PGA Tour officers painted a bleak outlook throughout a contentious Senate listening to Tuesday, sharing they felt no different selection was left however to merge with Saudi-backed LIV Golf to ensure that the tour to outlive.
“The PGA Tour is not that big in terms of players,” PGA Tour board member Jimmy Dunne stated throughout sworn testimony Tuesday earlier than the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in Washington, D.C. “If (LIV) takes five players a year, in five years they can gut us. They’ve got a management team that wants to destroy the Tour. And even though (LIV) could take five or six players a year, they have an unlimited horizon and an unlimited amount of money.
“So it isn’t like the (LIV) product is better. It’s just that there’s a lot more money that will make people move.”
Several Senators cited accusations of Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses as purpose to query the May 30 framework settlement between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
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“Today’s hearing is about much more than the game of golf,” Senator Richard Blumenthal stated. “It’s about how a brutal, repressive regime can buy influence, and indeed even take over a cherished American institution to cleanse its public image.”
Dunne and Ron Price, the chief working officer of the PGA Tour, testified on behalf of the tour with CEO Jay Monahan on medical depart. They stated the framework of the deliberate merger is the perfect alternative to permit the PGA Tour to proceed to have a point of management over the game regardless of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia’s involvement.
When pressed on the small print of the monetary involvement of the Saudis, Price stated, “There’s been discussions. It would be a significant amount. North of $1 billion.”
Along with different Senators, Blumenthal supplied harsh criticism of the monetary facets of the choice to merge.
“There is something that stinks about this path that you’re on right now,” Blumenthal stated, “because it is a surrender, and it is all about the money and that’s the reason for the backlash that you see.”
Blumenthal requested Price what his choices are if the PGA Tour doesn’t execute the merger with LIV Golf.
“We would still be facing a real threat that LIV Golf would continue to recruit our top players,” Price stated.
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Blumenthal responded, “These players that stood by you are heroes.”
Dunne testified that he shares a number of the issues Blumenthal raised within the listening to.
“I really understand Sen. Blumenthal’s concern about having them take over,” Dunne stated. “…I’m concerned with what the senator is worried about. But I’m concerned if we do nothing, we’re going to end up there, they’re going to end up owning golf. They can do it.”
The proposed merger might face blockage from the Justice Department, which has been investigating the PGA Tour for its try to maintain its gamers from leaving for LIV, in addition to a evaluate by the Committee on Foreign Investment within the United States, a Treasury-led committee that assesses mergers for nationwide safety functions.
Price and Dunne pressured throughout Tuesday’s listening to that closing particulars of the merger are undetermined.
“We have no agreement,” Dunne testified. “We have an agreement to possibly get to an agreement.”