The new Saudi-backed golf league will shower each and every participant and his caddy with lavish lodging and get-togethers subsequent 7 days at the very first LIV Golfing Invitational at the Centurion Club in London, in accordance to a brochure obtained by Telegraph Activity.
The brochure laid out what a person Telegraph source known as “the Tiger Woods procedure” for all competition — absolutely free flights, stays at a 5-star lodge and spa in Hertfordshire, very first-class car assistance and invites to extravagant activities.
Just one these types of occasion is a pink carpet “draft get together” at RD Studios — a lately renovated movie creation facility with 45,000 square toes of studio space and a 36,000 square-foot garden. The party will be hosted by celeb DJ Fats Tony with “cocktails, refreshments and heavy hors d’oeuvres.”
The grandeur extends to the Centurion Club as nicely. Food stuff at the golf training course will reportedly be overseen by English and Michelin-starred restauranteur Jason Atherton and English musical functions such as James Morrison and Craig David will also carry out afterward.
It truly is just a further carrot dangled in front of the golf planet as LIV attempts to lure the major names in the activity to the new Super Golfing League. It really is already enticed 2021 Masters winner Dustin Johnson to spurn the PGA Tour for LIV following he was compensated a described $150 million to contend in the new match, which kicks off on June 9 with a complete prize purse of $25 million.
Who else is competing at LIV?
Johnson is the greatest attract, but he’ll be joined by other folks in the preliminary 42-man or woman field that consists of 2017 Masters winner Sergio Garcia, Talor Gooch, Branden Grace, Martin Kaymer, Chase Koepka, Graeme McDowell, Kevin Na, Louis Oosthuizen, Ian Poulter, Hudson Swafford and Lee Westwood.
The top 5 finishers in the Asian Tour International Collection party at Slaley Hall Resort, Spa and Golfing vacation resort this weekend will sign up for Johnson and the rest of the team at the LIV Invitational.
The Telegraph believes a sixth golfer will also be additional and speculated Phil Mickelson could be a part of just after he withdrew from the PGA Championship in May perhaps next his incendiary responses about the Saudi Arabian federal government and his general public wish to enjoy in the LIV Invitational.
Controversy surrounding LIV
The considerably-maligned Super Golf League has endured its honest share of controversy because its inception in 2019.
First of all, it truly is backed by the Saudi Arabian government’s General public Investment Fund, which invested $2 billion into LIV Golfing to supercharge a rival league to the PGA. The politics of Saudia Arabia are murky at very best and the matter of significantly umbrage during the globe. Mickelson said it best in an excerpt of his new guide:
“They’re frightening motherf***ers to get concerned with. We know they killed [Washington Post reporter and U.S. resident Jamal] Khashoggi and have a terrible file on human legal rights. They execute persons over there for getting homosexual.”
It didn’t assistance that LIV CEO Greg Norman brushed off the Saudi Arabian government’s human legal rights violations as “faults” in an endeavor to de-politicize the league:
“Everybody has owned up to it, proper? It has been spoken about, from what I have go through, going on what you fellas reported. Acquire ownership, no issue what it is. Glance, we have all produced errors and you just want to master from all those problems and how you can correct them likely forward.
“I really do not seem back. I never search into the politics of factors. I’m not going to get into the quagmire of what ever else occurs in somebody else’s earth. I read about it and just retained going on.”
Amnesty International cautioned against golfers becoming a member of a league compensated for by the Saudis as effectively:
“Riyadh’s [the capital city of Saudi Arabia] newfound appreciate of athletics promotion has appear at a time when the Saudi authorities have carried out mass executions, when many human rights defenders have been jailed in the Kingdom and when Saudi missiles are continue to raining down on civilians in Yemen.
“We would urge all golfers tempted to participate in in Saudi-bankrolled tournaments to look at how sportswashing functions and how they may possibly crack its spell by talking out about human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia’s persecuted human rights group will truly feel bitterly upset if effectively-compensated golfing superstars choose the LIV Golf cash but remain silent about what’s occurring in Saudi Arabia.”
LIV’s levels of competition with the PGA Tour has perhaps established an unmendable rift between commissioner Jay Monahan and gamers who left for the new league. The Tour previously denied exceptions for players wanting to compete in both of those LIV and the PGA, and even threatened to revoke Tour playing cards for players who bounce. In a statement received by ESPN, the Tour claimed players who compete in the new league are topic to disciplinary action.
“As communicated to our complete membership on May possibly 10, PGA Tour members have not been authorized to participate in the Saudi Golf League’s London function, beneath PGA Tour Match Rules. Members who violate the Tournament Regulations are subject to disciplinary motion.”
It is really a courageous new environment in the activity of golfing.