Senate Hearing Was a Reminder That LIV Golf and PGA Tour Have Made Their Intentions Clear From the Start

Michael Rosenberg says there were no revelations in the PGA Tour’s appearance at a U.S. Senate hearing, but that the Senate might look outside of golf to see how Saudi money can lead to corruption.

If U.S. Senators are so worried about Saudi Arabia using golf to corrupt American values, the man they need to talk to is not Jimmy Dunne or Ron Price, who both testified before the Subcommittee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs Tuesday. It is not Jay Monahan, who will return to his work as PGA Tour commissioner this week. It is not Rory McIlroy or Tiger Woods, whose names showed up in documents the Senate released.

It is Donald Trump.

Trump made his first foreign trip as President to Saudi Arabia; asked his totally unqualified son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to broker peace in the Middle East; called Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud “a friend of mine;” and questioned U.S. intelligence conclusions that the prince ordered journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder and dismemberment by saying, in an official release, “maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!”

When the Senate voted to end U.S. military assistance to the Saudis for their war in Yemen, Trump vetoed it. Soon after Trump was voted out of office, the Saudis invested $2 billion in Kushner’s new private-equity firm. And this week, Saudi-funded LIV Golf announced it would move its last event of the 2023 season to Trump’s course in Miami – meaning Trump will have hosted three of the 14 LIV events this year, for an undisclosed price.

These are all well-documented, widely reported facts. They are a lot more troubling than anything that came up in the hearing Tuesday. Who wouldn’t want to know more?

As for the Tour’s deal with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund: This is not that complicated. It’s not an attempt to undercut PGA Tour players. It’s not a conspiracy with hidden agendas. The agendas are right there for anybody to see, and have been for weeks.

The Tour wants to control golf. Tour power brokers believe what PIF’s Yasir Al-Rumayyan really wants is to invest his country’s money in golf. If they are correct, the framework agreement gives both sides a path to get what they want.

That is it. You might hate it. You might find it morally repugnant. You might fear the repercussions. Understandable. But that is why this is happening.

LIV Golf was a threat to the Tour. Maybe it was a doomed or waning threat, but it was a threat, and a costly one. With a permanent agreement, the Tour removes the threat – even if LIV lives past 2024, which is highly doubtful, the Tour would control it.

LIV Golf was also not serving its purpose for Al-Rumayyan. It was a preposterously bad investment, predicated on LIV finding a bunch of mini-Al-Rumayyans to overspend to buy LIV franchises, and it did not give Al-Rumayyan what he personally craves, which is to be part of the sport’s establishment. Yes, Bryson DeChambeau is his buddy. But all of golf’s biggest institutions have either shunned LIV or expressed discomfort with it.

Think of Al-Rumayyan like any other billionaire who buys a sports team. Would he rather pour billions into a startup that is trying to take on the NFL – or buy into the NFL?

The entire deal is predicated on Al-Rumayyan wanting a piece of the PGA Tour – and on Tour officials and players deciding they want to go into business with him in exchange for controlling (and presumably dismantling) LIV Golf. Again: This does not make it right. But that is what is happening.

The Senate’s documents might seem like they point to a deeper conspiracy. But they don’t. They actually just confirm the simplicity of both sides’ desires.

Yes, the idea of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy owning LIV Golf teams was floated … by LIV Golf’s advisors. Woods and McIlroy would never go for that. Tour officials all know that. PIF and the Tour forged a framework agreement without it – implying that this idea was a fantasy for Al-Rumayyan, not a necessity.

Yes, McIlroy met with Al-Rumayyan last fall, which had not been reported. But McIlroy said as far back as July 2022 that the Tour and LIV should find common ground.

He also said then: “There’s so much chat about where the money is coming from, Saudi and everything else. They sponsor so many other things. They are all over sport. I understand people’s reservations with things but at the same time, if these people are serious about investing billions of dollars into golf, I think ultimately that’s a good thing but it has to be done the right way.”

McIlroy has said that the framework agreement’s roadmap is “good for golf.” In other words: To him, this is the right way.

Oh, are you saying the PGA Tour wants to get rid of Greg Norman? Wow! Who knew?

Yes, of course Al-Rumayyan wants to be a member of Augusta National and the R&A. Did anybody think otherwise? Did people think he was too bashful to ask for it? Neither Dunne nor his fellow PGA Tour policy board member Ed Herlihy can hand him those memberships themselves – and now that Al-Rumayyan’s request is public, his chances at Augusta National just went way down, anyway.

Those requests from Al-Rumayyan are not alarming. They are encouraging, because they provide more evidence that his goal here is not, as Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said, to “take over a cherished American institution,” but to become part of one. Al-Rumayyan’s fan-like desire to be part of the golf establishment means he is more interested in the sport than sportswashing.

Sportswashing questions are still legitimate. Concerns about the source of the money are absolutely fair. Criticizing Monahan for his past statements is also fair. But if you are going to criticize the deal, at least get it right.

Blumenthal said the Saudis will “control the purse strings.” But where is the evidence for that? The agreement clearly states that the Saudis would be minority investors. They would have the right of first refusal on future investments, but they could not stop the Tour from spending money as it saw fit.

Some Senators were rightfully concerned about the agreement’s non-disparagement clause. But that covers the negotiators, not Tour players. Dunne and Price both said they are not interested in any clause prohibiting Tour players from speaking out about human-rights abuses in Saudi Arabia. If Al-Rumayyan demands such a clause, then Tour negotiators were wrong about his motives – and Tour players can, and should, walk away from the deal.

The framework agreement was written to clearly state both sides’ desires – while being vague enough to allow Tour players to help shape it. The lack of specifics were by design. All we learned Tuesday was what anybody paying attention already knew. The PGA Tour wants to control golf and Yasir Al-Rumayyan wants to pour money into it. Donald Trump already took a bunch of that money. If Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is finally done grilling a PGA Tour executive about China’s treatment of the Uyghurs, maybe Hawley can ask Trump about it. I’m pretty sure he has his number.