Why the PGA Tour’s Nonprofit Status Is in Focus With LIV Merger

Among the burning questions about professional golf’s shock merger is how the century-old PGA Tour, which is technically a nonprofit, will run once funded by one of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth funds. PGA Tour says it plans to keep its nonprofit status despite a potential infusion of cash from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, backer of its merger partner, LIV Golf. If the deal goes through, the partnership would set the future course of a global game. But exactly how the unusual arrangement would work depends on the exact terms, which are still murky, and whether it passes muster with regulators who have raised antitrust concerns.

US Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who heads the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, opened an inquiry into the merger. In a June 12 letter to Commissioner Jay Monahan, Blumenthal wrote that the PGA Tour’s plan to continue as a nonprofit raises questions about “whether a foreign government may indirectly benefit from provisions in US tax laws meant to promote not-for-profit business associations.”