The PGA Tour has spent the last two years bitterly fighting an upstart golf league owned by the Saudis.
It has filed dueling lawsuits against LIV Golf, with each side claiming violations of antitrust law. PGA has even urged members of Congress to oppose LIV’s foothold in American golf.
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So when the two leagues announced on Tuesday that they would merge, news that shocked the sports world, it caused lawmakers to scratch their heads.
Representatives for PGA had met with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) to lobby against LIV only weeks ago. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) told the Washington Examiner a similar story.
“I was more than a little surprised by the announcement,” he said.
Republicans don’t make much of the merger. “My view is it’s none of my business,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told the Washington Examiner.
Yet Democrats are livid over the decision, calling it a “shameless money grab.”
The party has long been suspect of Saudi Arabia, a Middle Eastern powerhouse they consider to be an unreliable ally and human rights pariah.
PGA sought to use that reputation against LIV Golf, arguing to players considering a switch to the Saudi league that they’d never have to answer for PGA’s reputation. It highlighted the country’s abuses in its charm offensive on Capitol Hill.
Republicans are naturally more forgiving of Saudi Arabia, which acts as a counterweight to Iran’s influence in the Middle East.
But the surprise reversal has Democrats openly crying hypocrisy as the PGA now embraces what was, until Tuesday, a mutual foe.
“It’s pretty brazen to come up here and to ask for members of Congress to push back against Saudi ownership of the sport of golf based on human rights concerns and, in turn, become an agent of the same campaign that you were fighting against,” Murphy told the Washington Examiner.
The outcry comes at a time when the White House is seeking to improve relations with Saudi Arabia.
President Joe Biden got off to a rocky start with the Saudi kingdom, campaigning in 2020 to make the country “pay the price” for the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, allegedly at the hands of its crown prince and de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman.
Stubbornly high gas prices and the United States’s desire to isolate Russia have forced Biden to step back from that pledge.
The oil-rich Saudis’ decision on Sunday to cut oil production has only injected urgency into that pivot. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to the country on Tuesday.
The president’s desired detente is complicated, however, by the yearslong hostility Democrats have for Riyadh. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, even called for an end to all cooperation with Saudi Arabia last year over its oil cuts.
That call did not materialize into any real foreign policy shift in Washington, but Senate Democrats have not softened in their view of the Saudis.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) hopes to use his perch as chairman of the Finance Committee to take action against PGA and LIV for their merger, likely in the form of oversight on antitrust and even national security grounds.
The Biden administration could review the deal through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS.
But professional sports may not rise to the level of concern Washington has for industries with larger security implications, such as technology and rare earth minerals.
“It’s not immediately obvious to me that this is an issue of national security,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the chairwoman of CFIUS, told CNBC on Wednesday.
Nonetheless, Wyden brought up concerns often raised about China — that foreign acquisition of land in the U.S. could pose a threat.
“One of the things I’m certainly concerned about is the real estate issue,” he told the Washington Examiner. “Is this giving them an improper advantage with respect to access to U.S. real estate?”
And Murphy argued Donald Trump’s cozy relationship with the Saudis — the former president has hosted LIV tournaments at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida — poses a threat of foreign influence.
“Is the PGA now going to be a mechanism by which the Saudis wash money to the Trump family?” he asked.
Wyden declined to say what steps he plans to take until he’s had a chance to sit down with his colleagues on the Finance Committee, but he hinted that oversight could also extend to whether LIV and PGA are exercising monopoly power with their merger.
LIV for months railed on PGA, the dominant organizer of men’s golf tours in the U.S., for engaging in what it called monopolistic practices. The prospect of an even bigger, single golf league could draw scrutiny from the Justice Department’s antitrust division.
Republicans have largely shrugged off news of the merger, taking a laissez-faire attitude toward professional sports.
“They can merge with whoever they want,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told reporters. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) dismissed the idea that the deal had national security implications.
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Yet the merger has raised the eyebrows of at least one centrist Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), who noted that Saudi Arabia is looking to take on a bigger role in soccer as well.
“Yeah, it’s a bit of a concern. I’m sort of scratching my head about that,” he said. “I guess CFIUS will look at this, but it gives you a little heartburn.”
