CHICAGO — Rich Harvest Farms, a lush private golf course near Aurora, might not seem like a natural setting for geopolitical intrigue and moral quandaries, but they will arrive as surely as the morning dew when the LIV Golf Invitational Series comes to Illinois in September.
The fledgling rival to the PGA Tour is attracting big names with big money and generating controversy to match. The series, which started Thursday at a course in England, is backed by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, and critics call it a textbook example of “sports washing” intended to gloss over the kingdom’s dismal human rights record.
Some scorn the events and those playing in them. The PGA on Thursday suspended 17 LIV participants from its tour, while USA Today columnist Christine Brennan accused Phil Mickelson, the best-known defector, of “going into business with murderers.”
