LA – Tom Watson, an eight-time major winner, wrote PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan on Monday to clarify the new business relationship between the Tour and Saudi investors in LIV Golf. Watson also questioned whether the arrangement was the only approach to address the Tour’s financial difficulties.
In the letter, obtained by The Associated Press and addressed to Monahan, the PGA Tour board, and “my fellow players,” Watson asked several questions, including that one.
He claimed that the hypocrisy in ignoring the moral issue “compounded” the questions.
The day after Wyndham Clark won the U.S. Open and became the sport’s newest major champion, attention returned to a problem that had dominated golf for the previous three years. The PGA Tour announced on June 6 that it had partnered with the European Tour and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to house commercial enterprises under one roof.
During a meeting two weeks ago at the Canadian Open, Monahan, who has referred to it as a “framework agreement,” had few responses for the players. Before the Travellers Championship in Connecticut on Tuesday, a meeting of the Player Advisory Council is scheduled.
Monahan, who left for a “medical situation” on Wednesday, is not anticipated to go. The daily management of the trip is under the direction of two of his senior executives.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Public Investment Fund, was listed as the chairman of the new firm and Monahan as the CEO in the Tour’s release on June 6. Ed Herlihy and Jimmy Dunne, two other PGA Tour board members, would join them on the executive committee.
Tom Watson, an eight-time major winner.
According to a person who has read the agreement, it guarantees that the Tour would maintain a controlling voting interest in the new commercial organization regardless of how much the PIF invests.
According to the source, the arrangement provides for a financial contribution from PIF and the pooling of the three companies’ existing and future golf-related assets. The source spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the contract has not been made public. LIV Golf would be a part of that.
According to the deal, the PGA Tour would nominate most of the new company’s board members. The PGA Tour would still completely control how its competition is managed.
Important information, such as LIV Golf’s future, still needs to be added. Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson have stated that they are preparing for the 2024 season.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, hinted on Sunday that congressional hearings would take place in the coming weeks.
The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is presided over by Blumenthal. On CBS’s “Face the Nation,” he claimed that the subcommittee wanted specifics on the factors that led to the purchase, the people involved, and the organization’s structure and governance.
Blumenthal remarked, “There are very, very few details. But keep in mind; he added, “What we have here is essentially an oppressive, autocratic foreign government taking control over an iconic, beloved American institution for the clear purpose of cleaning its public image.”
All legal disputes were resolved as part of the agreement. To avoid having to give depositions in the litigation, the PGA Tour and Saudi-backed LIV Golf filed a request on Friday to dismiss with prejudice the antitrust complaint LIV players filed in August, the countersuit the Tour filed in September, and even a PIF appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. They are not resubmittable.
Tom Watson, an eight-time major winner.
Monahan said the lawsuits had caused the Tour a “significant” blow. A trial date was not anticipated until at least the middle of 2024, with plenty of filings in between.
Is the PIF the only practical solution to the Tour’s financial issues, Watson questioned in his letter? Was there or is there a backup strategy? And once more, what transaction exactly?
He made two references to hypocrisy, particularly about criticism of the Tour’s cancellation from organizations like 9/11 Families United.
“My loyalty to golf and this country live in the same place and have held equal and significant weight with me over the course of my lifetime,” stated Watson. “Please educate me and others in a way that allows loyalty to both, in a way that makes it easy to look the families of 9/11 in the eye and ourselves in the mirror.”
Tom Watson, an eight-time major winner.
Among his inquiries, Watson is not by himself. Since last summer, the Justice Department’s antitrust division has scrutinized the golf industry. Now, it is beginning to investigate whether the Tour’s relationship with the Saudis violates federal antitrust laws. Since the deal is still being finalized and is just a few weeks old, the investigation is still in its early stages.
According to Monahan, everything in the framework agreement would require board approval.
According to Blumenthal, a hearing might happen “within weeks.”
“The American people deserve a clear look at the facts here,” he declared. “Again, I’m not going to predict the results. But the Saudis need to hire a single player or seizing control of a single team in this situation. They are effectively running the entire sport, and it’s not just one Saudi player. There is a regime.
SOURCE – (AP)
