendthrift suitor and who’d likely miss the lucrative cash out enjoyed by the soon-to-return LIV guys. Nixing this deal and fashioning an alternative with private equity potentially keeps LIV as a competitor and serves their narrow interests.
After an hours-long meeting on Tuesday, the Tour’s policy board released a statement that was at pains to emphasize the importance of input from player-directors, none of whom were in the loop about the agreement until just before it was announced. Fears about member discontent — among both elite and rank-and-file players — are real, and offer the board a sharp reminder about where power lies in the organization. Such wariness is understandable since surveying the path on which the Tour has set out suggests a perilous journey ahead.
The framework agreement between the Tour and the Saudis didn’t much satisfy any constituency, and as the basis for a radical restructuring of professional golf, it was awfully light on particulars. But it did illuminate the priorities of each party.
For the Saudis, it was ending the legal discovery process that could have exposed the Fund’s investments beyond golf, and also a desire for broad acceptance in the sport. For the PGA Tour, it was about ending legal bills and obtaining a cash infusion that would, among other things, sustain purse increases. If the proposed deal is consummated, both sides get what they wanted. If it isn’t, the Saudis still get their wish list, but the PGA Tour does not.
Even without a final agreement, litigation has ended and Saudi money has been normalized. The Tour still faces a Department of Justice investigation and Congressional probes, plus the risk of Saudi investment not materializing. Its legal leverage has been withdrawn, the morality card can’t be played with a straight face, and a green light has been given for corporations and players to kick the tires on LIV for themselves. The Saudis can continue operating LIV if no deal is reached, in which case more top players might opt to jump.
In short, the PGA Tour will be worryingly dependent on Saudi good faith in negotiations.
It wasn’t widely noted that deep in the framework document — paragraph 9 of 10 — is a non-disparagement clause, though it seems no one thought it necessary to ask for a non-dismemberment rule. The provision extends beyond the immediate negotiating parties to include “ultimate beneficial owners,” which in PIF’s case is the Saudi government, against which no criticism can be leveled.
But hey, it’s better if everyone agrees not to say anything mean.
It’s impossible to not empathize some with Jay Monahan, who stepped away as PGA Tour commissioner last week to address an undisclosed medical situation. After all, who among us didn’t feel stricken upon hearing that Chesson Hadley expects to be rewarded for his loyalty in not leaving for LIV? That declaration proves how myopic entitlement has spread from the Tour’s penthouse all the way to its basement.
Monahan’s predicament is unenviable, even without the attending health issues. He’s been cast as the face of a rapprochement with the Saudi Arabian government, an ill-defined but ignominious deal that promises a future in which the Tour will have to rationalize its proximity to regime atrocities. When he announced the agreement on June 6, Monahan knew he’d be widely pilloried, including by his own blindsided members and by the families of 9/11 victims, who were left feeling like useful props in a commercial dispute. The fallout, he would have calculated, could be career-ending.
The 9/11 relatives have every reason to feel manipulated. And Tour players? Well, they remain the constituency that has caused the most agita for Monahan and his team since this spectacle began. The Tour has been criticized — often fairly — for a flat-footed and reactive response to the Saudi-funded LIV league, but then it’s difficult to be nimble when members constantly shift the goalposts. For example, deciding that participation in designated events would not be mandatory in 2024, essentially telling sponsors they’ll have the same field guarantees as before — none — but pay substantially more for the privilege.
Issues with the membership run deeper than the practicalities of selling the product. Several prominent players didn’t fire a shot in defense of their Tour over the last three years but instead held it to ransom by threatening to bolt for LIV unless their demands were met. Those demands resulted in a compensation model that is, by Monahan’s admission, unsustainable without outside investment. In short, PGA Tour players offered an example of what happens when a professional sport consumes itself with naked greed. And it isn’t over yet.
Patrick Cantlay, who carries himself with the assurance of a man convinced he’d be a partner at Goldman Sachs if he wasn’t merely sporting its logo on his cap, has been trying to rally players against the deal with the Saudis, and against members of the Tour’s policy board who architected or support it. It hardly needs to be stated that his objections aren’t based on the morality of dealing with human rights abusers. Existing PGA Tour incentives won’t much benefit Cantlay. He won’t get rich from the Player Impact Program that bonuses stars on fan engagement since the only needle he moves is the gas gauge on his car. So the logic of Cantlay’s coup d’etat is that if LIV disappears as a threat — a likely occurrence under the deal — then players like him have no options, no leverage over the Tour, and no prospects for the lucrative payday to which they feel entitled.
