This week promises to be a big one for the PGA Tour, and that’s even before the opening tee shots are struck at co-sanctioned tournaments in Scotland and Kentucky.
The tour has agreed to appear before a Senate subcommittee hearing Tuesday in Washington, with board member Jimmy Dunne and chief operating officer Ron Price on the hot seats. The topic: the recent business deal made by the PGA Tour and DP World Tour with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which bankrolls LIV Golf.
LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who oversees the PIF, also were invited but declined, citing “scheduling conflicts.” LIV Golf, which played last week in England, is not scheduled to compete again until early August. Neither Norman nor Al-Rumayyan is an American citizen.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut who chairs the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said the deal, announced June 6, “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.”
According to Golf Digest, the alliance could go under the microscope at the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews potential mergers that could pose threats to national security.
Golf Channel intends to begin coverage of the hearing at 9 a.m. EDT on its "Golf Central" program and live-stream the proceedings.
The Saudis have been linked by U.S. intelligence to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, many of whom worked in Manhattan’s financial district and resided in Blumenthal’s home state. Blumenthal has threatened to strip the PGA Tour’s 501(c)(6) status as a not-for-profit organization exempt from federal taxes. The proposed alliance with the Saudis’ PIF would create a for-profit company, to be known as PGA Tour Enterprises, that would be subject to federal taxes and function separately from the tour’s tournament operations. READ MORE
Randall Stephenson resigned from the PGA Tour’s Policy Board, writing Saturday in a letter obtained by The Washington Post that he had “serious concerns” about the tour’s stunning deal with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. The exit of Stephenson, the former chairman and CEO of AT&T, suggests that the deal could face significant opposition from within the 10-member Policy Board, which must approve the proposed alliance. READ MORE
Commissioner Jay Monahan said he will return July 17 from a month-long medical absence. In a memo to the tour’s Policy Board, players and staff, Monahan said “my health has improved dramatically” and that he is eager to “protect the game we treasure.” Seven days after announcing on CNBC a stunning commercial alliance with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Monahan said June 13 that he would be taking time off for an undisclosed “medical situation.” In announcing his return Friday, he pointed to the “grueling” past two years without mentioning the rise of upstart LIV Golf. READ MORE
A Florida court granted the PGA Tour’s emergency motion to reseal documents that had been released erroneously and disclosed tour strategy in dealing with the LIV Golf incursion. According to Golf Digest, which reviewed the documents before they were resealed by the 15th Judicial Circuit in Palm Beach County, the tour prepared remarks for Tiger Woods to use as talking points before a players’ meeting in June 2022. Woods responded on Twitter to the report by saying that he never saw the prepared remarks and did not appear at the players’ meeting. READ MORE
The friction between sponsors and LIV Golf is starting to thaw in the wake of tour financier Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund’s business deal with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, Sports Illustrated’s Bob Harig reported. Hero MotoCorp CEO Pawan Munjal played in a LIV Golf pro-am with American Phil Mickelson before last week’s tournament in England. Hero, an Indian company, dropped its sponsorship of India’s top golfer, Anirban Lahiri, upon his signing with LIV Golf last year. Hero reportedly is laying the groundwork to bring a LIV event to India. READ MORE
ReachTV will show LIV Golf’s first rounds of tournaments on Fridays. ReachTV is aired in 2,500 U.S. airports and 500,000 hotel rooms across North America. The second and third rounds of LIV Golf’s 54-hole events air on the CW Network. READ MORE
And if you needed another example as to how LIV Golf differs from, say, the Masters at Augusta National, consider this: A flash mob broke out on the first tee at Centurion Golf Club near London. Choreographed? Of course. But can you imagine a similar scene on the first tee at ANGC before Jack Nicklaus pipes the ceremonial opening shot down the fairway at the Masters? Nah, neither can we. WATCH HERE
Octavio Passos, Getty Images
Golf fans have watched in amazement in the past 1½ years as the Saudis, through their oil-rich Public Investment Fund, have thrown money at the professional game and altered the competitive landscape.
Well, the Saudis aren’t stopping with golf.
Already heavily invested via the PIF in men’s and women’s professional golf, soccer and Formula 1 racing, the Saudis intend to expand their sports reach. According to London’s Financial Times, the Saudis will launch a multibillion-dollar entity dedicated solely to sports. Among the potential investments: men’s and women’s pro tennis, minority stakes in U.S. pro sports franchises and a possible chunk of the NBA. READ MORE
TAP-INS
Sergio García saw his streak of competing in 24 consecutive Open Championships end last week when the Spaniard failed to advance out of Final Qualifying. As a LIV Golf League member, García has plummeted in the Official World Golf Ranking because the Saudi-funded tour does not receive world-ranking points, so he had to seek an Open spot via qualifying. The R&A expanded to 19 the total number of spots available at the four Final Qualifying sites last week for the 151st Open, to be played July 20-23 at Royal Liverpool in England. READ MORE
The Argentine Open, a national championship with a history dating to 1905, will become part of the Korn Ferry Tour schedule in 2024 and remain part of the PGA Tour’s top developmental tour through at least 2029. The 2024 Argentina Open will be played at Olivos Golf Club in Buenos Aires. The tournament, with its winner traditionally earning an exemption into the Open Championship, had been part of PGA Tour Latinoamérica. READ MORE
Pine Valley (New Jersey) Golf Club, which welcomed female members only two years ago, has been selected to host one of golf’s biggest women’s amateur events. The century-old club, ranked as the top course in America by Golf Digest, Golfweek and Golf magazines, will host the 2034 Curtis Cup. The USGA made the announcement on the eve of having its top women’s tournament, the U.S. Women’s Open, start play at iconic Pebble Beach in California. READ MORE
Hyung-mo Kang, a board member of the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation, has been elected as the 20th president of the Korea Golf Association. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon