9/11 Families Group Slam PGA Tour For Merging With LIV Golf

 A 9/11 families group slammed the PGA Tour for announcing on Tuesday that it was merging with Saudi-backed LIV Golf, saying that they were betrayed by PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan.

The agreement between the two entities and the DP World Tour will form a new for-profit company that has not yet been named.

9/11 Families United released a statement slamming the PGA Tour for partnering with the Saudi-backed entity, noting that Saudi operatives played a role in facilitating the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans.

“PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan co-opted the 9/11 community last year in the PGA’s unequivocal agreement that the Saudi LIV project was nothing more than sportswashing of Saudi Arabia’s reputation,” said 9/11 Families United Chair Terry Strada, whose husband Tom died in the World Trade Center’s North Tower. “But now the PGA and Monahan appear to have become just more paid Saudi shills, taking billions of dollars to cleanse the Saudi reputation so that Americans and the world will forget how the Kingdom spent their billions of dollars before 9/11 to fund terrorism, spread their vitriolic hatred of Americans, and finance al Qaeda and the murder of our loved ones.”

“Make no mistake – we will never forget, “the statement continued. “Mr. Monahan talked last summer about knowing people who lost loved ones on 9/11, then wondered aloud on national television whether LIV Golfers ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour. They do now as does he. PGA Tour leaders should be ashamed of their hypocrisy and greed. Our entire 9/11 community has been betrayed by Commissioner Monahan and the PGA as it appears their concern for our loved ones was merely window-dressing in their quest for money – it was never to honor the great game of golf.”

The PGA Tour’s decades of dominance were challenged in June 2021 after retired golfer Greg Norman, with funding from the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF), hosted LIV’s first tournament. The PGA tour initially dismissed LIV out of hand, not allowing any golfer who participated in LIV to continue in the PGA tour.

 

LIV slowly began picking off some of the biggest stars in golf to join their league. The PIF gave CEO Greg Norman a reserve of $2 billion that proved to be enough to pick off stars like Phil Mickelson ($200 million), Dustin Johnson ($100 million), and Bryson DeChambeau ($100 million) without having to win or even qualify for a single tournament, leaving even more money on the table.

The PGA Tour suspended 17 golfers from the tour for participating in LIV Golf, kicking off a year of lawsuits between the two golf juggernauts. Eleven pro golfers sued the PGA for allegedly stifling competition in a monopolistic manner. However, all 11 plaintiffs left the lawsuit by May of this year after LIV got involved as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, souring the public image of the golfer’s stated principled stand against the PGA.

The PGA filed a countersuit in September, alleging that LIV golf and, importantly, the PIF had unlawfully aided the 17 golfers in violating their contracts with the PGA by offering them separate contracts to play for LIV. The implication of the PIF is an international debacle, as stars such as Phil Mickelson have desperately tried to separate the LIV organization from the Saudi theocratic monarchy, with Greg Norman saying of Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations and the murder of WaPo reporter Jamaal Khashoggi that “we’ve all made mistakes.”

With the merger, all lawsuits have been dropped, and the only remaining threat is a DOJ antitrust investigation into the PGA, which will be complicated before the merger. The PGA Tour commissioner said the deal will push golf into the future and give fans the best experience.

“Going forward, fans can be confident that we will, collectively, deliver on the promise we’ve always made — to promote competition of the best in professional golf and that we are committed to securing and driving the game’s future,” Monahan said.