The chair of a powerful Senate subcommittee launched a probe Monday into the partnership between the PGA Tour and its Saudi-funded rival, requesting documents and communications that led to the alliance that rocked the golf world last week.
to PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and Greg Norman, the chief executive of LIV Golf, Sen. Richard Blumenthal said there are “serious questions regarding the reasons for and terms behind the announced agreement.”
While the deal was announced Tuesday, there are still unanswered questions and unsettled issues surrounding the agreement, and the surprising partnership could face hurdles, including obtrusion from Congress. The PGA Tour’s policy board will need to approve the final framework of the agreement, and it also might need to pass muster with the Justice Department, which had launched an investigation last year of the PGA Tour over potential antitrust violations.
In the letters, Blumenthal said he wants to know how a jointly operated commercial entity will be structured and governed and how the PGA Tour intends to preserve its tax-exempt status. He described Saudi Arabia’s human rights record as “deeply disturbing” and said he has “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.
“At its core, the PIF is investing in the PGA Tour as it has invested in other U.S.-based companies. The PGA Tour and its tournaments will continue to operate as they do today,” Monahan wrote in the letter, which was first obtained byMonahan also appeared to spread some of the blame, noting that in the course of the battle with LIV Golf, he’d made overtures to many lawmakers and “suggested ways that Congress could support us in these efforts.
While several other lawmakers expressed concerns, congressional leaders were largely subdued in their remarks last week, with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer saying he would “leave it up to the professionals there to figure out what’s best for golf.”Sen. Ron Johnson , the ranking Republican on the investigations subcommittee, said in a statement Monday that “it was dismaying to watch the game being torn apart with players pitted against each other.
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