The controversy that has come to define the Saudi-financed breakaway tour at the heart of professional golf’s civil war has redoubled this week as the LIV Golf Invitational Series stages its third event at the Old Course at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, the bucolic New Jersey township 45 miles west of New York City.
The upstart circuit bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has enticed some of the sport’s biggest names, including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau, with exorbitant $25m purses, nine-figure signing-on fees and an assemblage of perks that would be considered too garish for a reality TV show. It has also drawn fierce backlash from critics who accuse the Saudi government of using sports to launder the kingdom’s dismal human rights record, alleged ties to the September 11 attacks, severe repression of women’s and LGBTQ+ rights and the 2018 murder of the dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
