What the PGA Tour regrets ‘deeply’ about PIF agreement rollout

When on June 6 the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund — which backs LIV Golf — introduced some particulars of their proposed partnership, shock and confusion reigned in the golf world and past. Among the many issues and panicky leaps to conclusion: Were the Saudis taking on males’s skilled golf? Would PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan change into Tour commissioner Jay Monahan’s boss? Would LIV dissolve? Or would the LIV mannequin come to the PGA Tour? And, maybe above all, why such an excessive about-face from the Tour, which for months had been entangled in a bitter feud — authorized and in any other case — with LIV’s energy brokers?

To golf followers, Tour watchdogs, even the gamers themselves, there have been much more questions about the secretive deal than solutions.

And the Tour knew it.

That a lot got here to mild Monday by the use of Ron Price, the Tour’s chief working officer, who in an op-ed published by The Athletic, wrote:

“Due to the confidential nature of negotiations surrounding the framework agreement, much of the initial reaction has been negative, colored by misinformation or misunderstanding. That’s something we take full ownership of and deeply regret. Moving forward, we firmly believe that the more the facts are discussed and understood, the further our constituents can support a potential definitive agreement — if reached — and look forward to the positive and lasting impact on all levels of our game.”

The op-ed additionally lays out why Price believes the pact, ought to or not it’s authorised, will end in a “highly favorable outcome for the PGA Tour,” and presumably serves as a preview of the testimony Price and Tour coverage board member Jimmy Dunne — who Monahan has credited with brokering the proposed take care of Al-Rumayyan — will current on Tuesday on Capitol Hill, the place they’re each scheduled to discipline questions from the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that’s probing the Tour-PIF accord.     

Monahan, who’s recovering from an undisclosed well being situation, won’t be in attendance, nor will Al-Rumayyan or LIV CEO Greg Norman, each of whom cited scheduling conflicts.

Leading the listening to can be Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), the subcommittee’s chairman, and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the subcommittee’s rating member. As Blumenthal detailed in a June 21 letter to Monahan, the intent of the session is to “examine the planned agreement … the future of the PIF-funded LIV Golf, the risks associated with a foreign government’s investment in American cultural institutions, and the implications of this planned agreement on professional golf in the United States going forward.”

Toothy questions all.

Added Johnson, in an announcement, “I hope that this hearing and any other role that Congress plays in this matter will be constructive.”

Last week, in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Johnson mentioned that in terms of antitrust issues which have been raised round the proposed deal, he believes the courts received’t stand in the approach and as a substitute are more likely to rule “in favor of sports competition.” Johnson mentioned his main concern is with sustaining the “purity of the competition” on the PGA Tour.

Price and Dunne will face inquiries throughout a spectrum of matters on Tuesday. But they’ll most assuredly additionally come armed with their very own agenda. On the prime of that listing, if Price’s op-ed is any indication: tightening up the messaging round the specifics of the agreement — i.e., not solely what it’s but in addition simply as importantly what it isn’t.

“This is not a merger,” Price wrote in the op-ed. “The PGA Tour remains intact. The subsidiary — PGA Tour Enterprises — will include PIF as a non-controlling, minority investor, as they are in many other American businesses.”

That little bit of nuance will take a while to shake from the media’s lexicon, if reporters and editors acknowledge it in any respect. A fast search Monday of reporting on the deal confirmed the phrase merger nonetheless in use by quite a lot of retailers, from CNN and NBC News to Fortune and The Hill.

Price continued: “PGA Tour Enterprises can be led by a board of administrators. The majority of that board can be appointed by the PGA Tour and that entity can be run by a CEO. That CEO can be PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan. The PGA Tour’s controlling curiosity on that board of administrators will stay fixed going ahead, no matter the dimension of the PIF’s preliminary or any future incremental investments. The board of administrators will even have the capability to say no any undesirable funding.

“For two years, the question has been, who would lead professional golf forward? The answer provided by this work toward a definitive agreement is now clear: the PGA Tour.”

Clarity is one thing for which golf followers and gamers alike have been craving. We’re not there but. But maybe Tuesday’s proceedings will get us one step nearer.  

Alan Bastable

Golf.com Editor

As GOLF.com’s govt editor, Bastable is chargeable for the editorial route and voice of one in all the sport’s most revered and extremely trafficked information and repair websites. He wears many hats — enhancing, writing, ideating, creating, daydreaming of in the future breaking 80 — and feels privileged to work with such an insanely proficient and hardworking group of writers, editors and producers. Before grabbing the reins at GOLF.com, he was the options editor at GOLF Magazine. A graduate of the University of Richmond and the Columbia School of Journalism, he lives in New Jersey along with his spouse and foursome of youngsters.