“I know I shot 65, but I left a lot of shots out there.”
Charley Hull returned to action in Malaysia after a month off and finished in style. The popular English player closed with a bogey-free 65 at the Maybank Championship on the strength of a back-nine 30. Hull made four consecutive birdies on Sunday over Nos. 11-14 at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club.
“I know I shot 65, but I left a lot of shots out there,” said Hull, “especially on my back nine; missed few putts.”
Hull has enjoyed a strong stretch since she slipped in the shower and injured her right shoulder in July. In her last five starts on the LPGA, she hasn’t finished outside the top 20. Not to mention the 6-and-4 drumming of Nelly Korda in Sunday singles at the Solheim Cup.
After a T-19 at the Kroger Queen City in September, Hull headed back to England to recharge.
“I just love being at home,” said the 28-year-old. “I love being with my boyfriend. I just love England. I seriously love England. When I come away I get really homesick, so I’m so excited to go home. I’m in Saudi next week and then I’m home for a week.”
Charley Hull of England smokes on the 9th hole during the second round of the Maybank Championship 2024 at Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club on October 25, 2024 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Photo by Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty Images)
Hull, who became a Golf Saudi ambassador this year, will compete at Riyadh Golf Club in Saudi Arabia Oct. 31-Nov. 2 in the conclusion of the Aramco Team Series presented by PIF on the Ladies European Tour.
From there, she’ll head back to England for a week off before coming to the U.S. for the last two events in Florida.
“I like the Tour Championship,” said Hull of the CME Group Tour Championship Naples, which she won in 2016. “Obviously I like the golf course the week before as well (The Annika’s Pelican Golf Club in Belleair).
“I’m excited to be on that plane home to spend Christmas at home.”
Golf’s future still holds more questions than answers.
Last November, LET players met at the tour’s season-ending event to vote on a potential merge with the LPGA. Soon after gathering in Spain, however, leadership said there would be no vote. The LET Board adjourned the meeting without explanation.
Earlier this month, LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan sent a letter to players that shined a bit of light on what happened. In the letter, obtained by Golfweek, Marcoux Samaan confirmed that Golf Saudi submitted a last-minute request for further information on the proposed operating model of the tour following any potential transaction.
“As a significant partner of the LET,” Marcoux Samaan wrote, “Golf Saudi wanted to ensure that they fully understood any risks, implications, and opportunities for the Aramco Saudi Ladies International and Aramco Team Series before finalizing their commitment to the events in 2024.”
The loss of Aramco would be devastating to the LET given that its $10 million in prize funds account for nearly one-third of the tour’s combined purse.
Of course, this was no last-minute vote. In fact, a vote on a merger between the two tours was expected to happen in late 2022. The vote kept getting pushed back as the two tours continued to work on terms.
As part of the merger, the top four LET players at the end of the 2024 season would receive LPGA cards for 2025. At a player meeting on Tuesday at the LPGA Drive On Championship, Golfweek has learned that the commissioner confirmed that there would be no cards available for the LET next year.
The commissioner’s letter went on to describe discussions with Golf Saudi as “constructive and collaborative,” noting the presence of the five Aramco Team Series events on the 2024 schedule, each with $1 million purses, as well as the $5 million Aramco Saudi Ladies International next month.
Nelly Korda poses with the trophy after winning the Individual title at the 2023 Aramco Team Series presented by PIF – London. (Photo: LET)
Golf Saudi’s plans in the women’s golf space beyond its current presence on the LET remain uncertain, but its power to stop a merger vote is quite clear.
With the vote now postponed indefinitely, Marcoux Samaan told players the two tours have decided to focus on maximizing their joint venture partnership, which first came together in November 2019 under the leadership of former LPGA commissioner Mike Whan and has two years left on the contract.
What’s still squarely in the middle of all of this, of course, are the question marks that surround doing business with the Saudis. The Aramco events remain controversial given the wide-ranging human rights abuses Saudi Arabia has been accused of, especially toward women.
As it currently stands, the LPGA can somewhat distance itself from Aramco while being part of an alliance. But should the LET fall completely under the umbrella of the LPGA, some observers question if existing and future LPGA sponsors might choose to distance themselves from the LPGA because of Aramco’s large presence. And, if so, how many?
On the other hand, LET players might wonder how much the LPGA could hold them back from bigger purses at Aramco events. Could the PIF pump so much money into the LET that it one day becomes the LPGA’s rival?
