U.S. Senate Launches Probe Into PGA Tour and LIV Golf Alliance

Less than a week after its announcement, the United States Senate has launched an inquiry into the proposed alliance between the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, the sovereign wealth fund which funds the start-up LIV Golf league. 

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut addressed letters to both PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman on Monday. The notice requests documents pertaining to the stunning agreement to be handed over by June 26, 2023. 

“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, who serves as the Chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

In the letters, Blumenthal addresses both the PGA Tour’s about-face in their discourse about LIV Golf’s Saudi funding, as well as the Tour’s intention to preserve tax-exempt status as part of the new partnership. 

“Prior to this agreement, PGA Tour was one of the loudest critics of LIV Golf’s affiliation with Saudi Arabia,” Blumenthal wrote. “PGA Tour has stated that it intends to preserve its tax-exempt status as a Section 501(c)(6) entity after the agreement is executed. This assertion raises additional questions about the terms of the agreement and whether a foreign government may indirectly benefit from provisions in the U.S. tax laws meant to promote not-for-profit business associations.”

Although the specific framework of the deal has not yet been released or clarified, the proposed alliance between the PGA Tour and the PIF gives Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund, the position of “chairman” of the new unnamed joint organization. 

The partnership ended litigation between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf in order to “unify the game of golf, on a global basis,” according to the two parties. 

The deal was brokered in private, with PGA Tour policy board member Jimmy Dunne and PGA Tour chairman Ed Herlihy spearheading initial discussions with Al-Rumayyan without Monahan present. 

PGA Tour players, including the likes of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, had little to no prior notice of the deal when it was announced last Tuesday. 

The Senate probe is not the only government inquiry currently being conducted in regards to men’s professional golf. The Justice Department began investigating the PGA Tour for antitrust violations after their response to the onset of LIV Golf last summer—which included indefinite suspensions for those who played in LIV’s first events—and they will now have more information to evaluate than before.