“Spending tens of millions of dollars to defend ourselves” - Jay Monahan fires back at Congress amid inquiry into the PGA Tour-PIF merger

The United States Senate opened an inquiry into the agreement between the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia. Following this, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan has come out to slam the Congressional inquiry claiming that the move was caused by the United States government’s inaction in recent developments.

Responding to the inquiry regarding the tour’s proposed partnership with PIF, Jay Monahan said that the US government left the tour to “fend off” attacks for itself. The PGA chief sent a letter to Congress, stating that the decision for the merger was taken as the American circuit body was left with no choice. He stated that his tour did ‘everything it could possibly do to defend’ its ideologies, including ‘spending tens of millions of dollars.’

Jay Monahan’s letter dated, June 9, was published by Politico on Monday. The PGA Tour chief wrote in the letter:

“Over the past two years, the PGA Tour has fought an intense and highly publicized battle as the Saudi Arabian PIF-backed LIV golf league attempted to ‘buy’ PGA Tour players and take over the game of golf in the United States and beyond, creating a fractured golf ecosystem and fomenting a heated divisiveness into the game.”

He added:

“We believe that we did everything we could possibly do to defend what we stand for, including spending tens of millions of dollars to defend ourselves from litigation instigated by LIV Golf – significant funds diverted away from our core mission to benefit our players and generate charity. As part of the litigation, we were successful in securing a court ruling that the PIF was not protected under sovereign immunity with respect to litigation discovery and potentially liability, something which had never been done before in the United States.”

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Jay Monahan accuses Congress members for inaction in helping PGA Tour fight PIF

Jay Monahan went on to slam the Congress. He stated that the tour had meetings with several Members of Congress and policy experts regarding the PIF’s attempt to take over golf. He claimed that the meetings had no effect.

The letter further read:

“During this intense battle, we met with several Members of Congress and policy experts to discuss the PIF’s attempt to take over the game of golf in the United States, and suggested ways that Congress could support us in these efforts.

"While we are grateful for the written declarations of support we received from certain members, we were largely left on our own to fend off the attacks, ostensibly due to the United States’ complex geopolitical alliance with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This left the very real prospect of another decade of expensive and distracting litigation and the PGA Tour’s long-term existence under threat."

It is pertinent to note that Monahan’s clap back at Congress comes after the tour received a letter from the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations regarding its deal with the PIF. The announced PIF-PGA alliance could be reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States in the coming weeks.