Multiple sources say Cantlay has romanced LIV for some time, including while being a sitting member of the Tour’s policy board, all while maintaining a gymnast’s balance as a fence-sitter in public.
Patrick Cantlay of the United States and caddie Joe LaCava wait on the eighth hole during a practice round prior to the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Country Club on May 03, 2023, in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
The policy board meets Tuesday afternoon in Detroit, and it could turn fractious if Cantlay’s coup ambitions move into the open. Thus far, his gripes have gained little traction among players for three reasons: firstly, Cantlay’s interests are not aligned with those of the broader membership, who have maximized any benefit they’ll see from a market competitor in bigger purses; secondly, his fellow players are upset about process, not policy (it’s not taking Saudi money, it’s not being in the loop on the decision); thirdly, no details have been draped upon the framework agreement that was announced, so there’s nothing specific which players might find unpalatable.
Only one of those factors will change. Eventually, specifics on the terms will take shape, but with Congressional hearings and a Department of Justice investigation looming, any union toward a new for-profit entity will be slow, with no consummation guaranteed.
Men’s professional golf has become a bonfire of reputations. Some were torched with decisions to work directly for the Saudi regime and to prevaricate on its abuses. More followed with this deal to normalize its investment in the sport, however much of a face-saving ante it might ultimately prove to be. Soon, others will hurl themselves on the pyre in a bid to grab their share. And if Chesson Hadley considers himself a worthy claimant for the spoils, how many more must be ahead of him in line?
It’s unclear whether Monahan will return to the PGA Tour. It would be understandable if he opted out. Because what is the appeal of a job that’s been reduced to scavenging in order to meet the grotesquely inflated price tags his players put on their charisma? A value that a rational market has shown no sign of supporting.
The U.S. Open is over, and we’re quickly teeing up hostilities again. Through all of this, especially after the announcement two weeks ago between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which owns LIV Golf, a thought keeps creeping in.
This isn’t the first upheaval within the world of men’s professional golf — specifically the touring variety. It’s natural to suggest nothing like this has ever happened before, and it hasn’t, but this also isn’t the first time onlookers have said, “Nothing like this has ever happened before.”
The PGA Tour owes its very existence to a late-1960s rebellion that had some high-profile critics — Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen and Sam Snead among them. About 15 years later, and 40 years ago, another big fork in the road arrived, and none other than golf’s two biggest draws of the day — Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer — had to receive the lion tamer’s treatment.
Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus in 1968, when professional golfers were still playing under the auspices of the PGA of America.
Some history …
Soon after the PGA of America was born in 1916, a tournament division was formed and was originally filled with club pros and teaching pros who could play a bit. Before long, the likes of Hagen, Tommy Armour, Gene Sarazen and Henry Picard were true touring professionals and paved the way for the early nomads. “The circuit,” most called the PGA’s tournament wing.
The great American triumvirate of Snead, Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan led the way through mid-century, and all was well for 30 or 40 years, until Arnie elevated the game into a marketable showpiece while also introducing it to America’s living rooms via the still-young network TV conduit.
By the time the ’60s arrived, the PGA’s rather draconian rules began to ruffle the double-knitted proletariat.
Among the bylaws, and impossible to fathom today, the PGA tournament division withheld all purse winnings from a new pro for his first six months. An internship, of sorts.
Also, by the fall of ’69, when Nicklaus made his first Ryder Cup appearance, he’d already won 28 tournaments, including seven professional majors, dating back to ’62. The PGA of America, which owns and operates the Ryder Cup to this day, had a rule forbidding a touring pro from competing in the biennial matches for the first five years of his career.
Seriously, imagine that. The Ryder Cup was nowhere near what it would become in subsequent generations, but still, it’s a head-scratcher.
The 1969 rancor between the PGA of America, which basically represents the nation’s club professionals, and its tournament-player faction didn’t have the international intrigue and subsequent geo-political controversies of today’s ugliness, but it was ugly nonetheless.
With the benefit of current knowledge, particularly knowing how it all turned out, it’s hard to imagine just how nasty it was as the newly named American Professional Golfers broke off from the PGA of America.
