Senate's golf probe reveals secret outreach by UK businessman to PGA Tour for months on behalf of Saudi PIF boss

Newly released email communications, WhatsApp messages, internal chats and memos involving golf officials unearthed by a Senate investigation ahead of Tuesday’s hearing show discussions dating back to late last year. 

The documents detail how upstart LIV Golf promised to stop poaching top golfers and competing against PGA Tour sponsored events in exchange for a say in sports governance and a share in future media rights.

The communications also revealed a PGA effort at a side deal to oust LIV chief executive Greg Norman and a proposal to give PGA golfers Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy their own LIV Golf teams. 

The initial overtures were made to PGA board member Jimmy Dunne by a British businessman at the behest of Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund chief Yasir Al-Rumayyan. Dunne, who helped negotiate the agreement, and PGA Tour Chief Operating Officer Ron Price testified Tuesday before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

Lawmakers have demanded investigations into the unexpected merger between PGA Tour and LIV Golf over antitrust concerns and accusations the Saudi government is using investments in sports to divert attention from human rights abuses.

“There is something that stinks about this path that you’re on right now because it is a surrender. And it is all about the money,” panel Chairman Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, said during the hearing. 

The Justice Department is already investigating PGA over antitrust concerns, Blumenthal said. The scrutiny is likely to focus on player compensation and changes to any sponsorships, antitrust experts said after the deal was announced.

During the hearing, Price downplayed the role LIV golf will have and justified the deal as one that ended a brutal legal battle between the two leagues.

Dunne argued the PGA Tour simply couldn’t compete against a rival generously funded by Saudi investments.

“LIV put us on fire,” Dunne said. “LIV put us in an incredibly difficult position. LIV was a constant everyday, who’s going to go? It was very disruptive.”

‘The Best of Both Worlds’

Details on the proposed deal were revealed in an April 26 presentation entitled “The Best of Both Worlds,” prepared by bankers for PIF, LIV’s biggest backer. It proposed “cooperation and joint governance” including a split of media rights between the tours. The presentation was created by PCP Capital Partners, an adviser to Saudi Arabia’s PIF, after a meeting between the rival tours in London. 

“LIV has been requested by the PGAT/European Tour to stop their players being poached once” terms are agreed, according to the presentation. LIV also promised that its “tournaments are to not compete with” PGA’s events. 

The fund’s initial proposal included a requirement that Woods and McIlroy own LIV Golf teams and participate in at least 10 LIV Golf events.

A later email from a PGA representative sought a commitment from LIV that it would terminate Norman.

By June, a memo with talking points for PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan for a meeting with board members before the June 6 deal announcement highlighted that PIF would give Norman an advisory role after the PGA takes on the management of LIV Golf.

Price told senators Norman would no longer be needed in the CEO role if the entities combined.

The PIF presentation also suggested reorganizing the PGA, currently a tax-exempt nonprofit. As currently structured, PGA takes in money from sponsors and broadcasters including Comcast Corp.’s NBC, Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN and Paramount Global Inc., and uses it for the tour’s operating costs and paying players, the presentation said.

Under the new proposal, once the PGA Tour recouped costs, “excess profits” would be paid out via a royalty to a new PIF-owned media company, the presentation said. The PGA Tour brought in revenue of $1.6 billion in 2021, with the bulk coming from media rights, according to the group’s most recent filing.

Connecting Over Golf

Before PGA and PIF officials began negotiating, Roger Devlin, chairman of a UK-based public housebuilding company Persimmon PLC, sent an email that popped into Dunne’s inbox in early December. Al-Rumayyan and Amanda Staveley, the British businesswoman known for helping the Saudi fund acquire a stake in England’s Newcastle United Football Club, had “invited” him “to help find a solution to the issues that divide LIV and the PGA,” Devlin, who also chairs England’s elite Sunningdale Golf Club, wrote.

Devlin pitched exploring a partnership between the circuits, conveying that Al-Rumayyan “was happy to explore a new combined management structure whereby LIV and the PGA might work in partnership especially in respect of media rights.” The fund’s chief was also open to compensating PGA players who turned down offers from LIV while LIV players would be allowed back to play in PGA tournaments, he said.

Dunne eventually reached out to Al-Rumayyan on WhatsApp in April that led to a meeting in London and subsequent talks with Monahan and other officials on both sides of the Atlantic before the deal was announced. Investigators couldn’t determine if Devlin’s outreach or other reasons motivated Dunne to text Al-Rumayyan, according to a memo released by the panel.

The documents show Dunne and Al-Rumayyan connected over their love for golf. As they discussed dates for their first meeting, Dunne implied they could meet over a game of golf by saying: “No extra shot for you and don’t bring a doctor note!!!” referring to a physician’s letter that allows golfers to use golf carts. 

The subcommittee also wants to talk with Norman and Al-Rumayyan, but said their representatives indicated scheduling conflicts prevented their testimony Tuesday. 

Blumenthal suggested the panel might subpoena them, saying it has the power “to seek testimonies from foreign nationals under some circumstances, such as their doing business in the United States or other ties that enable us to reach them.”

–With assistance from Steven T. Dennis.