The PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) remain at odds despite announcing a framework agreement in June 2023 to end golf’s professional divide. This ongoing stalemate has now triggered proposed legislation aimed at restricting foreign sovereign wealth funds’ influence in U.S. companies.
Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) released a report Friday from the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations examining PIF’s U.S. activities. The report introduces the Sovereign Wealth Fund Transparency Act, which would “fix loopholes within FARA [the Foreign Agents Registration Act] and provide [the Department of Justice] with additional means to combat foreign influence.”
In his letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Blumenthal wrote, “The Subcommittee’s inquiry has revealed the lengths foreign actors will go in order to avoid basic disclosure and transparency to the American people.”
The investigation began last June focusing on the proposed deal between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf (funded by PIF) that would effectively give Saudi Arabia control over golf in the United States. This quickly expanded into a broader examination of PIF’s growing U.S. investments through four of its primary U.S.-based consultants.
Blumenthal held hearings in July 2023 to examine the framework agreement, its potential impact on men’s professional golf, and PIF’s influence in the deal.
The initial agreement, which ended months of litigation between the two sides, hasn’t produced any real progress toward reuniting professional golf. Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, Tiger Woods and Adam Scott met with PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan at the White House in February, but a deal still seems far off.
Despite these stalled negotiations, Blumenthal is pushing for stronger oversight of potential deals between PIF and U.S. companies.
“Our report reveals how present laws may enable foreign influence without transparency. Very simply, our present defenses do not protect against increasingly sophisticated threats,” Blumenthal said in a statement. “While the Trump administration rolls back deterrents against foreign influence and seeks investments from our adversaries, I am calling on [Bondi] to immediately step up enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and support my Sovereign Wealth Fund Transparency Act.”
