Global Courant
LOS ANGELES — Eight-time Grand Champion Tom Watson wants answers to the PGA Tour’s new business partnership with LIV Golf’s Saudi backers, asking in a letter Monday to Commissioner Jay Monahan whether the deal was the only way to ameliorate the tour’s financial woes. unload.
That was one of many questions Watson asked in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press and sent to Monahan, the PGA Tour board and “my fellow players.”
He said the questions were “compounded by the hypocrisy in ignoring the moral issue.”
On the day after Wyndham Clark became the last major champion by winning the US Open, attention shifted back to an issue that has preoccupied golf for the past three years. Things took a stunning turn on June 6 when the PGA Tour announced it had joined Saudi Arabia’s national wealth fund and European tour to bring commercial companies under one roof.
Monahan called it a “framework deal” and he had few answers for players at a meeting two weeks ago at the Canadian Open. A Player Advisory Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday ahead of the Travelers Championship in Connecticut.
Monahan, who stepped down on Wednesday due to a “medical situation,” is not expected to attend. Two of its top executives are in charge of the day-to-day running of the tour.
The tour said in its June 6 announcement that Public Investment Fund governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan would become chairman of the new company and Monahan its CEO. Two PGA Tour board members, Ed Herlihy and Jimmy Dunne, would join them on the executive committee.
The deal included guarantees that the tour would retain a controlling voting interest in the new commercial entity, regardless of how much the PIF contributes, according to a person who saw the agreement.
The individual, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal has not been made public, said the deal allows for a financial investment from PIF and pools the three parties’ current and future golf-related investments. That would include LIV Golf.
Under the agreement, the new company’s board of directors would receive majority representation nominated by the PGA Tour, the person said. The PGA Tour would still have full control over how it runs its league.
Important details are still missing, such as the future of LIV Golf. Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau have said they are planning for a 2024 season.
Meanwhile, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., suggested on Sunday that congressional hearings could be held within weeks.
Blumenthal chairs the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. He said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the subcommittee wants facts about what went into the deal and who was behind it and details about the structure and governance of the new company.
“There are very, very few details,” Blumenthal said. “But remember, what we have here is essentially a repressive, autocratic foreign government taking control of an iconic, cherished American institution with the clear goal of cleaning its public image,” he said.
A key to the agreement was the termination of all lawsuits. The PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf filed a motion on Friday to dismiss with prejudice the antitrust lawsuit filed by LIV players in August, the countersuit filed by the tour in September, and even a PIF appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to avoid having to make statements in the lawsuits. They cannot be resubmitted.
Monahan has said the lawsuits – a trial date was not expected until mid-2024 with many filings in between – contributed to a “significant” hit for the tour.
Watson said in his letter: “Is the PIF the only viable rescue from the Tour’s financial problems? Was/is there a plan B? And again, what exactly is the exchange?
He cited hypocrisy twice, especially as it relates to criticism from groups such as 9/11 Families United of the tour’s reversal.
“My loyalty to golf and this country live in the same place and have held equal weight for me throughout my life,” said Watson. “Please guide me and others in a way that allows for loyalty to both, and in a way that makes it easy to look the families of 9/11 in the eye and ourselves in the mirror.”
Watson is not alone with his questions. The Justice Department’s antitrust division has been scrutinizing the golf landscape since last summer and is now beginning to look into the tour’s deal with the Saudis and whether it violates federal antitrust laws. The investigation is still in its early stages as the agreement is barely 2 weeks old and still being finalized.
Monahan has said that everything in the framework agreement must be approved by the board of directors.
Blumenthal told CBS he thought a hearing might be possible “within weeks.”
“The American people deserve a clear look at the facts here,” he said. “Again, not anticipating what the conclusions will be. But what the Saudis are doing here is not taking control of a single team or hiring a single player. They’re basically taking charge of the entire sport, and it’s not just a Saudi individual. It’s the regime.”
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