The PGA gets a Saudi makeover

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It was a shocking reversal that left PGA golfers and loyal golf fans incredulous — and furious, said Alan Blinder in The New York Times. The PGA last week cut a deal with LIV Golf, an upstart league funded with Saudi Arabia's $620 billion sovereign wealth fund. The Saudis had started a war by poaching star golfers like Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka with lucrative contracts. Amid widespread belief that the Saudis were trying to "sportswash" their terrible human rights record, PGA commissioner Jay Monahan had spent months trying "to sow moral doubts" about LIV golf. But behind the scenes, Monahan was worried that the war with LIV had left the PGA in deep peril. Legal fees to fight LIV Golf's antitrust lawsuit had swelled to $50 million a year. The tour's efforts "to retain the loyalty of players" such as Rory McIlroy by raising prize purses were also "severely straining its finances." So a PGA board member began making overtures to the governor of the Saudis' wealth fund, Yasir al-Rumayyan. After "seven weeks of clandestine meetings," al-Rumayyan was named chairman of a new enterprise aligning the three biggest forces of professional golf — the PGA Tour, LIV Tour and DP World Tour—under a Saudi umbrella.

Sad day, said Bill Plaschke in the Los Angeles Times. "Next time you spend a Sunday afternoon curled up on the couch" watching golf, understand it has been brought to you by "a country with no free speech, no religious freedom, and a history of discriminating against women." Fans are rightfully fuming that "Saudi Arabia now owns golf." The creation of LIV exposed "how many people in golf have a worldview that extends no farther than the perimeter of their purses," said Eamon Lynch in Golfweek. Now the entire sport is "acting as a pawn for a murderous regime" — one that ordered the gruesome murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The PGA has become "a willing platform for human-rights abusers to launder their wrongdoing."

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The merger may also be illegal, said sports law professor Marc Edelman in The Atlantic. Monahan foolishly said the deal with the Saudis was a way "to take the competitor off the board" — "a textbook lesson in why antitrust laws were passed." The PGA Tour says the Saudi backing will benefit players. Don't believe it — without competition, "the incentive to pay players more" disappears. The Justice Department or Federal Trade Commission will likely sue.

If this deal does go through, it may be the "tip of the iceberg" for the Saudis, said Andrew England in the Financial Times. Saudi Arabia sees itself at the "center of a new world order," and it has identified sports as one of the key sectors "to champion Saudi Arabia's brand overseas." Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund has acquired the English soccer club Newcastle United and formed a domestic soccer league headlined by Cristiano Ronaldo. Outside sports, the Saudi fund is taking on "megaprojects" from dominating the gaming industry to starting a new airline. The sovereign fund's financial power is "now luring some who were wary of doing business with Riyadh because of its dire human rights record." And that's exactly the goal.

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