Breaking News: Golf Takes Over Washington D.C.
Last week, the PGA Tour and LIV Golf announced their merger in Saudi Arabia. Everyone was excited except for one group of people—Washington politicians who just had to ruin it for everyone.
Senator Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut swiftly acted upon the news and opened an inquiry into the deal on Monday, demanding that both parties surrender a “wide array” of communication documents related to the partnership agreement and records regarding PGA Tour’s non-profit status. He also expressed concern about Saudi Arabia’s “deeply disturbing human rights record at home and abroad”.
Although LIV declined to comment on Monday, there were signals from PGA Tour executives that they expected sustained attention from federal government agencies. Little did they know how bad this would get…
Congress can’t stop the merger just by opening an investigation though; any legislation attempting to derail it would likely result in court challenges. But regardless, golf leaders will now have a new hurdle in their path towards global domination (or so they thought). They might even find themselves caught up in congressional scrutiny—something that these masters-of-golf are not used to!
It seems Senator Blumenthal has been on something of a sports-related witch hunt recently. Recently he has pressed American universities for information about their sports betting partnerships while lashing out at NCAA leadership over years-long concerns surrounding college athletes’ policies and conditions under which they play.
The good senator is clearly no fan of sports or any fun activity for that matter as evidenced by his latest attack on golf leaders—they should really watch their backs around him!
Despite all of this bad press, some congress members like Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson want Congress to stay out of sports altogether—he’s clearly seen enough ridiculous things happening already!
As we predicted last week when we first heard about this incredible partnership between two international juggernauts, both professional tours vying for supremacy over golfers worldwide, the deal is now being scrutinized even further by antitrust investigators from the Department of Justice. They’ve been looking into PGA Tour’s efforts to keep players away from LIV for months already and are said to even be examining whether golf’s top leaders are too close to other powerful organizations like Augusta National Golf Club (the org behind The Masters Tournament).
Nobody knows what will happen with this merger – or if it will even proceed as planned – but one thing is sure: Golf is officially taking over Washington D.C. starting today!