Over time, and after much posturing and some legalities, there was peace, and the eventual compromises included the settled-upon name: PGA Tour, which to this day confuses casual fans who assume “The PGA,” as in the Professional Golfers Association of America, and the PGA Tour are under the same officially licensed umbrella. They’re not.
The original Tour bylaws gave the new league authority to conduct professional tournaments, but also to market the Tour and, if and when feasible, get into the golf course and real estate markets. That little throw-in came into play 40 years ago and helped preserve the modern PGA Tour at a time when Palmer and Nicklaus often bristled at competing against their own Tour in the merchandise and course-design games.
Deane Beman and PGA Tour pro Gardner Dickinson at TPC Sawgrass.
PGA TOUR Archive
The 1983 revolt specifically threatened the job security of PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman. Some digging through the original Tour bylaws reminded the leading rebels they had signed off on the Tour’s outside endeavors, beyond running tournaments, and Beman survived.
But it was close. Much of the legal and PR combat was hidden and didn’t surface until well after the fact, but that history suggests the professional game has been through turmoil before.
This time, of course, it’s different. But you know, every time is different.
As the PGA Tour heads to Connecticut this week for the Travelers Championship, a senator from that state said on national television that he thinks a congressional hearing on the proposed deal between the Tour and the Saudi Arabia-backed Public Investment Fund could take place within a matter of a few weeks.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, said on CBS’s “Face The Nation” that a subcommittee he leads is digging deeper into the potential deal.
According to a release from the Tour, PIF will make an investment into the unnamed new entity “to facilitate its growth and success” and will initially be the exclusive investor alongside the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and the DP World Tour. PIF will also have the exclusive right to further invest in the new entity, including a right of first refusal on any new capital that may be invested in the entity.
The PGA Tour is expected to appoint a majority of the board and hold a majority voting interest in the new entity if the deal goes through. The board of directors of the new entity was expected to include PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan as chairman and PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan as chief executive officer, although it’s uncertain how a recent health scare for Monahan could impact the organization.
Blumenthal told CBS’s Robert Costa he thinks the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations could press for a hearing sometime soon.
“I think a hearing is possible within weeks. The American people deserve a clear look at the facts here. Again, not prejudging what the conclusions will be,” Blumenthal said. “But, what the Saudis are doing here is not taking control of a single team or hiring one player. They are, in effect, taking charge of the entire sport and it’s not just a Saudi individual. It is the regime.”
The PGA Tour and LIV Golf officially motioned to drop their respective legal cases against each other last week, signaling what may be the beginning to the end of a lengthy battle in court that lasted nearly a year.
On the Senate investigation into the PGA Tour and LIV Golf merger, @SenBlumenthal says "any of the tools at our disposal, including subpoenas and hearings, recommendations for action and legislation are all on the table."
On Friday both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf voluntarily dismissed all claims against each other, with prejudice, meaning the claims previously made in the two lawsuits can’t be refiled or pursued. According to Friday’s filing, “all parties bear their own fees and costs.”
Blumenthal said he was concerned about the potential deal, which could combine many of professional golf’s main forces. The U.S. Department of Justice was already investing the Tour for antitrust behavior.
“There’s a real risk to American interests in the Saudis taking over this American institution. We want to get to the bottom of it,” he said.
Watson said the rollout of the deal with PIF was poorly handled and wondered aloud whether the players have options.
In an open letter to PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour’s Board and fellow players, World Golf Hall of Famer Tom Watson said communication of the new partnership between the Tour and the Saudi-run Public Investment Fund was poorly handled and wondered aloud whether the players have any other options.
The note, which was sent on Monday, wished Monahan well as he battled a recent medical issue, then acknowledged that his job has been a difficult one as the Tour has attempted to stave off LIV Golf’s advances. But Watson, who won five British Opens among eight majors, said he wasn’t pleased with how the news was rolled out.
In the wake of recent news, I also understand the cries of hypocrisy. Because he is a smart man, I know Jay does too. In my opinion, the communication has been mishandled and the process by which the Tour agreed on a proposed partnership with PIF was executed without due process. As a group of players and stakeholders who represent the face and the brands of the Tour, what are our choices?
Watson added that while the meeting the players had in advance of the RBC Canadian Open allowed for a short forum on the deal, many questions remain unanswered and he hopes there will be a more robust discussion this week as the Tour heads to TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut, for the Travelers Championship.
