Report: LIV Golf’s Chief Operating Officer Atul Khosla resigns from Saudi-backed circuit

Khosla leaves the Saudi-backed circuit without one of its most experienced sports executives.

Atul Khosla, LIV Golf’s Chief Operating Officer, has stepped down from his post, according to The New York Times, leaving the Saudi-backed circuit without one of its most experienced sports executives.

Despite the ever-looming presence of Greg Norman as the league’s face and voice, Khosla was believed to be the man to lead the breakaway organization toward legitimacy in the sports world.

Before he served as LIV’s COO, Khosla was the chief corporate development and brand officer for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

“I look forward to being a part of the LIV Golf Investments team to help bring this vision to life and transform the game into an international sport,” Khosla said in a release after his hiring.

Norman had this to say about Khosla last December: “The strategic experience Atul brings from his recent leadership positions at a major sports franchise will enable us to execute on our vision of holistically improving and elevating the game of golf around the world. His appointment is yet another example of our dedication to bringing best-in-class talent to help us deliver our mission of growing the game of golf.”

According to the Times, players and agents were alerted of the change days ago.

Golfweek reached out to LIV Golf representatives for comment but has yet to get a response.

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Can LIV Golf sustain itself without luring bigger, bolder names? Financial documents suggest it’s not likely

The Saudi sovereign wealth fund will continue to plow frightening sums into a league that it isn’t competitively or commercially valid

A recent New York Times report on confidential documents relating to a LIV Golf blueprint devised by a consultancy firm shed some intriguing light on the Saudi Arabian quest to build a profitable, robust breakaway league.

To the casual observer, the LIV business model would appear about as sustainable as the strategic thinking behind an inflatable dartboard.

Let’s face it, anyone offering Pat Perez $10 million to sign up must be off their gold-plated trolley. The sifting of said documents led to the conclusion by the New York Times that the “benchmarks for success bordered on the fantastical.”

In order to be successful, a new league would need to sign “each of the world’s top 12 golfers, attract sponsors to an unproven product and land television deals for a sport with a declining viewership all without significant retaliation from the PGA Tour it would be plundering.”

While LIV and its bottomless pit of cash has attracted a number of marquee names – the snaring of Open champion Cameron Smith was a major coup – it’s quite clear that the series falls short on all the criteria laid out above despite its rapid ascent to prominence in 2022.

Even folk with scant knowledge of this whole saga could’ve told you that in order for such a bold rebellion to have a chance of long-term legitimacy, it would’ve needed the two biggest draws in golf – Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy – to jump on the gravy train.

That duo, of course, declared from the outset that it wouldn’t touch LIV with the entire barge let alone the bargepole. Even though Woods was reportedly offered around $800 million to join, the multiple major champion was not for deserting and, along with McIlroy, has become one of the most vigorous anti-LIV voices.

Interestingly, the consultancy firm’s plan — named ‘Project Wedge’ — also outlined possible eventualities for the LIV Golf series. In its most successful prediction, LIV would have projected revenue of at least $1.4 billion a year in 2028. On the other side of the ball marker, the doomsday scenario is that it could be facing losses of $355 million in the same year.

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It’s all what-ifs and maybes, of course, and for the time being, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund will continue to plow frightening sums into a crusade that has yet to convince that it is competitively or commercially valid. The man and woman down at the local golf club will probably be aware that the LIV Series exists but that may just be down to the sheer level of well-documented disruption it has caused rather than the product it is promoting and producing on the course.

Can average fans recount any of the actual golfing stories from the various LIV events this season? I bet you didn’t expect to be suddenly put on the spot like that, eh?

I’ll bet there’s a good chance you couldn’t regale me with a defining golf tale from the LIV campaign beyond the relentless speculation surrounding players defecting from the established tours.

LIV remains a story because of the tumult it has created but that needs to change if it is to be successful. There has been a novelty factor too but if the golf — the core product — generates minimal interest then the whole thing risks slithering into the irrelevant realms of an expensive, indulgent folly.

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LIV Golf: Patrick Reed’s $750 million defamation lawsuit dismissed in Florida court

Reed’s attorneys will have until Dec. 16 to file an amended complaint.

Patrick Reed’s $750 million defamation lawsuit, which was originally filed Aug. 16 in Texas and eventually refiled in Florida the next month, has been dismissed.

