Champions, Cutmakers And (Point) Missers: Senate Hearing Edition
A stunning document drop overshadows the traditional committee antics as more questions than answers abound over pro golf's future. Oh, and His Excellency wants memberships in ANGC & the R&A.
The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing produced a few winners, several surprising cutmakers, and way more losers than point missers. The ritualistic Capitol Hill tradition of grilling and grandstanding offered a fairly stock edition, down to the weird post-hearing buddy-buddy stuff confirming much of it was for show.
One problem: an unexpected committee document dump left The Quadrilateral team no choice but to declare Champions, Cutmakers and (Point) Missers.
You can download the full effort here and plan to scroll on past the Neom details (though do let me know if it mentions the Crown Prince’s dream city hosting the PGA Tour’s 2031 Riyadh Airlines Tour Championship Presented By Aramco).
You can watch the full hearing here.
If you want a summary of the proceedings before seeing who won and who lost, Lawrence Donegan and I dropped a McKellar podcast breaking it all down:
Champions
Richard Blumenthal. The Connecticut Senator remained even tempered, concise-by-Senatorial-windbaggery-standards, and on-message regarding concerns over a shady regime taking over a beloved and important American creation in the PGA Tour. Key points were scored by asking whether other funding alternatives were pursued by the PGA Tour to stave off the merger and he moved the proceedings along while consistently reiterating concerns about Saudi Arabia’s motives.
Ron Price. The PGA Tour COO came off as mostly believable, organized, and intelligent without embarrassing himself or the person he reports to who was unable to attend. Price managed to admit enough to help us understand the dire situation the Tour believes it faced: imminent death. He ably dodged the exact amount of money coming from Saudi Arabia other than to confirm it will be north of $1 billion. One hiccup: not having a stronger way to put Josh Hawley away on the demise of PGA Tour China. Maybe because Price was part of the Finchem era when China was pursued aggressively as a hot new revenue source? Despite everyone knowing what a problematic place it was to do business?
LIV Golf. It sure looks like your future is safer than we thought after the document dump revealed a clear disagreement over what will happen to the upstart league. No Laying Up broke down a late May back-and-forth that ended with the PIF side zapping any PGA Tour power over LIV’s fate from the agreement. At least for now. Long live the Mashie Cleeks!
Greg Norman. Sure, we learned you’re going to get fired (if the deal happens). But you win! Think about how excessively the PGA Tour took its eye off the bigger prizes during this big ne-gosh all to make sure you were canned. Meanwhile, LIV’s reps emptied the safe and turned the PGA Tour’s Shark obsession into a win. It’s standard practice for this version of the PGA Tour to exude irrational energy toward buttoning up dissent while totally flubbing the big picture issues. This deflection role should earn the Shark a robust golden parachute.
Randall Stephenson. The former AT&T CEO looks increasingly brilliant for resigning a month ago and waiting until Jay Monahan returned from his health scare. Getting his reservations on the record before the hear will age really well and set him up for cushy board seats where he doesn’t have to listen to Jimmy’s tired old Irish wise tales or to be asked if he’ll second His Excellency’s membership applications.
Rolex. Who knew a watch company ruled the PGA Tour and DP World Tours? Atop the “Must Call” list, the mass market makers of premium manjewelry became the top priority for Keith Pelley and Jay Monahan (after Rory and Tiger who we subsequently have learned may not have gotten calls that morning). This puts Rolex ahead of FedEx despite that $100 million or more spend by the global shipper for the worst playoff chase in sports. Amazing what grown men will do for some look-at-me bling you can buy in a mall!
The Majors. Sure, you were well down the call notification list but just think: you were ahead of the broadcast partners even as they funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to the PGA Tour. (Way to make Mssrs. Roberts and McManus feel all warm and fuzzy about signing off on those rights payments.) Even better for the majors: most of the LIV demands by Yasir Al-Rumayyan (“HE”) revolved around the PGA Tour and friends force the majors to take back LIV players and give them world ranking points for starts not recorded. Congrats to the modern day impregnable quadrilateral, you still matter most.
Jordan, Rickie, Justin and even Smylie! After enjoying Wimbledon and looking super-dapper doing the Royal box thing, the 2011 spring breakers and their beautiful spouses hit Scotland and have remained blissfully far away from all of this nonsense. Even better, they hit glorious North Berwick Tuesday while the hearing took place. Well done.
Cutmakers
Senator Ron Johnson. Started out waiving around those heavily redacted documents related to 9/11 and questioning the role of Saudi Arabia. He spoke of the need for transparency, his concerns about sportwashing and over the deal. Yet a day after making the interview rounds and professing admiration for that great golfer “Roberto Da Vinci,” the Wisconsin senator then changed course with incessant downplaying of the need for the hearing. The one he’d just endorsed as the ranking member. National security and disclosure issues aside, Johnson says negotiations are ongoing so there was nothing to see here. One problem: the deal was publicly celebrated and spun by the parties in an orchestrated rollout well before reaching the finish line. And it was a (documented) effort to sugarcoat the deal as revealed in the papers Johnson agreed to share publicly in hopes more will be disclosed about 9/11. Ugh. At least you celebrated the 4th in America this year!
The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. You got the disastrous lawsuit you thrown out and forced the PGA Tour to cave despite only have gobs of money for leverage. But the hearing drove home remarkable bipartisanship over lingering questions and widespread discomfort with Saudi Arabia’s role in 9/11 or hacking up Jamal Khashoggi. Unlike other entities you’ve bought off, the golf saga keeps reminding people of the very activities Saudi Arabia hopes to scrub clean from the record. At least no one brought up the Kingdom’s impact on gas prices.
Warren Buffett. You’re still rich, powerful and unassailable in the B-world, but we learned via the PGA Tour’s advisor that you have designated CNBC softball tosser. Turn Munger loose on Cult Ponte Vedra!
Jay Monahan. You’ve got a job. Wait, two jobs now according to the docs. Maybe. Even your new friends at the PIF/LIV/NewCo aren’t so sure about how that will work and it seems like a big sticking point. What a world. This, after ignoring signs of a potential threat, flipping on the 9/11 narrative, ruling out ever doing business with the PIF (only to hop in the sack), bungling discussions with potential equity partners, refute the distance issue for shallow marketing or free golf ball reasons, green lit “Live Under Par”, and most disastrous of all, created an unsustainable payout model where the well ran dry, thus forcing this deal. Oh, and you kept players, board members and network partners in the dark on this, then bungled yet another rollout with help from your devoted EVP, while probably enraging Tiger in ways we may never find out about (But I’m hear TW if you want to vent!). It takes skill to keep a $15 million-a-year gig. Even more skill to bungle so much and still keep the good times rolling. So a tip o’ the cap for somehow keeping the Steamboat Express a thing.
(Point) Missers
