At the PGA Tour's Behest, an Entertainment Giant Pulled an Investment in LIV Golf

Business mogul Ari Emanuel said his company was prepared to invest in $1 billion in LIV Golf, which would have precluded Saudi backing.

DUBLIN, Ohio — Did the PGA Tour ask the sports and entertainment group Endeavor not to invest in LIV Golf?

That is what Ari Emanuel said in an interview on a May 31 episode of Freakonomics Radio.

In the episode Emanuel, whose company owns the William Morris Agency, IMG, UFC and Professional Bull Riders, talked about how he was approached by Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson about the potential to invest in a startup company called LIV Golf.

“I think they pointed out a flaw in the system,” Emanuel said. “The Saudis, LIV and Greg (Norman), you know, we got a call. We got a call, like from DeChambeau and Phil, 'hey, do you want to finance this?'"

No dates were mentioned when this initial discussion took place between DeChambeau, Mickelson and Emanuel, but according to Emanuel after the discussion, he contacted Egon Durban, the co-CEO and managing partner of Silver Lake, a global leader in technology investing.

Emanuel told Durban, also chairman of the board of the directors for Endeavor, that Endeavor would be interested in investing $1 billion into LIV Golf.

“Egon then called somebody at the PGA (Tour). And, you know, we're all connected in golf. And they said, 'please don't do it.' So, we stopped,” Emanuel said. “Right. I'm friends with (PGA Tour commissioner) Jay (Monahan), we have a lot of business with Jay. I don't want to hurt Jay. But I just thought, you know, I'm always looking for the next sport. The next thing we can do. So, we pulled out.

"I said to Jay, 'Jay, we're pulling up, but you have got to figure out an economic solution, because it's gonna force you.' And he did, to his credit. I think Jay did an incredible job.”

Emanuel confirmed the potential $1 billion investment would have been the primary funding mechanism for LIV Golf and it would not have included additional investment from the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.

Oddly, Emanuel met with Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and Chairman of the PIF, regarding an investment in Endeavor before LIV Golf was ever discussed.

In that meeting, Emanuel said, MBS revealed an interest in spending $30 billion in entertainment and after about a nine-month negotiation, it was agreed that the PIF would invest $400 million into Endeavor.

At the same time Endeavor received this money, it was doing business with the R&A, European, LPGA and PGA Tours.

The relationship soured after the October 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, and eventually Endeavor returned the money with interest.

A month after the killing, the PGA Tour announced that IMG Arena, a sports betting service owned by Endeavor, would distribute official PGA Tour scoring data for betting purposes.

“But we wrote a check,” Emanuel said. "Listen, I know, everybody thinks things are black and white. And I have a tendency to do that too, right? And we live in this period of time where, you know, there was a period of time that was even worse, and I struggle with this. And we do business there. I mean, people drive cars. I mean, like, let's get through a bunch of stuff here. So, governments do bad things. Let's just say that and then work through all our own emotional ethics.”

LIV Golf, the PGA Tour and Bryson DeChambeau declined to comment to Sports Illustrated for this story, while neither Mickelson nor his representatives responded to SI's request.