Senator Issues Subpoena in Search for More Information on PGA Tour-LIV Golf Agreement

A Senate subcommittee set an Oct. 13 deadline for records relating to investments in the U.S. by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.

A U.S. senator has issued a subpoena to the subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia on Wednesday regarding the proposed deal between the PIF, the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) issued the subpoena seeking documents related to the PGA Tour’s "framework agreement" with the PIF, which funds the LIV Golf League.

"Over the past three months, PIF and its Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan have repeatedly declined to voluntarily cooperate with the Subcommittee’s investigation," Blumenthal wrote in a memo to the Senate Investigations subcommittee, which he chairs. “The information requested is necessary for the Subcommittee to understand the extent of and reasons for PIF’s extensive U.S. investments."

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund bankrolls LIV Golf and its U.S. subsidiary has been subpoenaed by a U.S. Senator :: Richard Cashin/USA TODAY Sports

The PIF’s U.S. subsidiary is called USSA International LCC. Blumenthal requested all records relating to PIF’s investments in the U.S., including those beyond its pending agreement with the PGA Tour. An Oct. 13 deadline was set.

The Tour and the PIF set a Dec. 31 deadline to work out the details of their framework agreement, which as it was outlined when announced on June 6, would see the PGA Tour operate with a new for-profit entity called PGA Tour Enterprises bringing together assets from the Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf. How that LLC looks is the subject to considerable conjecture.

Nobody from the PGA Tour or the PIF was represented at a hearing held Wednesday and led by Blumenthal. His subcommittee had its first hearing in connection with the proposed agreement in July, with PGA Tour chief operating officer Ron Price and PGA Tour policy board member Jimmy Dunne questioned by panel members.

According to a memo in advance of Wednesday’s hearing, Blumenthal said that after Al-Rumayyan took control of the PIF in 2015, it grew from 40 employees to nearly 1,500 employees (as of 2021). He also noted the fund now has $776 billion in assets under his management, up more than five times from the $152 billion it had under its directive in 2015.

Blumenthal said this growth, some based on holdings in American-based companies, should make the governor eligible for questioning by the subcommittee.

“The Saudi’s Public Investment Fund cannot have it both ways: if it wants to engage with the United States commercially, it must be subject to United States law and oversight,” Blumenthal said. “That oversight includes this Subcommittee’s inquiry.”

The hearing was titled "The PGA Tour-LIV Deal: Examining the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund’s Investments in the United States."

Among those speaking to the subcommittee was Ben Freeman of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

"If the Saudi government is not buying into a profitable investment, what are they buying?" Freeman said. "In short, silence. They want to muzzle Americans critical of the regime. And they want to rebrand themselves. They want Americans to associate Saudi Arabia with golf rather than the brutal murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.

"If this merger (it is being called an alliance between the PIF and the Tour) goes through, the Saudi government will have a stranglehold on the international game of golf and a crown jewel in their reputation laundering efforts in the U.S."

Addressing the media two weeks ago at the Tour Championship, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan explained that the PGA Tour would be "in a position to control our future" and that the Tour would be in position to "control the future of men’s professional golf."

The PIF, Monahan said, would have a minority-investor role in PGA Tour Enterprises, with Al-Rumayyan as chairman of the board and Monahan as CEO. Al-Rumayyan would also become a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board.

LIV Golf launched in June 2022 with an eight-tournament invitational series and signed major champions Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Cam Smith and others to lucrative guaranteed deals.

The league is in the midst of its 14-tournament schedule in 2023 and is set to announce plans for 2024 while the framework agreement negotiations continues.