By Tom Watson, an eight-time major winner, questioned the PGA Tour’s contentious choice to collaborate with the DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund—the league’s financial backer—in a lengthy open letter to commissioner Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour’s board, and his fellow competitors.
In the letter, Watson says he understands the “cries of hypocrisy” and adds that “the communication has been mishandled and the process by which the Tour agreed on a proposed partnership with PIF was executed without due process.”
What does acceptance of this partnership mean to the Tour? What do we get? What do we give up? What was this deal done in such secrecy and why wasn’t even one of the players who sits on the Tour’s Policy Board included?
Watson was referring to Rory McIlroy, one of the player directors for the PGA Tour on the policy board. McIlroy had harsh words about LIV Golf before the arrangement, but he wasn’t the only one. Despite the enormous sums of money players were being offered, the PGA Tour actively discouraged members from defecting to the competing league. The Tour is currently being accused of compromising its morals to earn the same amount of money.
When it comes to LIV Golf, Watson also questioned Saudi Arabia’s complicity in terrorism and track record concerning human rights. The PGA Tour came under fire from 9/11 Families United for its arrangement with the Saudi-funded golf league, and Watson was unable to write his statement without addressing the issue at hand.
I still await Saudi acknowledgement of their role in the attacks of 9/11, which resulted in the loss of innocent lives of 3000 of my fellow American Citizens, I support 9/11 Families United and their efforts to release supporting exculpatory US Government documents.”
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