U.S. Senate committee launches investigation into new PGA Tour partnership with LIV Golf
Sen. Richard Blumenthal is seeking records, communications and more from both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf
LOS ANGELES — A United States Senate committee is officially reviewing the PGA Tour’s planned alliance with the DP World Tour and LIV Golf.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, notified both PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman of the inquiry by letter on Monday morning.
The letter came just days before the U.S. Open, the third major championship of the season, is set to tee off from the Los Angeles Country Club. The investigation is separate from the one the Department of Justice is conducting into the Tour, which was launched after several LIV Golf players filed an antitrust case against the Tour. The new partnership ended the legal battle between the two leagues.
Blumenthal's inquiry will focus on the surprise deal between the Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf that Monahan announced last week. The new golf entity will be funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
"While few details about the agreement are known, PIF’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 to Monahan.
LIV Golf has faced plenty of criticism since its inception largely due to its Saudi Arabian financial backers. The PIF has more than $600 billion in assets, and is run by the Saudi Arabian monarchy and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. The Saudis have faced allegations of sportswashing by funding LIV Golf and more, which many see as an effort to cover up allegations of human rights abuses, the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi and more.
The PIF has funded other teams and leagues in the sports world, including in Formula 1 and the English Premier League.
"PGA Tour's agreement with PIF regarding LIV Golf 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 wrote. "PIF has announced that it intends to use investments in sports to further the Saudi government's strategic objectives."
Blumenthal also called out Monahan, like many others, for reversing his stance on LIV Golf and the PIF. Monahan has been called a hypocrite repeatedly, including by a player at an emergency players meeting in Toronto last Tuesday. He also once invoked the 9/11 terrorist attacks as a reason to avoid LIV Golf, something he has been called out for by 9/11 Families United.
"Critics have cast such Saudi investments in sports as a means of 'sportswashing' — an attempt to soften the country’s image around the world — given Saudi Arabia’s deeply disturbing human rights record at home and abroad," Blumenthal wrote. "In fact, prior to this agreement, PGA Tour was one of the loudest critics of LIV Golf’s affiliation with Saudi Arabia."
Blumenthal is looking into the PGA Tour’s tax-exempt nonprofit status, something the league has said it will maintain despite the PIF’s funding. That status is now at risk, Blumenthal said, as a “foreign government may indirectly benefit from provisions in U.S. tax laws meant to promote not-for-profit business associations.”
Blumenthal has requested documents and communications between the leagues, a copy of the agreement and future plans, communications related to the legal dispute between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, the PIF, records related to the PGA Tour’s tax-exempt nonprofit status and more. Both the Tour and LIV Golf have until June 26 to respond and produce the requested documents.
Blumenthal first spoke out about the proposed deal between the leagues shortly after it was announced.
"The PGA Tour has spent two years lambasting Saudi sportswashing and paying lip service [to] the integrity of the sport of golf, which will now be used unabashedly by the Kingdom to distract from its many crimes,” he said in a statement Tuesday. “The PGA Tour has placed a price on human rights and betrayed the long history of sports and athletes that advocate for social change and progress. I will keep a close eye on the structure of this deal and its implications."
Amid the criticism he has faced, which he’s well aware of, Monahan has stood by the decision to bring the golf leagues together.
“I understand the criticism I’m receiving around the hypocrisy and me being hypocritical given my commentary and my actions over the last couple of years,” Monahan said last week. “As we went forward and reached a compromise, that was obviously one of my great considerations. But any hypocrisy I have to own, nobody else. That’s on me. It shouldn’t be directed at the membership, that should be directed at me. As we sit here today, I’m confident that we’ve done something that’s in the best interest of our sport and ultimately in the best interest of PGA Tour members.”
