Saudi Fund Has ‘Inconsistent’ Stance on Kingdom Ties, PGA Says

Malathi Nayak, Bloomberg News

RYE, ENGLAND - JANUARY 04: A competitor plays his shot off the 9th tee during day two of the The President's Putter at Rye Golf Club on January 4, 2019 in Rye, England. (Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images) Photographer: Naomi Baker/Getty Images Europe , Photographer: Naomi Baker/Getty Images Europe

(Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which bankrolls LIV Golf, casts its relationship with the oil-rich kingdom to suit its financial interests, but that’s not a good reason for it to be excused from US court proceedings, the PGA Tour Inc. said in an antitrust battle with its rival upstart.

The PGA Tour asked a federal judge in California on Friday to deny the Public Investment Fund’s request to overturn a magistrate’s order directing the fund and its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, to testify under oath and produce documents.

Before PIF acquired English Premier League soccer club Newcastle United in 2021, it gave “legally binding assurances that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not control” the team, the PGA said in a court filing.

“This claim is, of course, the opposite of PIF and Mr. Al-Rumayyan’s position here that ‘PIF is a part of the government of Saudi Arabia,’” the PGA said. “It thus appears that PIF will cast its relationship to the KSA in whatever light is most expedient for its commercial aims,” the US legacy tour said.

A LIV Golf spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the filing.

Attorneys for the $676 billion Saudi fund have argued sovereign immunity shields it from providing evidence in US courts.

US Magistrate Judge Susan Van Keulen concluded in February that PIF was actively involved in LIV’s operations. Such conduct amounts to commercial activities excluded from sovereign immunity protection under US law, Van Keulen ruled.

In challenging Van Keulen’s order, PIF’s attorneys said in a filing last week that the magistrate recognized she is compelling the fund and its governor to violate Saudi law that safeguards confidentiality of certain government documents.

Read More: Saudi Fund Fires Back at Order Letting PGA Question Its Boss

Confidentiality hasn’t always been so sensitive for PIF, the PGA argued in Friday’s filing. It said the fund “voluntarily disclosed documents and information on internal deliberations” when its subsidiary Sakab Saudi Holding Co. accused a “political rival” of financial misconduct in Massachusetts state court. Those documents detailed financial transactions between PIF and the defendant, the US tour said.

The PGA is seeking to gather more material to support its claims that LIV illegally pushed players to breach contracts with the US-based tour by offering them exorbitant sums of money.

The fight between the two tours began when 11 professional golfers, including Phil Mickelson, Talor Gooch and Matt Jones, sued the PGA in August for suspending them after they signed on with LIV. LIV joined the suit a month later, prompting Mickelson, Gooch and others to withdraw from it. LIV claims the PGA is a monopolist seeking to sabotage a competitor in the professional golf industry.

The case is Jones v. PGA Tour Inc., 22-cv-04486, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).