The Commissioner and the PGA Tour Board, on which five Tour players sit, are going to have to do a lot of firsthand explaining to comfortably coax acceptance with our membership on this partnership with the PIF. The Tour’s stakeholders: the Players themselves, the broad span of global media, as well as the tournament sponsors and independent Tour partners, require an explanation of the benefits of forming this partnership.
Monahan told PGA Tour employees the current model wasn’t sustainable. The PIF has a reported $620 billion in assets. The meeting in Toronto came two days after the announced deal to form a new for-profit entity.
Monahan reportedly told employees the Tour had spent $50 million in legal fees and dipped into reserves for $100 million to pay increased purses in designated events and other bonuses.
There are many unanswered questions to date, which I hope will be addressed with the players by Tour management at this week’s Traveler’s Tour event. What does acceptance of this partnership mean to the Tour? What do we get? What do we give up? Why was this deal done in such secrecy and why wasn’t even one of the players who sits on the Tour’s Policy Board included? A matter this profound deserves thorough vetting by a representative group of stakeholders which include those, who in the end, define the public image and emotional connection with the PGA Tour.
Watson, who was the PGA Tour Player of the Year six times during a storied career that saw him 39 PGA Tour events, also said the agreement to partner with Saudi Arabia’s PIF has been difficult for many to swallow.
These questions are compounded by the hypocrisy in disregarding the moral issue; a position which for a long time was publicly highlighted by Tour leadership. While it is accepted that players on all levels would value the opportunity to make more money, it has also been illustrated that not all of our players are in search of money at all costs. Those who stayed true to the Tour for whatever personal reason or position of moral conscience are more than a few outliers. There are widespread rumors on the Tour offering financial reparations to these players who rejected offers from LIV and remained loyal to our Tour. Surely, that alone misses the larger issue of context here? And in a related question, what if any, are the plans to reinstate Tour players who defected and now want to return to the PGA Tour?
Watson closed by saying he hopes more answers — and transparency — will be coming in the near future.
My overarching questions remain. Is the PIF the only viable rescue from the Tour’s financial problems? Was/is there a plan B? And again, what exactly is the exchange? We need clarity and deserve full disclosure as to the financial health of the PGA Tour and the details of this proposed partnership.
My loyalty to golf and this country live in the same place and have held equal and significant weight with me over my lifetime. Please educate me and others in a way that allows loyalty to both and in a way that makes it easy to look 9/11 families in the eye and ourselves in the mirror.
I am very grateful for our country, its abundant opportunities, and the wonderful life made possible by the PGA Tour.
Watson has a well-documented history of throwing his weight into issues of social justice. In 1990, Watson quit his membership at Kansas City Country Club after the club denied access to a potential member who was Jewish. Watson had been a member of the club for decades.
“They put a prominent Jewish person up for membership and his application was withdrawn,” Watson told the Associated Press, as noted in the New York Times. “It’s something I can’t personally live with because my family is Jewish. … I would hope the club would significantly change so some good people of any religion, race and sex could be members.”
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The Saudi-owned PIF’s involvement in sports, and in particular golf, has been criticized as a way for the Kingdom to sportswash its human rights record. Saudi Arabia has been accused of wide-ranging human rights abuses, including politically motivated killings, torture, forced disappearances and inhumane treatment of prisoners. Members of the royal family and Saudi government were accused of involvement in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist.
There are just 10 weeks until the 2023 college football season. Conference summer meetings in July and players arriving in six weeks. So why write a college football column when nothing significant is happening? Because what is developing on the world stage in professional sports is a harbinger of things coming to college football. The warnings are there. The distinction between professional sports and amateur sports has all but disappeared and the threat to college athletics is greater than at any time in history.
How did we get here?
Start with the PGA Tour, the association for professional golf. You know by now that LIV Golf, part of the $600 billion Saudi named Public Investment Fund (PIF) and its spokesman, Greg Norman (who is paid $100 million by LIV), recruits golf’s top players to play at various tournaments, guaranteeing them tens of millions of dollars just for participating. Winning results in huge bonuses. Now you may be a pure capitalist and believe that one’s services can be sold to the highest bidder, but what about when that bidder is from Saudi Arabia? Women in that country regularly experience discrimination. Human rights violations are part of their history. How about the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident journalist who was allegedly assassinated by Saudi agents at the Saudi consulate in Turkey in 2022? And 15 of the Sept. 11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, though the Saudi government has consistently denied any involvement. This is the country America wants to do business with?
