After months of insisting that transmission billions of dollars from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund would compromise the integrity of golf, the venerable PGA Tour reversed course and decided that their morality ultimately paid off.
As first reported by CNBCLIV Golf, the emerging golf tournament backed by a seemingly unspeakable amount of money used to attract a host of famous golfers, has merged with the PGA tournament, thus ending months of legal controversy.
Now that everyone has decided to play nice, the PGA can add its name to many leagues and sports federations that have rubber stamped the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s ongoing sports cleansing efforts: try to obscure or at least distract them history of human rights violations stretching back decades by putting athletes first and center and hoping they’ll be the ones fans associate with Saudi Arabia, not all of their documented crimes.
So while today’s announcement is a shock, this is always the end of the game. Regardless of the noble concerns the PGA showed, they had no chance when confronted, as Tiger Woods put it, “an endless pit of money.”
The royal family of Saudi Arabia has been eyeing opportunities to pave the way for them to play golf. A rival tournament that appeared in 2019 received Supported public investment fund, though they ended up transferring their dollars to LIV. The goal is to model it after a proposed “Super League” in football, using their overwhelming financial advantage and multi-million dollar events to poaching star. The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed their run, but by the winter of 2022 their plans are starting to get noticed, promising that 20 stars will soon announce that they will be joining.
One of them is Phil Mickelson. Winner of six major golf championships who made noise about the “PGA’shateful greed,” struggled to explain why he agreed to taking money from blood.
“They are scary bastards to join. We know they killed [Washington Post reporter Jamal] Khashoggi and have a terrible record on human rights,” Mickelson said. “They executed the people there for being gay. Knowing all this, why am I even considering it?
In response to his own question, Mickelson – who had a net worth of more than $400 million at the time – added: “Because it’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reshape the way businesses operate. PGA Tour.” (Mickelson later apologized for his “reckless” comment.)
The fact that Mickelson accidentally told the truth made other golfers slowly back away. In short, it looks like the fledgling tour will never be successful. By spring, the money was gone. Attractive contracts have been awarded to Mickelson, plus Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, etc. PGA replied to completely lose control of golf’s biggest names by insisting that they still have contracts with the PGA and making it clear that they can’t monetize something north of generational wealth.
That hasn’t stopped LIV employees from participating in the untenable.
LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman, a former golf star, said: “The whole thing has to do with Saudi Arabia, Khashoggi and human rights, let’s talk about it, but let’s also talk about it. good things the country is doing in changing its culture. After all, mistakes were made, right?
“Look, we all make mistakes and you just want to learn from those mistakes and how you can correct them in the future.” (A few days later, a reporter was kick off from a press conference LIV for trying to take out Norman again.)
Before the newly signed Saudi brand ambassadors can tee off in the first LIV event, PGA is banned 17 pros. Until August, one Federal lawsuit has been filed, accusing the PGA of violating antitrust laws. (Of course, today’s news puts an end to all of that. Mickelson tweeted, “Today is a great day,” and ended his post with a smiling emoji.) But Norman’s direct comment got straight to the point of the Saudi royal family. What Ut wants in exchange for their money. And LIV isn’t their only attempt to get athletes involved in a PR campaign.
The public investment fund currently owns a majority stake in English Premier League team Newcastle United plus control of the country big football clubthat suddenly had enough money on hand to provide hundreds of millions in annual contract to Christiano Ronaldo and possibly Lionel Messi, plus $2.3 billion in football sponsorship as of the fall of 2022; even if LIV is still a glimmer in the eyes of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, they have organized major golf tournaments in Europe; The 2023 Women’s World Cup will be sponsor of Saudi Arabia, despite the outcry of human rights organizations; and they’re paying WWE somewhere in the neighborhood 50 million USD for each event held in the country as part of a ten-year agreement. Naturally, former President Donald Trump has clung to LIVtoo, held events at his club in Bedminster and posted angrily about the tour on Truth Social.
All of this spending is part of “Vision 2030,” a brazen, billion-dollar PR campaign to portray Saudi Arabia, and of course, Mohammed bin Salman himself, as leader. a modernized country open to business. Don’t mind all the inappropriate talk about raping a spouse that isn’t against the law, or mass execution and suppress dissent, or oppression and submission of LGBTQ people, or the millions of people living in extreme poverty while the ruling class earns its own riches can make even the most voracious, gluttonous oligarchs blush.
At least one PGA Tour golfer doesn’t like to play ball: Rory McElroy. Although he does not completely condemn the Saudi government, he has repeatedly spoken about the importance of the game and called LIV a “money grab.” McElroy soften your stance in May, but now he also works for LIV, like it or not. So did every other senior expert, some of them, according to ESPNonly knew about the merger on Twitter.
That’s the lesson the PGA offers today: If you keep splashing money, eventually whatever scares the sports world will probably fade, or at least the checks will be big enough. so that the people in charge don’t care. And a country that is murderous and brutal — and yes, incredibly rich — could in fact take full ownership of golf.
