PGA Tour logo throughout the third round of the Travelers Championship on June 24, 2017, at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut.
Fred Kfoury | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images
Key lawmakers on Wednesday invited the officials behind the proposed deal between the PGA Tour and Saudi-backed rival LIV Golf to testify at a Senate subcommittee hearing.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Sen. Ron Johnson, the chairman and rating member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s everlasting subcommittee on investigations, respectively, said the panel will hold a hearing July 11 on the merger.
Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Johnson, R-Wisc., requested testimony from the tour’s commissioner, Jay Monahan, LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman and Yasir al-Rumayyan of the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund.
In a letter to Monahan on Wednesday, the senators said the subcommittee would examine the proposed deal and the Saudi fund’s “investment in golf in america, the long run of the PIF-funded LIV Golf, the risks related to a foreign government’s investment in American cultural institutions, and the implications of this planned agreement on skilled golf in america going forward.”
Representatives for the tour and PIF didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.
“Fans, the players, and anxious residents have many questions on the planned agreement between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf,” Johnson said in a release. “I look ahead to hearing testimony from the individuals who’re in the perfect positions to supply insight to the general public regarding the present state of skilled golf.”
The subcommittee on investigations has broad jurisdiction to probe the whole lot from corporate abuses to government waste. But committee hearings are relatively rare — this one will probably be only the second this 12 months — and so they typically mark the early phase of an extended investigation.
This one is not any exception. Earlier this month, Blumenthal announced his intention to make use of the committee to research the merger between the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed LIV in light of Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses.
He gave Norman and Monahan until June 26 to furnish a whole bunch of records and internal communications.
In an indication of how serious the probe could turn out to be, Blumenthal later told CBS that if the PGA Tour or LIV fails to supply the data he’s searching for, he can be willing to make use of “any of the tools at our disposal, including subpoenas and hearings, recommendations for motion and laws.”
Blumenthal has expressed a selected interest in whether the PGA Tour deserves to maintain its tax exempt nonprofit status as a business association that advantages its members.
For the reason that PGA Tour’s founding in 1929, it has evolved right into a $1.5 billion behemoth, fueled largely by major tournament revenues, broadcast rights and licensing fees.
If LIV makes a serious investment within the PGA Tour, it might ostensibly create an unprecedented situation where a foreign investor would stand to profit from buying into an American tax exempt organization.
Shock and scrutiny
Earlier this month, the PGA Tour announced the cope with its Saudi-backed rival that may end pending litigation between the 2 entities. The entities have said they might merge business operations to form a bigger, soon-to-be-named enterprise chaired by Al-Rumayyan.
Monahan, who was named future commissioner of the brand new entity, recently went on a leave of absence as he recuperates from a medical condition. The character of the medical condition has to this point not been specified.
Within the wake of the deal announcement — which got here as a surprise following months of feuding and lawsuits — U.S. officials began pressing for more information concerning the genesis of the deal and what it means for the game.
Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon last week raised antitrust concerns, asking the Justice Department to research the deal. Soon after, the DOJ’s antitrust division informed the PGA Tour that it might review the proposed merger.
On the time, the PGA Tour said in a press release, “We’re confident that after all stakeholders learn more about how the PGA TOUR will lead this latest enterprise, they are going to understand the way it advantages our players, fans, and sport while protecting the American institution of golf.”
The tour has also insisted the deal is not a merger and that the Saudis’ fund will probably be a minority investor.
The proposed agreement has stirred questions across the board. The PGA Tour and LIV Golf had been trading barbs for a while, and each leagues had claimed that the opposite’s contracts and policies restricted golf talent and stifled proper competition.
Golfers have been divided between the 2 organizations, as some left the tour for the lofty paychecks doled out by LIV.
Since its launch in 2022, LIV has been mired in controversy and criticism. The Public Investment Fund is just not, the truth is, publicly held, as its name might suggest. It’s a sovereign wealth fund controlled by the Saudi crown prince, Muhammed bin Salman.
The fund has been accused of “sportswashing,” attempting to use LIV Golf to enhance the image of the oil wealthy nation and distract from the dominion’s history of human rights violations.