The head of a Senate subcommittee is demanding that Saudi Arabia’s PGA Tour and LIV Golf submit records on the negotiations that led to their new deal and plans for what golf will look like under the deal.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., sent letters Monday to PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and LIV CEO Greg Norman explaining «serious questions about the reasons for and terms of the announced deal.» .
Blumenthal, who is chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said he also wanted to hear the tour’s plans to maintain its tax-exempt status.
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A general view of the LIV GOLF logo during round 1 of the LIV Golf Invitational series on July 29, 2022 at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. (Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Last week, LIV and the tour shocked the golf world by agreeing to merge the PGA tour and European tour with Saudi golf interests, while also dropping all lawsuits between the parties. The Governor of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which funds LIV, will join the PGA Tour board of directors and lead a new business venture as its chairman. The PGA Tour will remain a tax-exempt entity.
It was a move that was expected to receive scrutiny from federal regulators and lawmakers, and the launch of a Senate investigation is one of the first dominoes to fall.
The deal announced last week was to combine the golf-related businesses of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which includes LIV Golf, with those of the PGA Tour and the European tour. That would be a new for-profit company yet to be named.
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Jay Monahan, Commissioner of the PGA Tour, speaks to the media at a press conference prior to THE PLAYERS Championship on THE PLAYERS Stadium course at TPC Sawgrass on March 7, 2023 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
Among the uncertainties is how LIV Golf progresses after 2023. PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan will serve as president of the new venture, with Monahan as chief executive and two PGA Tour board members joining them on a committee. executive.
In his letters to Monahan and Norman, Blumenthal wrote of the skepticism critics have about the Saudis’ intention to «use sports investments to further the strategic objectives of the Saudi government.»
«Critics have portrayed such Saudi investments in sports as a means of ‘sports laundering,’ an attempt to soften the country’s image around the world, given Saudi Arabia’s deeply disturbing human rights record at home and abroad. abroad,» the letter said.
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Punch GC’s Matt Jones plays his shot from the 16th tee during day one of the LIV Golf Invitational – Bedminster at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on July 29, 2022 in Bedminster, New Jersey. (Chris Trotman/LIV Golf via Getty Images)
Blumenthal requested an extensive set of documents, essentially all communications between LIV and the tour from October 2021 to the present.
Al-Rumayyan said last week that Norman was not informed of the deal until shortly before it was announced.