Senators to demand answers from PGA Tour, with further hearings likely

When the PGA Tour comes to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to defend its controversial pact with the deep-pocketed Saudi Public Investment Fund, there are likely to be aggressive, pointed questions. And there may not be many definitive answers.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations who is leading the probe into the tour’s surprising alliance with the LIV Golf benefactors, was unable to get any of the speakers he initially requested for Tuesday’s hearing. So even before a single golf executive is sworn in, Blumenthal pledged to call further hearings on the matter and said he expects the Saudi investors to come before Congress and explain the deal.

“This hearing is far from the last that we’re going to have,” Blumenthal said in an interview, “in part because they may not be able to answer our questions at this point. And if they can’t, we want to know who’s going to answer them in the future, and we’ll ask them to come.”

More than a month after announcing the shocking partnership, the PGA Tour still faces significant resistance in selling the deal to its members, key stakeholders and the broader golf community. On Saturday, Randall Stephenson, the former AT&T executive, resigned from the tour’s influential policy board after 11½ years, saying he had “serious concerns” about the alliance.

The subcommittee’s probe is one of two congressional inquiries into the deal. Blumenthal launched his investigation on June 12, six days after the PGA Tour and PIF announced they would combine resources to form a new for-profit company that would oversee the commercial interests of the tour, LIV Golf and the Europe-based DP World Tour.

Blumenthal wanted to hear from Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner; Greg Norman, the LIV Golf chief executive; and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the PIF governor who stands to become one of the most powerful people in golf if the deal is finalized.

None of the three will appear on Tuesday. Norman and Al-Rumayyan cited scheduling conflicts. Monahan was out on medical leave recovering from an unspecified health condition, though he’s since announced he’ll return to work next Monday.

Instead, the committee will question Jimmy Dunne, a member of the PGA Tour’s policy board who played a key role in negotiating the deal with the Saudis, and Ron Price, the tour’s chief operating officer. According to a person familiar with situation, the tour offered to make Monahan available if the subcommittee would postpone the hearing until later this month, but the subcommittee declined.

Blumenthal said he wants to explore the deal’s genesis, what professional golf will look like under the new framework, what the Saudi influence will be and whether Congress needs to re-examine the tour’s tax-exempt status.

“The Saudis here are not just buying a team; they’re taking over the sport,” he said. “The PIF is taking over golf worldwide and in America – the PGA Tour, which is a cherished, iconic American institution. And we need to be concerned about the impact on the national interest and economy. It’s a cultural touchstone and there’s an impact on our national interest.”

With Norman out of the country, LIV Golf offered to instead send Gary Davidson, its acting chief operating officer and an executive with Performance54, the golf management firm that helps run LIV. But the committee rejected the offer, according to a person familiar with the situation, preferring to hear from Norman.

Getting officials with the Public Investment Fund, which has been in contact with the subcommittee, to come before Congress promises to be even trickier. As a senior Saudi leader, Al-Rummayan has never testified before Congress and those close to the situation don’t expect that to change.

Both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf have produced documents at the request of the subcommittee, and Blumenthal said that the tour “appears to be playing ball” with investigators. Asked if PIF is cooperating, he said, “We’ll see.”

The tour executives are expected to tell lawmakers that striking a deal with the Saudis – and ending the costly litigation – is key to the long-term sustainability of the tour. The subcommittee doesn’t have the power to nullify the deal, though Blumenthal said “truth has a way of sometimes putting pressure on the parties to change the deal or go back to the drawing board on it.”

Congressional pressure is just one obstacle the agreement faces. The tour’s policy board needs to approve the final deal, which could be still be weeks or months away, and the Justice Department would need to be satisfied that the partnership doesn’t violate federal antitrust laws, which some legal analysts say could prove problematic.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., the subcommittee’s ranking member, did not sign onto letters requesting documents, but he did sign letters requesting the golf executives appear at the hearing. In an interview, Johnson said he spoke with the tour’s Price ahead of the hearing and appeared sympathetic to the PGA’s position.

“I think Congress and the federal government exacerbates or causes more problems than it solves, which is one of the reasons I thought probably the best thing you can do is take a hands-off attitude here, let the PGA sort this out themselves,” he said. “This is a difficult enough situation for the PGA without Congress meddling in it, potentially negatively. We’ll see. I’ve got responsibilities as ranking member. I’ll try to play my role as constructively as possible.”

Johnson said he’s never seen a LIV Golf event – “I don’t even know where to access it,” he said – but is sympathetic to the views of the families of Sept. 11 victims who feel betrayed by the PGA Tour.

“I understand the issue of sportswashing,” he said. “At the same time, it does seem like the kingdom is trying to reform, spending an awful lot of money to reform. I’d like to think that everybody, every nation is redeemable. I would rather see them reform than not reform. If this was one of the ways it helps them do so, I don’t necessarily want to forestall it.”

Washington Post’s Leigh Ann Caldwell contributed to this report.