The US senate’s congressional listening to on the proposed deal between the PGA Tour and the Saudi PIF, backers of the breakaway LIV Golf League, has shone a dim gentle on simply how little element there’s on the desk on the subject of the long run partnership between the 2 entities.

Representatives of the PGA Tour, together with PGA Tour chief working officer Ron Worth and board member Jimmy Dunne, have been sworn into the listening to on Tuesday, and confronted a number of hours of grilling from senators from each side of the home in regards to the extent of the deal between the PGA Tour and the Saudi PIF which was first introduced on June 6.

Of the few particulars to emerge from the questioning, one of many predominant understandings was that the deal just isn’t a merger, as was advised within the preliminary announcement, and that LIV Golf won’t be subsumed into the PGA Tour or the opposite means round, and that the Saudi PIF will put money into the brand new for-profit entity as a minority investor by sponsorship and prize funds.

When requested what the extent of the connection between PGA Tour and the Saudi PIF, Dunne, the PGA Tour coverage board member who helped dealer the association, stated: “There isn’t a merger. There isn’t a deal. There may be merely an settlement to attempt to get to an settlement and settle lawsuits.”

In response to Senator Richard Blumenthal’s query in regards to the complete worth of the monetary backing, PGA Tour COO Ron Worth stated the funding shall be “important…north of $1 billion.”

It’s nonetheless not clear for the way lengthy the LIV Golf League will proceed in its present kind, though it’s thought that the 2024 schedule of 14 occasions will go forward, though particulars on that stay sketchy.

What is obvious, nevertheless, is that Greg Norman, LIV Golf’s controversial commissioner, is seen as being surplus to necessities, with the PGA Tour insisting in a few of its early talks with the PIF that the Australian ought to be dropped on the earliest alternative. Talking on the listening to, Dunne stated “we’d not have a requirement for that kind of place” in direct reference to Norman’s function.

The Congressional sub-committee listening to has no powers to stop the Saudi funding within the PGA Tour from going down or from stopping the proposed partnership from going by.