Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy receiving ownership stake in LIV Golf teams and participating in 10 LIV Golf events throughout the year were among proposals made by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund in its talks with the PGA Tour, according to documents released by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations during its hearing on Tuesday investigating the agreement between the Tour and PIF. In an April 26 meeting, PCP Capital Partners presented a slideshow to PGA Tour policy board members Jimmy Dunne and Ed Herlihy titled, “The Best of Both Worlds” that outlined numerous proposals in addition to Woods and McIlroy’s ownership.
It was implied in the same documents that McIlroy met with PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in November 2022. The documents also included a side agreement where the PGA Tour requested the removal of LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman as well as Performance 54, a United Kingdom agency that has aided in the rise of LIV Golf.
“I think Greg needs to go. I think he just needs to exit stage left,” McIlroy said at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai. “He’s made his mark, but I think now is the right time to say you’ve got this thing off the ground but no one’s going to talk unless there’s an adult in the room that can actually try to mend fences.”
In addition, potential long-term agreements included a LIV Golf team event with qualifying events in Saudi Arabia featuring a final week in Dubai. This large-scale superstar LIV team event with the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and LPGA players would include 16 captains and a live draft televised with the hope to increase Ryder Cup interest. Television revenue was to flow in the direction of LIV Golf.
Other proposals for consideration included:
- A global golf investment fund managed by the PIF
- A minimum of two PGA Tour high-profile events to be sponsored by Aramco and/or the PIF, with one of these events being held in Saudi Arabia.
- PIF governor Yasir al-Rumayyan was to become a Director of the International Golf Federation and receive membership at Augusta National and the R&A.
- A “World Golf Series” concluding in Saudi Arabia
- LIV to operate as is but to be played in the fall or with the notion of LIV existing alongside the PGA Tour
At least eight drafts of the framework agreement between the PGA Tour and Saudi PIF existed, according to the documents. None of the above considerations made their way into the executed framework agreement.
Initial contact between the PGA Tour and PIF was courtesy of British businessman Roger Devlin on December 8, 2022. Devlin wrote to Dunne that he had been invited by officials within the PIF to find a solution to the rift between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. Devlin informed Dunne that PIF governor al-Rumayyan had “great ambitions to support, grow and modernize the sport and is clearly well equipped to fund these goals.”
Dunne was uninterested before Devlin reignited the conversation on April 14, 2023. Dunne and al-Rumayyan began exchanging messages on WhatsApp four days later on April 18. Less than two months later, the framework agreement between the PGA Tour and PIF was announced.
The agreement came with sparse details but outlined a plan for the PGA Tour and PIF to house commercial operations under a new for-profit entity called PGA Tour Enterprises. The Saudi PIF plans to be the minority investor of this new entity. PGA Tour chief operating officer Ron Price estimated an investment “north of $1 billion” from PIF during the July 11 Senate hearing.
Rick Gehman is joined by Kyle Porter, Mark Immelman and Greg DuCharme to discuss Tuesday’s Senate hearing regarding the PGA Tour and PIF as well as preview the 2023 Genesis Scottish Open. Follow & listen to The First Cut on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.