Tom Watson questions PGA Tour's Saudi partnership in letter - ESPN

LOS ANGELES — Eight-time major champion Tom Watson wants answers on the PGA Tour's new business partnership with Saudi backers of LIV Golf, asking in a letter Monday to Commissioner Jay Monahan 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 and was sent to Monahan, the PGA Tour board and «my fellow players.»

He said the questions were «compounded by the hypocrisy in disregarding the moral issue.»

On the day after Wyndham Clark became the latest major champion by winning the U.S. Open, focus shifted back to an issue that has consumed golf for the last three years. It took a stunning turn June 6 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. A Player Advisory Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday ahead of the Travelers Championship in Connecticut.

Monahan, who stepped away for a «medical situation» on Wednesday, is not expected to attend. Two of his top executives are in charge of the tour's day-to-day operations.

The tour said in the June 6 announcement that Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Public Investment Fund, would be chairman of the new company and Monahan would be the CEO. Two PGA Tour board members, Ed Herlihy and Jimmy Dunne, would join them on the executive committee.

The deal contains assurances the tour would keep a controlling voting interest in the new commercial entity regardless of how much the PIF contributes, according to a person