U.S. Senate Will Hold Another Hearing Concerning PGA Tour – LIV Golf Merger

The United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, or PSI, is set to have another hearing on Wednesday regarding the PGA Tour and LIV Golf merger.

After an initial hearing in July that saw PGA Tour brass Ron Price and Jimmy Dunne testify, the hearing, which is titled “The PGA Tour LIV Deal: Examining The Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund’s Investments In The United States,” is set to resume.

According to a report from Front Office Sports, further examination is needed, and it will occur on September 13.

JUST IN: the Senate investigations subcommittee will host another hearing on the PGA Tour – Saudi PIF deal, with the focus “more broadly on PIF’s investments in the United States.”

Yasir Al-Rumayyan has declined to testify twice. The hearing will be September 13 at 10 a.m. EST. pic.twitter.com/0Ts3b8wgfI

— John Nucci (@JNucci23) September 6, 2023

Senator Richard Blumenthal said:

“PIF is a commercial entity with extensive business dealings in the United States. PIF’s recent dealings with the PGA Tour demonstrate that it intends to be much more than a passive investor in the American enterprises in which it houses its considerable wealth.”

Blumenthal has criticized the PIF and the PGA Tour’s deal with it in the past and hopes to uncover “Saudi Arabia’s business ambitions and further investigate the Kingdom’s role in the Sept. 11 attacks,” SBNation wrote.

Raphael Prober, the attorney representing the PIF, has an issue with Blumenthal’s goals:

“[Blumenthal’s suggestion [to] engage in an unprecedented effort to compel [al-Rumayyan’s] public testimony on a subject over which Saudi laws restrict the disclosure of information raises significant concerns that the Subcommittee is not affording due respect to the sovereignty and diplomatic interests at play, to say nothing of the risk posed to continued foreign investment in the United States.”

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, PIF Governor Yasir al-Rumayyan, and LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman will not be at the September 13 hearing.

Cover Image via Golf.com