LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman has announced that he will visit Capitol Hill this week to speak with lawmakers from both parties about his new league, its connections to Saudi Arabia, and its accusations that the PGA Tour is acting like an illegal monopoly over the world of golf.
“LIV Golf is coming to the Hill this week to meet with lawmakers from both parties,” LIV Golf spokesperson Jonathan Grella told ESPN. “Given the PGA Tour’s attempts to stifle our progress in reimagining the game, we think it’s imperative to educate members on LIV’s business model and counter the Tour’s anti-competitive efforts.”
Norman and LIV have accused the PGA Tour of illegally preventing the Official World Golf Ranking from including LIV golfers in its rankings of the world’s best golfers. PGA Tour chief Jay Monahan is a member of the board of the golf ranking organization.
LIV is suing the PGA in an antitrust lawsuit saying that the tour illegally suspended players who jumped ship and joined LIV’s first tournament season. LIV also accuses the Tour of pressuring golf vendors, agents, and sponsors to shun LIV.
The Department of Justice has also opened an investigation into the actions of the PGA Tour to determine if the league has acted like an illegal monopoly.
Norman noted he was willing to talk with Monahan and the PGA at one time, but that is no more. As he told ESPN, “We have no interest in sitting down with them, to be honest with you, because our product is working.”
LIV has taken criticism for taking backing from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund due to the Arabic country’s spotty human rights record. Norman will also presumably take questions on those ties in his visit to Washington, DC.
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