Senate panel wants details on PGA Tour’s ‘drastic reversal’ on LIV Golf

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations wants details on PGA Tour’s “drastic reversal” on its position concerning the Saudi-backed LIV Golf after the two controversially merged to form a larger golf organization, according to new letters from panel chairman Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). 

“​​While few details about the agreement are known, [the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund’s] role as an arm of the Saudi government and PGA Tour’s sudden and drastic reversal of position concerning LIV Golf raise serious questions regarding the reasons for and terms behind the announced agreement,” Blumenthal wrote in a letter to PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan. 

The subcommittee is “reviewing matters related to the planned agreement between PGA TOUR, Inc. (PGA Tour) and the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), which owns LIV Golf,” according to the letter. Another version of the letter was sent to LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman.

The PGA Tour agreed last week to merge with LIV Golf, combining their commercial businesses and ending pending antitrust litigation between the two. Monahan had called it a “transformational partnership.” The move has come under criticism as an attempt to monopolize golf alongside a foreign power flagged for human rights abuses. 

“The PGA Tour has spent two years lambasting Saudi sports-washing and paying lip service the integrity of the sport of golf, which will now be used unabashedly by the Kingdom to distract from its many crimes,” Blumenthal said in a statement after the announcement, as lawmakers pushed for U.S. regulators to examine the deal.

In his letter to Monahan, Blumenthal said the agreement “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’s letter gives Monahan until June 26 to provide the panel with a variety of requested documents and information, including “communications concerning risks to PGA Tour posed by LIV Golf, ownership of LIV Golf, and Saudi Arabia’s influence on LIV Golf.” 

Updated June 13 at 8:21 a.m. EDT.