One day after the PGA Tour announced a stunning for-profit alliance with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the money behind LIV Golf, the tour’s tax-exempt status was challenged in Congress.
Rep. John Garamendi, a Democrat from California, introduced legislation Wednesday in the House of Representatives that would end the PGA Tour’s ability to avoid federal income tax as a 501(c)(6) organization.
In comments to Sports Illustrated’s Alex Miceli, Garamendi questioned how the PGA Tour, which generated $1.59 billion in revenue in 2021, can be tax-exempt.
“I found that outrageous, and particularly outrageous with the merger,” Garamendi said. “We're going to do everything we can to end this last remaining tax loophole for professional sports associations.”
In a statement, Garamendi criticized Saudi Arabia for its efforts “to sportswash its government’s horrific human-rights abuses and the 2018 murder of American-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi by taking over the PGA Tour. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan should be ashamed of the blatant hypocrisy and about-face he and the rest of PGA Tour’s leadership demonstrated. …”
Questions also were being raised in the Senate, where Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, said via Twitter: “So weird. PGA (Tour) officials were in my office just months ago talking about how the Saudis’ human rights record should disqualify them from having a stake in a major American sport. I guess maybe their concerns weren’t really about human rights?”
The bill, known as the No Corporate Tax Exemption for Professional Sports Act, faces a long road toward becoming law, according to House legislative procedures. In recent years, several bills proposed in Congress that would have changed the IRS code to disallow pro sports organizations earning more than $10 million annually from being tax-exempt have failed.
The PGA Tour is one of the last major U.S. professional sports organizations to operate as a not-for-profit organization. The NFL changed to for-profit status in 2015. READ MORE
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Commissioner Jay Monahan told PGA Tour employees the tour could not afford to continue its legal fight with Saudi-financed LIV Golf, which filed an antitrust lawsuit against the U.S. tour last year in federal court in California, The Wall Street Journal reported. READ MORE
One day after the DP World Tour announced its role in a for-profit venture with the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the U.K.-based tour handed down fines to former players who defected to LIV Golf, unnamed players told Sports Illustrated’s Bob Harig. The move “adds to the many questions this merger has created,” one player said. Added another: “I don’t know how you can fine someone who is no longer a member.” READ MORE
The Europeans who resigned from the DP World Tour after joining LIV Golf probably will not be reinstated in time to be eligible for a Ryder Cup spot this fall, DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley told ESPN.com’s Mark Schlabach. Those nine rebels include European Ryder Cup stalwarts Paul Casey, Sergio García, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood, plus Henrik Stenson, who was stripped of his captaincy for the match at Marco Simone in Rome. READ MORE
The effects of the PGA Tour’s deal with the Saudis go far beyond golf, according to an analysis by CNN’s Aaron David Miller, who concludes that despite the country’s human-rights abuses: “It’s basically business as usual. And money and hydrocarbons have won out.” READ MORE
Clout Public Affairs, a public-relations agency that had been working with the PGA Tour and the families of 9/11 victims, has dropped the tour as a client because of “recent events.” READ MORE
Though the future of LIV Golf remains uncertain in the wake of benefactor Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund’s alliance with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, LIV CEO Greg Norman told employees: “LIV is and will continue to be a standalone enterprise. Our business model will not change. We changed history, and we’re not going anywhere.” READ MORE
TAP-INS
The U.S. Open this week at Los Angeles Country Club will air on NBC’s Peacock streaming service plus the USA and NBC Sports networks. On Thursday and Friday, Peacock will stream the first two rounds from 9:40 a.m. until 1 p.m. (all times EDT) each day, with USA Network televising play from 1 p.m. until 8 p.m., when NBC will carry the final three hours, signing off at 11. For the final two rounds, NBC will air from 1 p.m. until 11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Here is a look at the field for the 123rd U.S. Open at LACC’s North Course. READ MORE
Pete Bevacqua, the NBC Sports chairman and a former PGA of America CEO, was named athletic director at Notre Dame, his alma mater, the school in South Bend, Indiana, announced. READ MORE
The first of six team ownership groups for TGL, the prime-time golf league developed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TMRW Sports, was introduced last week. Sisters Serena and Venus Williams, former tennis Grand Slam champions, will join Alexis Ohanian, the founder of venture-capital firm Seven Seven Six, as owners of the Los Angeles Golf Club. TGL expects to debut in January. READ MORE
J.C. Deacon, who led the Florida Gators to the NCAA men’s championship as UF’s Fred Biondi won the individual title, was named the Division I coach of the year by the Golf Coaches Association of America. READ MORE
Austin Ernst, who has been struggling with back problems for the past 18 months, said she is “semi-retiring” from the LPGA and will become an assistant coach for the Texas A&M women’s program, which is led by Gerrod Chadwell, who is married to the LPGA’s Stacy Lewis. READ MORE
James Walter “Jay” FitzGerald, a longtime executive with Golf Digest and a former board member at the National Golf Foundation who was active on the senior amateur circuit, died recently in Tequesta, Florida. He was 84 and had been treated for cancer in recent years, according to an obituary in The Palm Beach Post. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon