Who had “golf sparks geopolitical intrigue” on their 2023 news event bingo card?
Many in the golf world were no doubt shocked when the Profession Golfers’ Association (PGA) Tour, DP World Tour, and LIV Golf announced they would unify into one, big, global golf tour company last week. Last Monday, the story took an even more bizarre turn when the U.S. Senate Committee of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs issued a probe into the nascent agreement.
On June 6, the companies announced they signed an agreement that “combines PIF’s golf-related commercial businesses and rights (including LIV Golf) with the commercial businesses and rights of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour into a new, collectively owned, for-profit entity to ensure that all stakeholders benefit from a model that delivers maximum excitement and competition among the game’s best players.”
According to ESPN, this merger came as complete surprise even to a number of the PGA’s own players.
LIV Golf, one of the key parties in this new merger, formed in 2019 with the goal of becoming a rival tour to the PGA circuit. Tensions between the two organizations were high from the get-go. In 2022, the PGA threatened to outright bar golfers who participated in LIV events, and in turn, the latter company filed an antitrust lawsuit in the U.S. against former.
June 6’s announcement represents a sudden reversal in relationship between two golf tours who appeared to be quickly rushing towards an arch-rivalry.
However, the crux of the unfolding controversy lies in the ownership of LIV golf. As it turns out, the tour’s owner is the Saudi Public Investment Fund, a sovereign wealth fund under chaired by Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman. According to USA Today, LIV’s formation—and the recent deal with PGA—has prompted accusations of “sportswashing,” a term implying the Saudi royal house is trying to improve its international image by patronizing sports.
PGA Tour commissioner, Jay Monahan has also caught flak for his part in this deal. U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), the issuer of the June 11 Senate probe, has accused Monahan of hypocrisy.
“The PGA Tour has spent two years lambasting Saudi sports-washing and paying lip service [to] the integrity of the sport of golf, which will now be used unabashedly by the Kingdom to distract from its many crimes,” said Blumenthal in a statement soon after the announcement of the deal. “The PGA Tour has placed a price on human rights and betrayed the long history of sports and athletes that advocate for social change and progress. I will keep a close eye on the structure of this deal and its implications.”
Time will tell if the PGA and LIV will find a way out of this sand trap they’ve landed themselves in.
