It’s a very special golf tournament being held in England this week. The LIV Golf Invitational Series looks like a revolution in one of the oldest professional sports. The event is the first financed by Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund. With its gigantic financial reserves, it seeks to develop a competitive league of the powerful PGA Tour in the United States, explains ESPN.
But this fund is controlled by Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a man whom Washington considers to be the sponsor of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. This link makes the LIV controversial. The sums at stake, however, allowed its leaders to seduce Bryson DeChambeau, winner of the US Open 2020 on Friday June 10. He joins a list of former Major winners, including Phil Mickelson, Dusin Johnson, Martin Kaymer, Sergio Garcia or again Graeme McDowell and Louis Oosthuizen. Beyond the financial gains to come, the players highlight the different formats of the tournaments, which are shorter.
The PGA Tour has decided to suspend all 17 athletes entered into the tournament, reports CNBC. But the American circuit, launched in 1929, “is in real danger”warns CBS Sports. “When your annual income is $1.5 billion and your rival has 400 times the war chest, no logistical change will allow you to keep all your players,”
The first LIV tournament in the United States is scheduled from June 30 to July 2 in Portland, Oregon.