PGA Tour leaders to speak at Congressional hearing while Greg Norman, Saudi PIF governor won't
The PGA will send two representatives to a Senate hearing that will be convened to study the tour’s merger with LIV. However, no one from the Saudi-backed league is set to testify, as yet.
The Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations called for a hearing about three weeks. This was after the PGA and LIV stunned the golf world with their announced merger. The subcommittee called “The PGA-LIV Deal: Implications for the Future of Golf and Saudi Arabia’s Influence in the United States.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the subcommittee chairman, and ranking member Ron Johnson specifically asked for PGA commissioner Jay Monahan along with LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who is in charge of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. But none of the men will appear July 11.
Norman and Al-Rumayyan said they had scheduling issues. Blumenthal and Johnson, in a joint statement, said “both Governor Al-Rumayyan and Mr. Norman have valuable information to share about the operations of the Public Investment Fund, the future of LIV Golf and Saudi Arabia’s plans to invest in golf and other sports.“
The statement added that “consistent with our subcommittee’s practice, we look forward to working with both witnesses to find a mutually agreeable date for them to appear in the very near future.”
The subcommittee is part of the Senate’s Homeland Security committee.
Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, stepped away from his role on June 13 because of an undisclosed medical issue. This issue came up a week after the merger announcement.
PGA will send acting commissioner and board member
The PGA will send Tour board member Jimmy Dunne and chief operating officer Ron Price to testify. Price is acting commissioner. And Dunne helped with the merger between the two golf tours.
Blumental, a powerful Democrat from Connecticut, has talked of stripping away the PGA Tour’s tax-exempt status because of the merger with the Saudi-financed golf league. The DP World Tour, which features tournaments in Europe, also is part of the merger. The U.S. Department of Justice also is looking at the PGA and whether it violated any antitrust laws.
The committee indicated it would welcome any current players on the PGA or LIV tours. But so far, there are only two witnesses, with clear schedules, willing to provide testimony.
Last month, Blumenthal and Johnson said the committee needed more information on the merger because of the presence of Saudi Arabia in the deal.
In June, Blumenthal appearanced on the CBS Sunday news program Face the Nation. And he talked about why the Senate is interested in the PGA-LIV deal.
“The Saudis have been very explicit that they have a strategic objective here,” Blumenthal said. “They’ve been engaged in numerous malign activities antithetical to American interests and values, killing Jamal Khashoggi, as you mentioned, as well as other journalists, torturing and imprisoning dissidents and critics and supporting anti-democratic activities, even terrorist activities, like 9/11, as well as the internal war in Yemen.”
“So there’s a real risk to American interests in the Saudis taking over this American institution,” he said. “We want to get to the bottom of it.”