Sen. Blumenthal against requests Yasir Al-Rumayyan to testify before subcommittee

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) has doubled down on his quest for more details about the framework agreement announced last month between the PGA Tour, Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and the DP World Tour.

On Thursday, Blumenthal sent a letter to PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan requesting he testify before the permanent subcommittee on investigations. Al-Rumayyan and LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman had been requested to testify before the committee in a hearing held July 11 but both cited “scheduling conflicts” for why they couldn’t attend.

Instead, the Tour’s chief operating officer Ron Price and policy board member Jimmy Dunne, who brokered the framework agreement with the PIF, testified at the hearing, which lasted nearly three hours.

According to the letter sent by Blumenthal, representatives for Al-Rumayyan have been asked at least twice since the July 11 hearing about the governor’s availability to testify but no definitive date for another hearing has been offered.

“While the subcommittee’s July 11, 2023, hearing revealed important information regarding the framework agreement between PGA Tour and PIF, the subcommittee requires additional information to understand PIF’s future role in American professional golf and its plans for other investments in U.S.-based entities,” Blumenthal wrote.

Blumenthal has requested another hearing in September and gave Al-Rumayyan a Aug. 4 deadline to respond. Blumenthal also requested numerous documents including “the name and value of all stocks and securities” held by the PIF in the United States and any documents referring to “project wedge,” which was the PIF’s earliest blueprint of what became LIV Golf.

The PIF and PGA Tour continue to negotiate toward a “definitive” agreement that would create a for-profit entity that would include the Tour, the European circuit and LIV Golf. In a memo sent to players on Wednesday, commissioner Jay Monahan said that process “is complicated and time intensive.”