Clearly, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan didn’t think so when he referenced the victims of 9/11 to pressure many his members from accepting the LIV “blood money” and defecting. He was on record that the PGA Tour and LIV Golf would never merge. Faces of the game like Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy had sacrificed hundreds of millions of dollars and pledged their allegiance to the Tour.
Then, the hammer fell when the two sides, while litigating their issues in court, announced a new deal. Monahan admitted he would be called a hypocrite by his own players. The Saudis never wanted to profit from this endeavor; they craved legitimacy, access and acceptance from the establishment. Influence is their goal and that is the danger. This merger indirectly compromises our golf’s legitimacy and our way of life. That’s why Congress and the Justice Department announced an investigation. Good luck with that.
The point here is when is enough enough?
Greg Norman addresses the crowd before the trophy presentation following the final round of LIV Golf Adelaide golf tournament at Grange Golf Club. Mandatory Credit: Mike Frey-USA TODAY Sports
But that’s not all. Soccer is the most watched sport in the world. The Saudis have been buying teams in Europe and instantly changing them from perennial losers to winners (see Newcastle). The great Cristiano Ronaldo, at one time, signed a three-year contract worth $200 million annually to play in Saudi Arabia. Karim Benzema opted out of his $30-million contract with Real Madrid for $150 million a year to play in the Kingdom. Finally, Lionel Messi, captain of Argentina’s World Cup championship team, and recognized by many as the GOAT, reportedly was offered a three-year $1.5-billion contract by you guessed it, the Saudis. He eschewed the offer to come to America and accept an estimated $200 million a year (both Apple and Adidas provided most of the compensation) to play for Miami FC. But he remains on the Saudi payroll as an “ambassador” for about $30 million.
So what does all this have to do with college football?
Everything.
The PGA Tour waved the white flag and said it couldn’t compete with these outrageous sums of money and decided to cut its losses. You can save the political argument about accepting money from the Saudis or any other country which does not share our values for another conversation. This is simply about the divisive effect big money has on sports. If Saudi Arabia decides it wants to start a professional basketball league, it says here they have the cache to do it, how does any league compete if salaries jump tenfold? Remember the AFL, WHA, ABA. LIV Golf is interested in spreading its influence and having a legitimate world stage and audience to advance its agenda.
The most vulnerable of all the popular sports in America today is college football (college basketball also is part of this vulnerability). Any entity (Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.) — foreign or otherwise — could compensate top players to establish relationships dedicated to advancing their interests. Nike, Adidas, FOX, ESPN, etc., are already doing this; we just haven’t identified it as a threat. But college football remains the most vulnerable because it has no collective bargaining agreement — and therefore no limits on what any third party can compensate an athlete under NIL. Some players already earn $1 million to $3 million.
What if Saudia Arabia decided to use its unlimited resources to pay the top players $10 million plus per year? Is it realistic? Let’s hope not.
Alabama head coach Nick Saban has some words for the Crimson defense after they allowed a long touchdown run during the A-Day game at Bryant-Denny Stadium. At left is Crimson team linebacker Jihaad Campbell (30) and at right is Crimson team linebacker Trezmen Marshall (17) at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary Cosby-USA TODAY Sports
That’s why on Wednesday a contingent from the SEC, including Alabama coach Nick Saban, arrived in Washington to address members of Congress about the need to regulate compensation under NIL. Don’t expect Congress to do anything anytime soon. The NCAA? Fuhgeddaboudit. There’s only one feasible solution: Unionize the players and negotiate a CBA that addresses NIL and limits the impact outside influences can have. Yes, a salary cap. Hard or soft, there’s no other alternative to save the competitive balance the game is losing. Stop the insane belief that college football players are amateur athletes and declare them professionals.
Time is not on our side and without dramatic changes, the exploitation of young, highly impressionable men is unavoidable. Otherwise, the resources, assets, support and capital, (all code words for money) of domestic and foreign companies will impact players at the college level to establish an agenda to manipulate the innocent and spread the influence.
That is the dangerous world we live in.
(Editor’s note: Ken Schreiber contributes a college football column for the Providence Journal. This post first appeared in the Providence Journal, part of the USA Today Network.)