The flip side to that, of course, is that the LET becomes so dependent on Saudi money that it couldn’t survive without it. And there’s no telling how long the Saudis will want to remain so heavily invested in women’s golf.
And what if Aramco events eventually find their way onto the LPGA’s official schedule?
Golf’s future still holds more questions than answers.
The PGA Tour’s WM Phoenix Open is known for its par-3 16th stadium hole, “The Coliseum.” The Zurich Classic of New Orleans has featured first tee walk-up music for its two-man teams in the past (though this year will be a little different with a DJ instead).
When the LIV Golf League returns to action Friday at the Grange Golf Club in Adelaide, South Australia, it will be borrowing both ideas from their competitors across the professional golf aisle.
LIV Golf’s party hole – named the Watering Hole – will feature a handful of bars around the stadium build-out at the Grange’s par-3 12th hole, as well as a live DJ. Players will also have walk-out songs when they step on the tee.
“I’m excited to see the hole. Listen, I’m always loved playing Phoenix. I always thought having like an amphitheater type crowd around a hole has always been pretty special, and I guess I’ve had some success at Phoenix, too. Who knows, maybe this week,” said Brooks Koepka, who ironically chose Meek Mill’s “Dreams and Nightmares” for his song, an apt description of his runner-up week at the Masters earlier this month.
Aerial views of the Watering Hole… hole 12 at The Grange.
“I just love it. I love when the fans get a little rowdy. They’re screaming, they’re booing you when you hit a bad shot and cheering you on when you hit a good one. It’s going to make that hole exciting,” Koepka continued. “I think it should bring a different atmosphere, which will be cool, and like (Dustin Johnson) said, it’ll be most fans we’ve had so far, so it’s exciting.”
LIV officials have capped tickets in the past, but that won’t be the case this week. The upstart circuit led by Greg Norman and financially backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is expecting 60,000 fans on site in Adelaide. The league loves to tout its “Golf But Louder” slogan, and its first event in Australia will be the prime example of how LIV wants its tournaments to look.
“I think, yeah, the atmosphere is going to be great,” added Johnson, who hasn’t picked a song just yet. “I mean, with the amount of fans that will be out every day, I think it’s going to be an awesome atmosphere, and as golfers we love playing in front of as many people as come out and watch. The more people, the better.”
LIV Golf is holding just its fourth event of the new season and 12th overall since shaking up the pro golf scene last summer. After dominating headlines for most of 2022, the momentum has stalled in 2023 due to a quiet offseason and mediocre list of new signings, not to mention the pair of recent legal blows in both the United Kingdom and United States.
That said, three LIV players finished in the top six at the Masters, and if the Phoenix Open is any indication, the Watering Hole and atmosphere in Adelaide should be fun for the Aussie fans and those who watch.
This week, LIV has a chance to gain some, not all, of that momentum back.
Augusta National Golf Club was pleased to display a photo of its Masters Champions Dinner on Tuesday. Others were too.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Augusta National Golf Club was very pleased to display a photo of its Masters Champions Dinner Tuesday night on social media for all the world to see. Thirty-four men in green jackets, decades worth of Masters champions surrounding club chairman Fred Ridley, all of them smiling for the camera enjoying a celebration of the most famous brotherhood in golf.
You know who else was especially thrilled to see that photo spreading across the globe?
Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, the mastermind of the killing and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, as well as his golf-bro buddies in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the nation responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States nearly 22 years ago and the abysmal human rights violations against women and the LGBTQ community in particular to this day.
Six men who left the world of real golf tournaments to go into business with bin Salman and the Saudis in exhibition-style LIV Golf were conspicuously present in that photo: Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed and Charl Schwartzel. They were interspersed with golfers they have been fighting and arguing with for months, if not face to face, certainly in interviews, on social media and in the occasional legal document.
But all apparently is forgiven now. This was a picture of happiness, of harmony, of guys who all appeared to be friends again. This was Augusta National, the public face of golf, the best-known club on earth, welcoming bin Salman’s boys with open arms.
It also was a picture of something else: Sportswashing. That photo is the textbook definition of the word. By allowing the six Masters champions who escaped to LIV, and the 12 other LIV golfers who met the qualifications to be in the 88-player field, Augusta National has done something both historic and repulsive: it is legitimizing, even dignifying, LIV Golf.
