PGA Tour faces heat on LIV Golf deal in Senate hearing

Senators grilled two members of PGA Tour leadership in a Tuesday hearing on the organizer’s pending deal to form a new for-profit golf entity with LIV Golf, the league backed by Saudi Arabia’s Private Investment Fund (PIF).

PGA Tour chief operating officer Ron Price and board member Jimmy Dunne, who helped broker the truce between the two entities, appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations amid continued questions over the deal. The merger has not yet been finalized beyond a framework released last month. 

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), the subcommittee chairman, repeatedly questioned the pair over the decision to accept money from the Saudis after vehemently opposing LIV Golf for more than a year. He also pressed Price and Dunne on the financial and human rights questions surrounding the pending accord.

“Today’s hearing is about much more than the game of golf,” Blumenthal said in his opening remarks. “It’s about how a brutal, repressive regime can buy influence — indeed even take over a cherished American institution — to cleanse its public image.”

While concrete details on the emerging deal are sparse, some financial aspects cracked through Tuesday.

No financial terms have been hammered out between the PGA Tour and PIF, Price said, but the wealth fund is expected to contribute a “significant amount” that will likely exceed $1 billion.

The panel also dropped a treasure trove of documents, offering a glimpse at the formation of the pending agreement.

According to the documents, the two sides discussed a series of proposals that would have changed the game significantly, headlined by LIV Golf continuing on as an independent tour during the fall season; the removal of Greg Norman from his position as CEO and commissioner of LIV Golf; the PIF or Aramco, a Saudi-owned oil company, sponsoring two elevated PGA Tour events; and membership for PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan to Augusta National Golf Club.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, who did not appear before the committee for medical reasons, previously defended the decision to pursue the agreement. He previously insisted Congress could have done more to help fend off challenges from LIV Golf, and Price told the committee it would have been “unsustainable” to continue to battle LIV Golf.

Much to the chagrin of Blumenthal, the panel did not hear at all from LIV Golf officials.

Al-Rumayyan, who helped broker the truce, did not appear and neither did Norman, who is reportedly out of the country. 

The PGA Tour and LIV Golf were embroiled in antitrust litigation until the surprise announcement on June 6, which ended all outstanding lawsuits. The agreement includes the DPA World Tour, also known as the European PGA Tour, and sent shockwaves through the golf community.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), another member of the panel, asked witnesses about the abrupt about-face of the PGA Tour, whose lobbyists lambasted Saudi-backed LIV Golf on Capitol Hill. 

The PGA Tour ramped up its federal lobbying operation in 2022, paying firms $450,000 to lobby Congress and the White House on issues including the Saudi-backed league.

DLA Piper lobbyists reported lobbying on “Saudi Golf League proposals” on behalf of the PGA Tour in the first quarter of 2023, even as newly released documents show the PGA Tour and LIV Golf started discussing a potential framework late last year.

Blumenthal teed up evidence the PGA Tour provided on the “brutal, repressive regime,” including the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the kingdom’s repressive treatment of women and LGBTQ+ people.

He also repeatedly mentioned the alleged role Saudi Arabia played in the 9/11 attacks, with members of the 9/11 families affected sitting in on the hearing. 

However, Republicans offered a mixed reaction.

“There’s nothing wrong with the PGA Tour negotiating its survival,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the ranking member on the subcommittee and a self-described golf fan.

Johnson said that while he is concerned with the issue of “sportswashing” by the Saudis, he understood why the PGA Tour made the burgeoning deal. He said repeatedly the deal seemed to represent a “win-win” situation for both the PGA Tour and PIF. 

He also argued that if the U.S. and senators are going to look down on the PGA Tour for taking funds from the PIF, they should look in their own backyard as the U.S. continues to buy oil from the Saudis. 

“Any of us that drive a car use oil-based products. We’re the ones filling the coffers of the Saudi investment fund,” Johnson told reporters on Monday. “As long as we keep buying the oil, we’re certainly complicit in that as well.” 

Hawley also questioned why the PGA Tour continues to maintain its tax-exempt status and whether it will invest in the coming years in China and Russia. 

“They’re taking all this foreign money. They’re making a lot of money,” Hawley told reporters on Monday. “There’s gobs of money involved here. Why are they tax-exempt? I don’t think I quite understand that.”

By and large, Senate Republicans have argued that the PGA Tour-LIV Golf merger shouldn’t be an issue Congress should concern itself with.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), a subcommittee member, told reporters repeatedly on Monday evening that the PGA Tour, which is a Florida brand, is a “global brand” and that this deal would help enhance that.