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Golf

TOM WATSON DEMANDS ANSWERS FOR PGA TOUR’S SAUDI ‘HYPOCRISY’ IN OPEN LETTER

By Justin Tasch

June 19, 2023 | 2:28pm

One of golf’s greatest legends is calling out the PGA Tour in the wake of its
controversial partnership with the Saudi-backed fund behind LIV Golf.

Eight-time major winner Tom Watson penned an open letter to PGA Tour
commissioner Jay Monahan and the PGA Tour Policy Board, which was published by
Golf Digest on Monday, looking for answers on the many questions that remain
after the Tour joined forces with LIV to create a new company that will receive
a major investment from the Saudi Public Investment Fund.

SEE ALSO

PGA TOUR COMMISSIONER'S RETURN AFTER MEDICAL EMERGENCY 'NOT A SURE THING':
INSIDER

First, I wish Jay Monahan a complete and speedy recovery. I respect the
leadership he has shown in the past for our Tour. It can’t be an easy job. With
the recent high hurdles in dealing with LIV poaching Tour players and the legal
battles presented as a result, I have a sense of the complexity of the issues
which he presently faces as a leader.

Unfortunately, in the wake of recent news, I also understand the cries of
hypocrisy. Because he is a smart man, I know Jay does too. In my opinion, the
communication has been mishandled and the process by which the Tour agreed on a
proposed partnership with PIF was executed without due process. As a group of
players and stakeholders who represent the face and the brands of the Tour, what
are our choices?

Clearly, the Tour’s traditional business model was threatened by LIV. The
upstart tour created unprecedented obstacles and battles of both moral and
financial consequence.

While I wasn’t in the player meeting on Tuesday, June 6th (ironically on the
anniversary of D-Day), for Jay’s PIF partnership/Tour announcement, I’ve watched
enough to know that it was certainly unlike any of the player meetings I’ve been
involved with in my 50-plus years as a member of the Tour. The Commissioner and
the PGA Tour Board, on which five Tour players sit, are going to have to do a
lot of firsthand explaining to comfortably coax acceptance with our membership
on this partnership with the PIF. The Tour’s stakeholders: the players
themselves, the broad span of global media, as well as the tournament sponsors
and independent Tour partners, require an explanation of the benefits of forming
this partnership.

EVERYTHING TO KNOW ABOUT THE PGA TOUR-LIV GOLF MERGER

PGA Tour and LIV Golf are ending a war — by joining forces.

The two golf leagues, along with the European DP World Tour, are merging into
one company after a period of fierce rivalry, one where LIV Golf defectors were
banned from competing on the Tour.

LIV, financed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund and led by legendary golfer
Greg Norman, lured some of the top names in golf last year with reported
nine-figure contracts, including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka
and Bryson DeChambeau.

Other huge golf names, however, like Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, stayed loyal
to the Tour, despite being offered a massive amount of money.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FOLLOW THE POST’S COVERAGE OF THE PGA TOUR-LIV GOLF MERGER

* PGA Tour and LIV Golf merging in stunning end to sport’s war
* PGA Tour players furious after learning about LIV merger through Twitter
* Brooks Koepka buries Brandel Chamblee with four words after PGA-LIV merger
* LIV golfers will ‘definitely’ be fined if they want to rejoin PGA Tour

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Norman said last year Woods turned down a payday in the range of $700
million-$800 million to stick with the PGA Tour.

With the merger, the Saudi-backed LIV and the Tour are ending an antitrust
battle and agreed to end all litigation between the two sides.

“After two years of disruption and distraction, this is a historic day for the
game we all know and love,” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said in a
statement. “This transformational partnership recognizes the immeasurable
strength of the PGA TOUR’s history, legacy and pro-competitive model.”

There are many unanswered questions to date, which I hope will be addressed with
the players by Tour management at this week’s Travelers tour event. What does
acceptance of this partnership mean to the Tour? What do we get? What do we give
up? Why was this deal done in such secrecy and why wasn’t even one of the
players who sits on the Tour’s Policy Board included? A matter this profound
deserves thorough vetting by a representative group of stakeholders which
include those, who in the end, define the public image and emotional connection
with the PGA Tour.

I have a basic understanding of the role Saudi Arabia’s PIF plays in the world’s
economy and that PIF money is invested in U.S. brands and businesses that are
part of our everyday lives. I realize the United States has diplomatic relations
with the Saudis and they have occasionally been allies of ours in the Middle
East. It is my further understanding that many businesses, including some
professional sports leagues have strict guidelines on the percentage of
investment they will accept from sovereign funds. Before this agreement is
finalized, I wonder, does the PGA Tour have guidelines? Have we, as a body,
defined an acceptable percentage of PIF funding in the proposed partnership?

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan.USA TODAY Sports

These questions are compounded by the hypocrisy in disregarding the moral issue;
a position which for a long time was publicly highlighted by Tour leadership.
While it is accepted that players on all levels would value the opportunity to
make more money, it has also been illustrated that not all of our players are in
search of money at all costs. Those who stayed true to the Tour for whatever
personal reason or position of moral conscience are more than a few outliers.
There are widespread rumors on the Tour offering financial reparations to these
players who rejected offers from LIV and remained loyal to our Tour. Surely,
that alone misses the larger issue of context here? And in a related question,
what if any, are the plans to reinstate Tour players who defected and now want
to return to the PGA Tour?

I still await Saudi acknowledgement of their role in the attacks of 9/11, which
resulted in the loss of the innocent lives of 3000 of my fellow American
citizens. I support 9/11 Families United and their efforts to release supporting
exculpatory U.S. Government documents (See 9/11FamiliesUnited.org/KeyDocuments).
That day, forever among the darkest in our nation’s history, is sadly not alone
among the human rights violations we have seen employed by Saudi Arabia. I ask
the Tour, how is a non-negotiable point for us one day one we negotiate around
the next?

Tom Watson (r.) and Jack Nicklaus (l.) at The Masters on April 6, 2023.Getty
Images

The reversal does appear to indicate a more desperate financial situation than
has been previously revealed by the Tour. While last week I learned the
significant news that litigation around the Tour/LIV conflict would be
terminated with prejudice, that only solves one significant financial problem.
It is important to understand how all of this has impacted the Tour’s Reserve
Fund and the Tour’s overall financial solvency. Have funds been depleted to the
point where the Tour needs an unprecedented capital injection to remain solvent
now or for the future? Policy Board independent director Jimmy Dunne, (who
helped broker the deal), has said the PIF is not investing money into PGA Tour,
Inc. but rather into a newly formed for-profit commercial entity under the
banner, PGA Tour Enterprises. Will PIF funds be invested only in PGA Tour
Enterprises, not PGA Tour, Inc? What does that mean? What present and/or new
assets go into this new partnership? What assets will be sold?

What do you think? Post a comment.

My overarching questions remain. Is the PIF the only viable rescue from the
Tour’s financial problems? Was/is there a plan B? And again, what exactly is the
exchange? We need clarity and deserve full disclosure as to the financial health
of the PGA Tour and the details of this proposed partnership.

My loyalty to golf and this country live in the same place and have held equal
and significant weight with me over my lifetime. Please educate me and others in
a way that allows loyalty to both and in a way that makes it easy to look 9/11
families in the eye and ourselves in the mirror.

I am very grateful for our country, its abundant opportunities, and the
wonderful life made possible by the PGA Tour.

Sincerely,

Tom Watson

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