Things get complicated when the US government gets involved.
It is therefore no wonder that the PGA Tour and LIV Golf agreement has yet to be finalized. The US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) has held three separate hearings in relation to the PGA Tour's pending deal with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), the beneficiary of LIV Golf. Congress wants an explanation for why the Tour made a deal with its biggest rival, which is also a foreign government's sovereign wealth fund. Congress also wants to know what PIF wants from this. Does it want more influence in the US? Does it want a bigger return on its investment? Or, as Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman suggested in a September 2023 Fox News interview, does it want a sports wash, i.e. to cleanse itself of its atrocity sins through sports? That is why Congress issued subpoenas to both parties.
But the problems don't end there, they start here.
Thousands of families who lost loved ones in the 9/11 attacks are frustrated, angry and frankly disrespectful of the PGA Tour's agreement with Saudi Arabia. Prior to the Tour's shocking announcement of the framework agreement with PIF on June 6, 2023, the Tour reached out to the families of the 9/11 attacks for support. And on Tuesday, the families of the 9/11 attacks expressed their feelings of betrayal and lamentation that the Tour had ignored their work.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has also stepped in because the deal could violate antitrust laws, and Golf Channel's Brandel Chamblee even predicts the DOJ will block the deal altogether.
These are certainly very complicated negotiations, something Rory McIlroy reiterated on Wednesday ahead of this week's BMW PGA Championship in England.
“I think one of the obstacles is the Department of Justice,” McIlroy said.
“I think approaching it from a collaborative place is the best way to move forward. From my perspective, it looks like the people who are actually making the decisions are all pulling in the same direction, which is a really good thing. And even if everyone was pulling in the same direction, it doesn't mean a deal would get done because it's a very complicated situation. But from what I've heard, there is optimism there, which is a good thing.”
Earlier this week, Bloomberg reports that the most troubling details are The two sides came to an agreement where players would agree on who would keep their millions. PIF loaned top players hundreds of millions to join the start-up league. No player received more than John Rahn, who accepted a contract to move to LIV in December 2023 for more than $400 million.
But the same report noted that an agreement between the two sides is not necessarily a sure thing, and it could still fail.
So McIlroy offered a potential vision of what it could be if it were to come to fruition.
“If things don't happen on the PGA Tour, I think the European Tour may go back to the way it was in the '80s and '90s when there were two strong tours,” McIlroy said.
“But that would leave football divided. I don't like that. I would really like to see football united again. That would be Plan B. It might be the best alternative solution. And selfishly speaking, as Europeans, it would be great to get that investment and spend that money correctly for this tour. But it would still leave football divided. I don't agree with that at all. I want to see everything and everyone united again.”
If the PIF were to sign an investment agreement with the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour), it could ease some of the concerns about golf raised by the US government and 9/11 families. After all, the PGA Tour just received a $1.5 billion investment from Strategic Sports Group (SSG), a consortium of billionaire businessmen with significant investments in various professional sports teams.
Still, the situation remains complicated, with lawmakers and bureaucracy in Washington posing the biggest obstacle to reaching this kind of agreement.
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation Playing Through. Follow For more golf articles, follow us on Twitter Jack Mirko In the same way.
