The Justice Department’s investigation into the PGA now ties in Augusta National and the United States Golf Association.
Key Details
- The Justice Department is looking into the PGA Tour due to its behavior in the ongoing battle with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf league.
- Along with the PGA the Augusta National and the United States Golf Association (USGA) have now been looped into the investigation as well.
- The investigation comes after the PGA Tour indefinitely suspended 17 players who left the tour to play for the controversial LIV team.
Why it’s news
The battle between the well established PGA Tour and the new controversial LIV Golf league has been making headlines for months.
The reason the two are at odds is because LIV is a well-financed startup tour competing with the PGA Tour, which sanctions the bulk of pro golf in the country for more than 100 years. LIV is backed by the Public Invest Fund, led by the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which concerns a large number of people.
LIV was created to compete with the PGA and has pulled many big name golfers away from the PGA with promises of hefty checks—creating tremendous tension in the world of golf.
Many players began to leave the PGA after LIV promised them a huge pay jump to join the tour. When players left the PGA said they would not be able to compete in PGA-sanctioned events regardless if they qualified or not.
That led to PGA investigations and now the Augusta National and the United States Golf Association are being looked into as well. A USGA representative confirmed that it had been contacted by the Department of Justice and said it is complying with all requests.
The reason the two are included is because Augusta National oversees the Masters Tournament and the USGA is the governing body for golf courses and clubs in the U.S. and Mexico and conducts the annual U.S. Open major, according to CNBC writer Jack Stebbins.