In one photo, it has given the Saudis and LIV Golf much more than they ever could have hoped for when they set off to careen through the staid game of golf. It has not only given LIV Golf a publicity shot for the ages. It has given the silly, no-cut circuit an undeniable sign of respect.
I asked Ridley about this Wednesday morning at his annual press conference. My question: “Back in December you used the words, “Regrettably … diminishing the virtues of the game and the meaningful legacies of those who built it,” and you said you were “disappointed,” presumably because of the golfers who left their jobs and went into business with the Saudis responsible for 9/11, the murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi and terrible, abysmal human rights violations.
“So now they are here, obviously. You have 18 here. The picture last night was six of them (at the Champions Dinner). Are you at all concerned that you are actually helping the Saudis sportswash because of their joy in seeing a picture like that last night? Are you helping them actually sportswash their reputation?”
Ridley’s reply: “Let me go back – let me go back to our statement – that was a long question, Christine, but I’ll try to start from the beginning.
Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Tournament Fred Ridley speaks to members of the media in a pre-event press conference ahead of a practice round at Augusta National Golf Club, Wednesday, April 5, 2023.
“Our statement in December, and particularly the comment that these actions had diminished the virtues of the game, I want to make a couple points. The first is I know many of these players who are no longer on the PGA Tour. Some of them I would consider friends. So anything I might say is not a comment, a personal comment, against their character or anything else.
“What I was trying to point out, and I alluded to it in my comments, the platform that these players have built their careers on were based on the blood, sweat and tears of their predecessors, people like Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Tiger Woods.
“I had the privilege of being a member, a partner in a law firm that’s 180 years old, and we exist today because of many generations of lawyers who thought it was important to leave our organization better than they found it. So this is just my personal opinion. Doesn’t mean that everyone has to think this way.
“So my comment in December was really more that I was expressing some disappointment that these players were taking the platform that had been given to them – that they rightly had earned success on, by the way – and moving to another opportunity, perhaps not thinking about who might come behind them.
“As relates to your comment about sportswashing, I certainly have a general understanding of the term. I think, you know, it’s for others to decide exactly what that means. These were personal decisions of these players, which I, you know, at a high level, don’t necessarily agree with, but it really wasn’t intended to go beyond that.”
Terry Strada, the national chair of 9/11 Families United whose husband Tom was killed in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, was watching Ridley’s press conference from her Florida home after appearing at a press conference of her own Tuesday in Atlanta to protest Ridley’s decision to allow LIV golfers into the first men’s major tournament of the year. Strada and Ridley also had a private conversation on the phone Monday, Strada said.
“What Mr. Ridley fails to understand is his actions cause real pain to real people,” Strada said Wednesday afternoon in a text message. “By insinuating there is no issue with the Saudi-backed sportswashing entity because the boys are all partying together is disingenuous.
“Last week, I wrote a letter to him highlighting why it is problematic for the 9/11 community to give the Saudis and LIV Golf an international platform and certainly expected he would acknowledge the issue and not pretend it doesn’t exist. On Monday, we had a candid conversation on the phone on the Saudis’ goal of sportswashing. Then, today in his press conference, he completely dismissed the 9/11 community’s position by acting like, hey, if they’re all having fun, I’ve done nothing wrong by having them here.”
In the last year, the Saudis have spent hundreds of millions of dollars, perhaps as much as $1 billion, to buy golfers who they hoped would help the world forget all about their atrocities. It looks like they got their money’s worth with one simple, iconic photo at Augusta National.
It’s a feast of sniping and griping, but the Player spectacle is veering toward undignified.
Gary Player has enjoyed his share of MVP moments at the Masters – you may even have heard him mention them on occasion – but his most welcome contribution might come Tuesday evening, when the garrulous 87-year-old can be relied upon to fill any awkward silences at the Champions Dinner, which is likely to include six LIV Golf players but even more of their critics.
What the Most Voluble Player will actually say is another matter. He’s outspoken on every topic, from distance to despots, several of whom have hired him over the years and one of whom still lists Player as an ambassador for the Golf Saudi sportswashing front, despite the nine-time major winner’s sometimes harsh words on LIV. Alternatively, the old legend might elaborate on his recent comments about how unwelcome he feels at Augusta National and how he is reduced to beseeching members if he wants to bring a foursome to a private club that he’s not a member of.
