PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan blamed congressional inaction for the decision to ally with LIV Golf.
In a letter sent to the U.S. Senate, Monahan said vows of support for the PGA Tour did little to stem the tide in fending off litigation and poaching of talent from the rival tour.
“While we are grateful for the written declarations of support we received from certain [congressional] members,” the letter reads, “we were largely left on our own to fend off the attacks, ostensibly due to the United States’ complex geopolitical alliance with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This left the very real prospect of another decade of expensive and distracting litigation and the PGA Tour’s long-term existence under threat.”
Three days after Monahan said the letter reached the Senate, a subcommittee opened an inquiry into the planned alliance between the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and the DP World Tour, with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund at the center of the controversy.
PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan will chair the resulting new company, while Monahan will be the CEO.
The PGA Tour operates as a tax-exempt organization, while the PIF and LIV lured multiple PGA veterans with guaranteed contracts over $200 million. The gray areas in the merger appear to be significant from a legal and operational perspective. Monahan said the PGA will continue to “operate as its own entity,” but Al-Rumayyan would hold a seat on the Tour board.
Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal sent letters to Monahan and LIV CEO Greg Norman on Monday citing “concerns” the government plans to raise around PIF and use of profit from the investment in the new alliance.
“PGA Tour’s agreement with PIF regarding LIV Golf raises concerns about the Saudi government’s role in influencing this effort and the risks posed by a foreign government entity assuming control over a cherished American institution,” Blumenthal wrote to the leadership of both circuits. “PIF has announced that it intends to use investments in sports to further the Saudi government’s strategic objectives.”
American and foreign players who united to defend the legacy of the PGA Tour, including Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, shared their sense of betrayal after steadfastly supporting the PGA Tour and resisting massive paydays in the initial roster build of LIV Golf.
A key motive for the alliance is dissolving existing litigation between the rivals, which likely would end the discovery phase of any trial either side faced. However, the U.S. Department of Justice is in the midst of an investigation of the PGA Tour’s alleged monopolistic business practices and discovery could be possible in the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations review that was just launched to study the out-of-nowhere pact.
“Rather than a foreign-funded entity taking over an American sport, the end result is that the PIF has agreed to work within the existing golf ecosystem as a minority investor with the PGA Tour in full control,” Monahan wrote. “The PGA Tour is, and will remain, an American institution dedicated to its players and generating charity in the communities where we play.”
–Field Level Media