(Provided by Tennis World USA)
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has agreed to invest more than $1 billion in a new business entity controlled by the PGA Tour, and Greg Norman will be ousted as LIV Golf CEO if the business deal between the Saudis and the tour is finalized.
a circuit executive told Congress on Tuesday.
Liv Golf and Pga, situation
The LIV Golf, within the negotiations with the PGA Tour, also proposed that Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy each have their team on their controversial tour, a striking idea since these are two of the golfers who have shown the greatest rejection to the Saudi circuit.
.The proposal on Woods and McIlroy appeared on Tuesday within the investigations of the US Senate Investigations subcommittee, which is examining the merger of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf and, in particular, the involvement of the Government of Saudi Arabia in that circuit.”In 2021 the PGA Tour had net assets of approximately $1.25 billion.
The estimated value of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is between $600 billion and $700 billion, which is 500 times larger than the PGA Tour. “said Senator Ron Johnson in his opening statement.The investigation of this subcommittee revealed some of the ideas -many of them discarded- that LIV Golf and the PGA Tour proposed in their negotiations towards a merger for which they have an agreement in principle but still many fringes to close.For example, those responsible for the Saudi tour proposed that Woods and McIlroy each have their team at LIV Golf and that they participate in at least 10 tournaments on that circuit.For its part, the PGA Tour called for the legendary Greg Norman, the defender and most visible face of LIV Golf, to be fired if the two circuits were to merge.It does not seem that either of these two ideas has prospered in the negotiations.On June 6, a surprising principle of agreement was announced to unify the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and LIV Golf.The resignation of top-level players from the PGA Tour in the direction of a LIV Golf with much more succulent financial prizes opened up a huge crack in the world of golf that now seems to be closing little by little.In addition to the Senate investigations, the US Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division is also examining possible monopolistic practices in the world of golf.
