Gene Frenette: PGA Tour-LIV topic divide accentuated when drama moves to Senate hearings

If anyone thought the drama over last month’s controversial “framework agreement” between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) would start to diminish, the Senate subcommittee hearings on the subject Tuesday clearly reignited a polarizing topic.

“We’re trying to figure out the right thing to do for our players and the global game of golf,” said PGA Tour Policy board independent director Jimmy Dunne.

With Tour COO Ron Price testifying alongside, Dunne and his colleague sat through nearly three hours of tense questioning by the Subcommittee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs investigating how the Tour-PIF partnership went down. They listened as powerful politicians clearly had differences of opinion over the troublesome nature of an agreement with a Saudi Arabian regime that has a horrific human rights record.

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The proceedings looked no different than any other political divide on Capitol Hill. It wasn’t hard to tell which senators were Tour sympathizers and who came ready to hold the golf conglomerate’s feet to the fire.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) prefaced one question by saying, “I don’t see the PGA Tour doing anything wrong here.” He then proceeded to repeatedly frame preaching-to-the-choir questions to Dunne and Price, making it easier for them to deliver answers that painted the Tour in a positive light.

On the flip side, subcommittee chairman Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) was uber-aggressive in seeking transparency and asked tough questions that had Dunne and Price on the defensive, often triggering answers that didn’t specifically address the issue Blumenthal brought up. When he questioned why the Tour didn’t seek funding alternatives besides the PIF, Blumenthal received vague answers.

At one point, Blumenthal had to keep after Price to get a specific figure on the amount of money the Tour would receive from PIF. Price, who assumed many of the duties of commissioner Jay Monahan during his medical leave, finally relented and said, “north of $1 billion,” a generic number that could mean $1.5 billion or something closer to $7 billion.

The tension in that hearing was palpable and real, often the senators among each other. Johnson was publicly critical of some of his colleagues, especially Blumenthal, for wanting direct answers to the Tour’s motives to partner up with the Saudi-backed entity. Johnson expressed his displeasure of Blumenthal for use of the term “sellout.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) expressed a view that the subcommittee had no business getting involved with the dealings of a private golf entity, then got admonished by Blumenthal for doing so.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) sought assurances from Price that the Tour wouldn’t engage in future endeavors with communist China, and looked visibly disappointed that he didn’t get an unequivocal promise.

On and on, the confrontational air to the proceedings went. Dunne and Price looked relieved to get out of there.

Blumenthal brought up the “feeling of betrayal” that was expressed by golfer Jon Rahm, specifically why the Tour felt compelled to negotiate this partnership in secret. He questioned Price why “not a single [Tour] player” was notified about the agreement.

Blumenthal told Dunne that he hoped the Tour would “frankly avoid the sellout that this deal seems to be. If we’re going to be selling out to countries throwing out hundreds of billions of dollars, we’re going to lose.”

There wasn’t anything terribly revealing about the hearing, other than a PIF/LIV memo proposing Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy lead a LIV Golf team and commit to play in at least 10 events, which will happen when hell freezes over.

Still, it was stunning how some of the nation’s most influential politicians made little effort to show any impartiality.

No matter what the conclusion to the investigation, this deal will always be remembered, first and foremost, for the Tour and Monahan reversing the previous stance on being explicitly critical of LIV. It also leaves many wondering if these two massive entities moving toward a partnership isn’t at least flirting with forming a monopoly, which will be a matter for the Department of Justice.

Clearly, the explosive nature of this arrangement — the Tour boils over if anyone refers to it as a merger — has only just begun. With this now headed for more Senate scrutiny, this story isn’t dying down any time soon.

Titans desperately need Hopkins

As the auction among the Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs, New England Patriots and Tennessee Titans continues for the services of five-time Pro Bowl receiver DeAndre Hopkins, it’s hard not to rank Tennessee No. 1 in one respect: need.

While all four teams could use an extra receiving weapon, the Titans are as devoid of legitimate playmakers at that position as anyone in the NFL. With quarterback Ryan Tannehill about to turn 35, it’s a big ask for him to deliver a consistent, potent offense without any legitimate threat to lighten the load outside of running back Derrick Henry.

If the Jaguars had a choice between Hopkins going to one of three teams they face in 2023 — Buffalo, KC or Tennessee — they should opt for the Titans because it’s hard to imagine their AFC South rival being a bigger threat to their potential playoff seeding than the Bills or Chiefs.

Baseball trivia

Who are the only two players in Major League Baseball history to win the Home Run Derby and league MVP honors in the same year? Answer at the bottom.

