Tom Watson wants answers on the PGA Tour’s new business partnership with the Saudi backers of LIV Golf. The eight-time major champion asked the PGA Tour commissioner, Jay Monahan, in a letter on Monday if the deal was the only way to solve the tour’s financial hardship.
That was one of several questions posed by Watson in the letter, which was obtained by the Associated Press. It was sent to Monahan, the PGA Tour board and “my fellow players.” Watson said the questions were “compounded by the hypocrisy in disregarding the moral issue.” On the day after Wyndham Clark won the US Open, focus shifted back to an issue that has consumed golf for the last three years.
It took a stunning turn on 6 June when the PGA Tour announced it had joined with Saudi Arabia’s national wealth fund and the European Tour to put commercial businesses under one roof.
Monahan has referred to it as a “framework agreement” and he had few answers for players in a meeting two weeks ago at the Canadian Open.