Senator calls on PGA Tour to ‘avoid the sellout’ of merger with LIV Golf
After a U.S. Senate committee conducted a hearing this week on the merger between the PGA and LIV, the chairman asked the tour to rethink the alliance.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, chairs this subcommittee with the Homeland Security main committee. And he used domestic security as a reason for the PGA Tour to avoid a deal with the Saudi-backed LIV.
“I think a lot of players, a lot of sponsors, a lot of charities, and frankly, the 9/11 families are hoping that the PGA Tour will stand up and frankly avoid the sellout,” Blumenthal said at the hearing.
“We’re going to be selling out to countries that can throw around hundreds of billions of dollars,” he said. “We’re going to lose. Not just financially, but in terms of our democracy, treatment, institutions like golf. Sports are central to our society, to our culture, to our economy, to our way of life, to our self-image, and our image abroad.”
The hearing featured two witnesses who represented the PGA. The committee asked Greg Norman, the former PGA star who recruited golfers to LIV, to testify. But he had a scheduling conflict. Norman isn’t expected to have a role once the merger goes through. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi fund that finances LIV, also turned down a request to testify. Like Norman, he said he had a scheduling issue.
In June, LIV and PGA stunned sports world with proposed merger
In early June, officials with the PGA, LIV and the DPA World Tour announced intentions to form an alliance. The DPA Tour is part of the deal because it brings in European tournaments. The emergence of the LIV in 2021 had split the world of elite golf. The likes of Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson reportedly accepted nine-figure signing bonuses to join the Saudi-backed league. The PGA then suspended them. Meanwhile, stars like Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler stuck with the PGA. The LIV started playing tournaments last year, offering golfers bigger checks for fewer days of competition. It’s difficult to compete with the concept of more money, less work.
“LIV put us on fire,” Dunn told the committee. “LIV put us in an incredibly difficult position. (And) LIV was a constant every day. Who’s gonna go? It was very disruptive.”
With the pending merger, sides agreed to drop lawsuits filed against each other. Meanwhile, the Saudi government fund offered $1 billion to finance the new LIV-PGA-DPA endeavor. Blumenthal suggested the PGA could find the extra money, somewhere else.
“There are investors who are willing to provide capital,” Blumenthal said. “We’re not talking here about hundreds of billions of dollars. It’s a billion dollars, which in the world of corporate America today is not insurmountable.”
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