Jay Monahan in Letter Says Congress Left PGA Tour 'On Our Own' to Battle LIV Golf
LOS ANGELES – In a letter he sent last week, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan in part blamed Congress for the surprising agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, saying the Tour was left "on our own" in trying to fight the rival LIV Golf League that is funded by the PIF.
Politico obtained the letter that Monahan crafted after the news broke last week that the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF had entered into the "framework of an agreement" that ends the litigation between the parties and will put in place a new for-profit LLC that has yet to be named.
"Over the past two years, the PGA Tour has fought an intense and highly publicized battle as the Saudi Arabian PIF-backed LIV golf league attempted to 'buy' PGA Tour players and take over the game of golf in the United States and beyond, creating a fractured golf ecosystem and fomenting a heated divisiveness into the game," Monahan wrote.
Monahan said he met with several members of Congress to discuss LIV’s entry into golf in the United States and suggested ways that lawmakers could support the PGA Tour in its battle.
"While we are grateful for the written declarations of support we received from certain members, we were largely left on our own to fend off the attacks, ostensibly due to the United States' complex geopolitical alliance with the Kingdom," Monahan wrote. The letter was dated June 9, three days after the announcement was made about the new alliance.
Last week, several members of Congress began a move to draft legislation that would end the PGA Tour’s non-profit status. The PGA Tour as it now operates a member organization 501(c)(6). On Monday, the Senate announced its own investigation.
Monahan said that the PGA Tour will remain "in full control" of American golf, with the PIF as a "minority investor." He also wrote that "this arrangement is not a merger between PGA Tour, LIV Golf and the PIF."
In regard to the PIF's part of the agreement, Monahan said the PGA Tour will "at all times" hold the majority of the board seats regardless of now much PIF invests into the new entity.
That new entity, which for now is being called NewCo, has Monahan as CEO with Yasir Al-Rumayyan the chairman of the board.
Players on either side of the divide were unaware of the secret meetings to come to an agreement. Neither were other high-level officials at the PGA Tour, nor Greg Norman, the commissioner of LIV Golf.