Tennessee football catches break

Not that an $8 million fine, 28 scholarship reductions and five years of NCAA probation is a light penalty, but Tennessee's football program has to breathe a little sigh of relief that the punishment handed down Friday for horrific violations under former head coach Jeremy Pruitt didn't include any postseason bowl ban.

The most puzzling aspect of the penalty is this: how does Tennessee commit over 200 violations, including 18 of the most serious Level I variety, be found to have failed to properly monitor the football program, yet avoid being cited for lack of institutional control? That looks and feels like a contradictory finding.

Bear in mind that current coach Josh Heupel and athletic director Danny White were not employed at UT when all this illegality was going on, but they have to be relieved the punishment -- though it will impact recruiting in a big way for a couple years -- didn't end up being worse. The real kicker during all this NCAA rule-breaking under Pruitt is the Volunteers went 16-19 during his three seasons, which is a lousy payoff for rampant cheating.

Pederson golf skills tested

Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson’s 4-handicap will again be tested on a big stage this weekend at the nationally televised American Century Championship, a 54-hole tournament featuring dozens of sports celebrities, actors and others from the entertainment world playing for charity.

Pederson, a former journeyman NFL quarterback, has played a lot of golf in his life, including four previous appearances in the ACC. Under the Stableford scoring system, he has finished 38th (+21 in 2021), 30th (+20 in 2019), 32nd (+31 in 2018) and T49th (+14 in 2017). One Las Vegas bookmaker lists Pederson at 200-1 to win the event — better than over half of the 83-player field — being contested Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Edgewood Tahoe South course in Lake Tahoe.

The last person from the Jaguars to compete in the ACC came in 2018 with ex-quarterback Blake Bortles, who also played the event four times and finished a personal-best 70th in 2017.

Former kicker Josh Scobee finished third behind Mark Mulder and Eric Gagne at the 2015 ACC (Scobee led most of the final round) and mysteriously never got invited back.

Northwestern hazing fiasco

Only Northwestern president Michael Schill knows for certain what prompted him to change his mind and fire football coach Pat Fitzgerald over disturbing hazing allegations in his program, three days after handing down a two-week suspension.

The truth is it doesn’t matter whether Schill had an epiphany or simply bowed to public pressure — there were allegations by former players of forced sexual acts and racism — he came to the right conclusion by changing his mind.

For all of Fitzgerald’s great success as a player and 17 seasons as a head coach (110-101 record), at a difficult place to win, no school can tolerate having a coach that should have known about despicable circumstances within his own program that were common knowledge to others. And if he did know on some level, that makes him doing nothing even worse.

Fitzgerald says he’s prepared to fight legally, either to keep his job or be compensated more if he’s forced to abide by Schill’s decision. Either way, he’s probably going to be a head coach somewhere else again, but this black mark on his record will never go away.

Quick-hitting nuggets

Jaguars’ fans who would like to see the team be the annual subject of HBO’s “Hard Knocks” series should know the records of those teams that season is quite pedestrian. Sixteen teams have agreed to be the subject a total of 20 times and their combined record is 159-174, including 3-7 in the playoffs. They missed the postseason 13 times. …

“Geep” Chryst, the San Francisco 49ers’ offensive coordinator in 2015 and coach for quarterbacks Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick, has been hired as a pro scout by Jaguars general manager Trent Baalke. Chryst, brother of former Pittsburgh and Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst, will be responsible for scouting NFL players, scouting opponents and doing advance work on all college quarterbacks. He was most recently the tight ends coach at Cal. …

Did you see where West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins wants his job back, claiming he never resigned despite the university releasing a letter to the contrary? Huggins forced his own demise with questionable behavior the past two months, from making homophobic remarks about Xavier fans to being arrested for a DUI. His claim through an attorney that he never resigned and deserves to be reinstated is an obvious attempt to obtain a fat settlement. …

I’ll be back on vacation for the week before Jaguars training camp. This column will resume July 26.

Trivia answer

Andre Dawson captured the Home Run Derby and National League MVP honors in 1987. Four years later, Cal Ripken Jr. was the home run champ and AL MVP, in addition to being named MVP of the All-Star game and hitting a home run in the midsummer classic. Ken Griffey Jr. was the AL MVP in 1997, but his Derby-winning years were 1994, ‘98 and ‘99. Barry Bonds’ only Derby victory in 1996 happened in-between his seven MVP years.

Gfrenette@jacksonville.com; (904) 359-4540; Follow him on Twitter @genefrenette 

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: PGA Tour, LIV partnership drama becomes political spectacle in Senate hearing