“After all I’ve contributed to the tournament and been an ambassador for them, I can’t go and have a practice round there with my three grandchildren without having to beg a member to play with us,” he said to the Times of London. “And there’s always some excuse. It’s terribly, terribly sad.”
“I helped make this tournament what it is,” he added, with customary humility. Player apparently doesn’t think the tournament is all that, even with his contributions. In another salvo, he ranked the Masters fourth among majors (a defensible position, but one unlikely to make green jackets more receptive to his hosting requests).
Player’s grumbling won’t surprise Augusta National’s evasive members, who are presumably weary of lectures about everything from their improper weight to his pristine bowel movements. He is well-known as an insufferable braggart whose ceaseless self-promotion makes Donald Trump appear downright modest by comparison. To borrow Jimmy Breslin’s rapier twist on Rudolph Giuliani, Player is a small man in search of a balcony.
While he is the most persistent bellyacher rolling down Magnolia Lane this week, he is not the only one.
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Bryson DeChambeau has bemoaned Tiger Woods cutting off contact since the pseudoscientist decamped to LIV, not even acknowledging a birthday text message. Bubba Watson insisted there’s no bad blood between players and that any suggestion of such is media mischief, ignoring the fact that LIV has been scattering subpoenas like confetti at one of Greg Norman’s weddings. Joaquin Niemann clearly wasn’t cc’d on Bubba’s memo. He said LIV guys are motivated to perform because of the “hate” directed toward them by other players, a comment that illustrates how quickly the rot sets in when a man orbits Sergio Garcia.
It’s a feast of sniping and griping, but the Player spectacle is veering toward undignified.
Since the blush of youth, he has been determined to write his own obituary, his every breath spent extolling his own virtues. It’s a trait that can amuse some, but surely tests the forbearance of others.
While his contemporaries Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus were welcomed as fully-fledged members at Augusta National, Player remains an honorary member, a status conferred on all past Masters champions. If the club was hesitant to extend full privileges to a three-time winner, events have justified the caution.
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Two years ago, his shiftless son Wayne sullied a first-tee tribute to Lee Elder, positioning a sleeve of golf balls he was pimping at just head height behind the wheelchair-bound honoree, right in the camera line. A couple years prior he was embroiled in an escapade over the selling of Masters access. Wayne is now unwelcome at the club, an exclusion that even the most ardent advocate for inclusion can cheer.
The son’s antics would have caused many a father to stay home for the shame of it. This father has many attributes—not least his commendable charity work—but a sense of shame isn’t among them. Both his life story and career record show Player is a man not easily deterred, while his words show one not easily embarrassed. How else to explain the mix of narcissism and petulance underpinning his crack that Augusta National would be “just another golf course in Georgia” without guys like him?
It’s quite possible Player will be contrite by the time he takes the dais with Nicklaus and Tom Watson for a Thursday morning press conference after the ceremonial tee shots, waxing lyrical about what the tournament, the club and its members mean to him, and how honored he is to be involved. It’s also possible that he might double down. Such are the risks inherent when the Masters venerates past champions, a peril not just confined to Tuesday’s private dinner. It must make some in officialdom wonder how long the tournament should continue platforming a man seemingly unable to filter his grievances, real or imagined.
If Player is being truthful—there’s no reason to think he isn’t—and really doesn’t feel welcome at Augusta National, there is an obvious solution. Lee Trevino felt similarly for many years. He stays home, and sometimes did so even in his competitive prime. But then, there’s neither a microphone nor an audience posted by the barcalounger at Player’s home, and one suspects the wounded old lion would see that as an even more intolerable situation.
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Past champs include Dustin Johnson, Graeme McDowell and Harold Varner, all part of LIV Golf.
World No. 3 Cameron Smith will highlight the field for the fifth playing of the PIF Saudi International next month in the Kingdom.
Smith is set to join defending champion Harold Varner III and the top-30 ranked players on the Asian Tour at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City, Feb. 2-5, with more players to be confirmed in the coming weeks.
“It’s always good to play in a world-class field, I am looking forward to taking on some familiar faces and also competing with the best that the Asian Tour has to offer,” said Smith via a release. The event offers a $5 million purse and is sponsored by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund as well as SoftBank Investment Advisers, a growth equity firm.
