The PGA Tour stands as the center of the golf world. Their mission statement is: “Showcasing golf’s greatest players, we engage, inspire, and positively impact our fans, partners and communities worldwide.” It is known for its tournaments, historic legacy, and showcasing the best golfers in the world on the most beautiful courses across the globe. The PGA Tour sits alone from most professional sports leagues as the Tour is a non-profit organization. The Tour’s mission to promote the sport and give back to the surrounding communities goes farther than just the fairways and greens. They operate with a mindset to support and promote golf at all levels of the game. A majority of the PGA’s revenue comes from sponsorships, TV rights, and event proceeds. All of these profits get put back towards charities from youth programs to healthcare enterprises. Assisted by their network of volunteers, the PGA Tour is driven to provide a positive impact to support and grow communities. Every year the PGA Tour raises millions of dollars and all of that money is put back into charity organizations. They have donated over $3.93 billion to support local organizations.
In a recent article from the Washington Post, Molly Hensley-Clancy and Rick Maese write about the PGA Tour’s finances and nonprofit status. The article titled, “The PGA Tour is a nonprofit. With Saudi money, should it be?,” goes into detail about how the tour’s status of being considered a nonprofit organization has been passed through Congress and has survived each time. Being organized as a 501(c)(6), the PGA Tour’s nonprofit designation is “reserved for trade associations, business leagues and chambers of commerce focused on promoting a common interest.” This past year the PGA’s annual revenue rose up to $1.5 billion and in-depth investigations found that the tour has been giving only a tiny amount of the money they have brought in to charity. In June of 2023, the Senate announced two investigations to learn more about the tour’s finances and the House introduced a bill to attempt to take away the PGA”s tax exemption. With the recent rise in the Saudi Golf League, LIV, and the merger between LIV and PGA, questions arose about LIV potentially forcing the PGA to go away from being a nonprofit. In a statement released by the PGA Tour they said that, “nothing contemplated in the framework agreement,” meaning the merger did not affect PGA’s nonprofit status. According to Chris Anderson, a nonprofit tax specialist for Maloney and Novertny, it isn’t uncommon for a nonprofit organization to be aligned with “for-profit ventures,” yet there are so many unanswered questions about what happened with the PGA and LIV merger and what the future will look like.
References:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/06/22/pga-tour-nonprofit-saudi-liv
Max Turndorf 
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