David Walsh: Saudi riches are in EPL and F1, so why should they be off limits to golf?

Alas, a bad run of form since the start of the season has meant that the player has dropped in the rankings, and as the Scandinavian tournament involves only 78 men and 78 women, it is unlikely that he will get in. There is though, now, another option. Last month the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf announced the dates and venues for eight tournaments it will stage around the world this year.

On the weekend of the Scandinavian Mixed — June 9 to 11 — the first LIV tournament will take place at the Centurion Club in St Albans, north of London. It offers a prize fund of $US25 million. Only 48 players will be invited to play in a 54-hole tournament and, with no cut, the winner will receive $US4 million, and the man who finishes last $US120,000.

Fearing he won’t get into the Scandinavian Mixed, the player thinks there is a chance that with his profile he may receive an invitation to play the LIV event. Keith Pelley, the chief executive of the European Tour, doesn’t think he should play in the $25 million tournament but should instead see the bigger picture and be mindful of the ethical implications of committing to any LIV event. Pelley hopes that none of his players accepts the LIV invitation.

At the beginning of this year the European Tour was rebranded as the DP World Tour after the Dubai-based logistics company agreed to invest tens of millions of pounds into the game. DP World also owns P&O Ferries, the company criticised by government and opposition leaders after controversially sacking 800 workers last month. It could be said that DP World’s huge investment in European golf is another form of sportswashing — the practice of countries and corporations using sport to enhance their reputations.

The part that makes no sense to the player is that even though he is legally considered to be an independent contractor, he is not entirely free to play wherever he wishes. Though he would accept the LIV invitation only if he did not get into the Scandinavian Mixed, there is pressure on him to steer clear of lucrative LIV tournaments. From the grapevine, he hears that if he applies for permission to play at the Centurion Club, the DP World Tour would not grant it.

If he just goes ahead and plays in the LIV tournament, he may be banned and would almost certainly be fined. Equally certain is that he would be criticised by some golf fans for lending support to an event bankrolled by Saudi Arabia.

He knows about the brutal murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi by agents of the state and the country’s lamentable human rights record. But Formula One goes there, the world’s richest horse race takes place there, the Premier League has allowed one of its clubs to be bought by a Saudi-backed group, Britain continues to trade with Saudi Arabia and last month the prime minister travelled there to talk with Saudi authorities about oil. Golf is just one more entity that does business with the Saudis.

The player knows the feeling among European pros. They are interested in the LIV events, and many who receive invitations to the Centurion Club will accept. There will be some high-profile players involved: most likely Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Adam Scott, Sergio García and Graeme McDowell.

According to the LIV Golf chief executive, Greg Norman, 15 players from the world’s top 100 will play at the Centurion Club. The rest of the field will be made up of mostly high-ranking players from the DP World Tour. From where LIV Golf is standing, this is not a bad start. From where the rest of us stand, this is the start of a new world. An injection of $US255m in eight new tournaments was always going to be transformative.

Despite pledges of loyalty to the PGA Tour by a number of the world’s best players during the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club in February, it would be wrong to believe that Mickelson was the only one with concerns. Though he is now the pariah, his misgivings about the PGA Tour’s regulation of the game are shared by many players.

“Compared to golf,” Mickelson told an interviewer last year, “football, baseball and basketball have roughly 55 per cent of their revenues going to the players. On the PGA Tour, we have 26 per cent. We don’t have a vehicle to make sure the top players get taken care of. For example, we don’t own our media rights at all, so anything that is shot at a tournament, the PGA Tour puts it up on its website and makes millions off it.

“I don’t know what’s going to become of [the Saudi plan] but the competition is going to be good for the best players. For the first time the top players are being valued by the PGA Tour.”

The key collision between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour is likely to come about over the second LIV tournament, which takes place in Portland, Oregon, at the end of June. This clashes with the John Deere Classic in Illinois and the Horizon Irish Open at Mount Juliet. The John Deere has a $US7 million purse, the Irish Open $US6 million. They will be up against a tournament offering $US25 million in prize money.

Some members of the PGA Tour are likely to apply for releases to play in Portland and it is certain their requests will be denied. The PGA Tour believes it is entitled to ban any of its members who play the LIV tournament in Oregon under a clause in its agreement with the players, which says PGA Tour members are not permitted to play an event in North America organised by a rival tour.

The PGA Tour commissioner, Jay Monahan, is confident that it can ban players who play in Portland. Norman gently disagrees, insisting his lawyers are of the view that as independent contractors, pro golfers should be free to choose to play wherever they want, provided they fulfil their 15-event commitment to the PGA Tour.

There is a strong possibility that Norman is right. There are also indications that Mickelson intends to play all eight LIV tournaments and any attempt to expel him from the PGA Tour is likely to result in a lawsuit. Given the events of the past two months, it is not like Mickelson has much to lose. As for Norman and LIV Golf, they would relish the chance to take on the PGA Tour in court.

The elite players, who were critical of Mickelson’s courting of the Saudis and who pledged their allegiance to the PGA Tour, would benefit significantly from a court ruling that established their right to play wherever they liked. “These tournaments are going to happen, whether people like it or not,” the European Tour pro Matt Southgate said. The irony is that many of Southgate’s peers will like it, as the LIV tournaments are bringing so much money into the game: $US255 million spread over eight tournaments this year. Norman says this is just the beginning, and believes there will be ten tournaments in 2023, 12 in 2024, 14 in 2025.

“We’re here for the long term. We’re not going away,” he says.

– The Sunday Times