Spectators’ conversations at the LIV Golf Invitational Series – a new international golf tournament – are almost endless swings† birdies or the clubs of the 48 participants. The ‘revolutionary’ golf format, in which the players are divided into twelve teams, which are on the course simultaneously, does not attract attention either. The astronomical sums and the banishment of a number of golfers from the North American PGA Tour are about to burst.
Trumpeters in Queen’s Guard replica uniforms kicked off this inaugural edition at precisely 2.15pm UK time on the first hole of the Centurion Club in Hertfordshire, just above London. Everything looks like a British event, but that is fake: the tournament is organized by Saudis. The organization claims to ‘holistically’ help the sport of golf, but in practice it looks more like a hostile takeover. Participating golfers, such as Phil Mickelson, have been won over with amounts of up to $200 million.
“We all know why everyone is playing in London this week,” said Rory McIlroy, a top Northern Irish player who – like many of his colleagues – finds it morally and ethically irresponsible to respond to the call from the Middle East. “Trolleyloads of money and paid in advance. If you make a decision purely on the basis of financial gain, things usually go wrong.”
In secret
Previously, McIlroy expressed widespread sentiment about Mickelson, who secretly helped LIV Golf shape this league. Naive, selfish, ignorant and selfish, the Irishman called the six-time winner of a ‘major’, comparable to a tennis grand slam tournament. Mickelson called the Saudis, according to his biographer, “scary motherfuckers‘, but nevertheless went into business with them.
The 51-year-old golfer from California was not referring so much to the oppression of women, the violations of human rights, the bloody war in Yemen and the ban on gay relationships, which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia. Mickelson referred to the murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 within the walls of the Saudi embassy in Istanbul.
According to international security services, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman almost certainly ordered that one of his main detractors be dealt with. Sports and politics intertwine at LIV Golf. The Public Investment Fund (PIF), chaired by Bin Salman, is a major shareholder of the company with offices in the United States and the United Kingdom.
PIF made headlines last year after the acquisition of Newcastle United. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the fund’s public face, heads the English Premier League football club. Mickelson formed an occasional duo with him this week after his presentation in London. He called the massacre of Khashoggi “terrible”, but the former world number one nevertheless grinned with Al-Rumayyan in the picture.
At the Centurion Club, Ari Fleischer watches over the image of LIV Golf. Two decades ago, the American served as the White House press officer under President George W. Bush. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, he defended the decision to invade Iraq and the treatment of detainees in Guantanamo Bay. Now he’s teaching top golfers not to fall into the traps of journalists.
Fleischer’s aversion to Saudi Arabia, fifteen of the perpetrators of ‘9/11’ came from the country, is still on Twitter. The oil state, he wrote on that social media platform, had to realize that it was harboring terrorists within its borders. “That was then,” Fleischer responded. Tournament director Greg Norman answered questions about Khashoggi in similar terms. “Everyone makes mistakes,” said the Australian former top golfer.
Fleischer, by magazine Sports Illustrated described as a ‘specialist in failure’, it is not yet possible to force all participants into a straitjacket. Scotsman Graeme McDowell, who won the US Open in 2010, slipped. He admitted that Saudi Arabia is using him for “sports washing‘, sport as a means of giving a friendly face to a regime with a dubious reputation.
“If the Saudis want to use the Gulf to achieve something and have the financial resources to accelerate that process, then we should be proud to help them along the way,” said McDowell. After the three-day event in England, LIV Golf will head to the US with a prize pool of $ 25 million, where it will visit two golf courses of Donald Trump, among others.
bloodstains
The baptism of fire in Hertfordshire does not give the impression that the switchers are going to swallow the global wave any time soon. Except for a group of Americans, the opening day hardly attracted any true enthusiasts. LIV Golf does not have a TV partner in the UK. Sponsors did not want to burn their fingers on the experiment. And the level was below par, although YouTube’s own commentators did their best to argue otherwise.
†Golf but not as you know it‘, one of the slogans, does not just disappear. The PGA Tour, which has suspended 17 dissident golfers, the European DP World Tour and the biannual Ryder Cup cannot compete with the Saudis’ financial means. The fear of an exodus nevertheless seems premature. Tradition and class, opening day showed, cannot be created artificially. Blood stains are difficult to wash off, as the golfers could read in the British media. They are known as ‘deserters’, not as brave rebels.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of June 10, 2022