Past champions of the Golf Saudi event include Dustin Johnson, Graeme McDowell and Varner, three players who have all joined LIV Golf.
The event will be the same week as the PGA Tour’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
The Aramco events are not official LPGA events, but the LPGA did enter into a joint venture with the LET in 2019.
Lexi Thompson won for the first time in three years at the Aramco Team Series event at Trump Golf Links Ferry Point. The victory certainly meant plenty to Thompson, who last won at the 2019 ShopRite LPGA Classic and has suffered a number of heartbreaking losses.
But what does it mean for the LPGA?
It’s a complex question.
There are six events on the Ladies European Tour schedule that are sponsored by Golf Saudi and the Public Investment Fund (PIF). The Aramco Team Series and it’s $1 million purses have no doubt added a significant amount of money to the LET schedule, where it’s tough to make a living. Only 29 players have made over 100,000 euros so far this season, and that’s without travel costs and other team/caddie expenses.
The Aramco events are not official LPGA events, but the LPGA did enter into a joint venture with the LET in 2019.
From a financial standpoint, it’s lucrative for LPGA players to compete in Aramco events, even if the purses are smaller than those on the LPGA. Organizers offer appearance fees to LPGA players, a rare occurrence in the women’s game. The events also carry world ranking points.
Several of the top stars who competed in the Aramco event in New York did not compete in the LPGA event that preceded it in California, nor will they be in the field at this week’s BMW Ladies Championship in South Korea or two weeks later in Japan.
It’s worth noting that with the Taiwan event gone from the schedule, there’s a week off between the events in South Korea and Japan, making it a tough Asian swing.
Still, some of the big names at Aramco won’t be playing on the LPGA again until the Pelican Women’s Championship in mid-November. That’s a six-week break from the LPGA.
LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman has made it clear that they’re interested in a women’s tour. LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan has said that she will meet with LIV. What comes of those conversations remains unknown, but it’s clear from the field in New York – and many previous Aramco fields – that LPGA stars are comfortable taking money from Saudi Arabia. In some cases, they’re comfortable enough to wear the Aramco and Golf Saudi logos.
Last week at Ferry Point, Lexi Thompson was asked during a press conference if, given the backlash that has occurred with LIV Golf, LET and LPGA players should face similar scrutiny, especially given Saudi Arabia’s history of human rights abuses toward women.
“I would say that without the support of Aramco, LET would not be as strong as it is today,” said Thompson. “And I think they are growing the game of golf in women’s golf, and I think that if you speak to any of the Ladies European Tour players, they are extremely grateful for this opportunity, and I think that’s what Aramco is trying to do. They are trying to grow the women’s game, and I support that fully.”
LPGA and LET players who are sponsored by Golf Saudi pose for a photo ahead of the New York event.
Both Thompson and Korda were also asked for their thoughts on becoming involved with LIV, should the opportunity present itself.
“I can only speak for myself, but my eyes are set on the LPGA,” said Korda. “That’s all speculation to me. I’m focusing on the LPGA Tour and what’s in front of me and with all the LIV stuff going on, that’s all speculation and I don’t focus on speculations.”
Added Thompson: “Exactly. All we are doing is focusing on the LPGA tour and what we are playing. No opportunities have been brought upon us or the tour, so I know Mollie said that she would have conversations, but that’s not in our control. We are just doing what we can on our tour.”
An open letter to the @LPGA Commissioner, Board of Directors, and Players — pleading them not to embolden MBS by potentially aligning with LIV Golf.
— Lina Alhathloul لينا الهذلول (@LinaAlhathloul) October 11, 2022
Prior to the start of the Aramco event in New York, activist Lina Alhathloul posted an open letter to the LPGA commissioner, board of directors and players, urging them to distance themselves from the Saudi regime.
In the letter, Alhathloul described the abuse her sister, Loujain, a prominent activist in Saudi Arabia, has faced – being kidnapped off the streets and deported back to Saudi Arabia where she was held in prison and tortured.
“Now, I understand that you might believe that your involvement with such a country could positively impact their fate, but given the present context,” Alhathloul wrote, “your participation in events hosted by the Crown Prince will only help rehabilitate him and cover up all the violations. In fact, I am sounding the alarm on the consequences of such events, which form part of the authorities’ strategy to use art, culture and sports to distract from the dire human rights situation on the ground.”