The lawsuit alleged conspiracy, defamation, injurious falsehood and tortious interference and that the defenders have acted “in concert as joint tortfeasors.” The defendents included Golfweek and its parent company, Eamon Lynch, a Golfweek columnist, Golf Channel and its employees Brandel Chamblee, Damon Hack and Shane Bacon.

Larry Klayman, Reed’s attorney, earlier stated, “The PGA Tour’s and its ‘partner’ the NBC’s Golf Channel’s mission is to destroy a top LIV Golf Tour player, his family, as well as all of the LIV Golf players, to further their agenda and alleged collaborative efforts to destroy the new LIV Golf Tour. As alleged in the Complaint, these calculated malicious attacks have created hate, aided and abetted a hostile workplace environment, and have caused substantial financial and emotional damage and harm to Mr. Reed and his family.”

U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Corrigan dismissed the original complaint Friday, according to court records. In his order to dismiss, Corrigan states, “Reed’s Complaint does not cleanly fit into one of the four types of shotgun pleadings; however, it fails to give Defendants notice of the grounds upon which each claim rests because Reed alleges 120 factual allegations, then proceeds to incorporate all 120 allegations into each and every count. … Reed attempts to allege various defamation and civil conspiracy violations against each Defendant; causes of action which require vastly different factual allegations.”

Reed’s attorneys will have until Dec. 16 to file an amended complaint in conjunction with the judge’s orders.

Earlier this month, Klayman filed a new $250 million suit against a number of other prominent golf media members and organizations, including author Shane Ryan, Hachette, the New York Post and Fox Sports, as well as Associated Press golf writer Doug Ferguson and the organization for whom he works.

Klayman announced the filing of a Second Amended Class Action Complaint in Palm Beach County’s 15th Judicial Circuit on Monday which alleges antitrust conspiracy to restrain trade and harm golf fans in the state of Florida, as well as “eliminate LIV Golf in its infancy.”

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Lynch: LIV Golf’s problems aren’t limited to Greg Norman’s incompetence. Replacing him won’t solve them

A change in LIV’s leadership won’t simply be about sidelining a polarizing figure.

A shark left to thrash around on a dry deck hopelessly gasping for water will survive only a few minutes, so there exists at least one metric by which Greg Norman can be said to have exceeded expectations during his tenure as CEO of LIV Golf.

The ceaseless sluice of reports, rumors and conjecture about LIV has resurfaced speculation that the flaxen-haired finger puppet could be replaced by the former CEO of TaylorMade, Mark King. I reached out to King through a mutual friend in July; he responded saying he wouldn’t be taking the job. If King does end up running LIV, his denial and subsequent volte-face would at least give him something in common with his players, and as the current CEO of Taco Bell he can certainly boast relevant experience in repackaging the synthetic and unpalatable as authentic and nourishing.

A change in LIV’s leadership won’t simply be about sidelining a polarizing figure motivated by a personal animus against the PGA Tour and viewed with disdain by many top players, including some he has caressed with MBS’s cash. Swapping out the Shark would suggest short-term desperation more than long-term determination, perhaps even a new face-saving strategy by the Saudis. It would also represent the only move left for LIV before having to acknowledge that the fundamental problem isn’t who captains the ship.

Despite Norman’s inexhaustible bluster and bots, all is not well in the LIV metaverse. While the PGA Tour has given its loyalists what they demanded—elite events, more lucrative prize funds, bigger bonuses—LIV has provided its recruits nothing of what they were promised except cash. There is no uncontested right to cherry pick from other tours, no world ranking points, no clear pathway to the majors, no broadcast rights deal, no audience, no public acclaim as visionaries, no applause for growing the game.

The Saudis secured what they could—players, a handful of unemployed executives, the goodwill of media influencers thirsty for access—but even the kingdom’s resources haven’t been able to buy fan loyalty or the acquiescence of golf’s established institutions. Team golf is a tough sell, but moreso when the product is lousy and the association with a merciless regime too toxic for commercial sponsors. That reality won’t be altered by replacing a CEO whose confidence far outpaces his competency.

Recent days have brought rumblings of discontent among LIV players and reports of belt-tightening on the lavish perks once bestowed on their entourages. More ominous for Norman—or whichever luckless executive replaces him—are whispers that a reckoning is nearing on the one question for which LIV has no good answer: where is the return on investment? Even MBS has limits on how much he’ll be taken for a fool by the Pat Perezs of the world.

If it were held to conventional business standards, LIV would have already collapsed under the weight of its strategic shortcomings and managerial ineptitude, much less its amoral financiers. That it hasn’t is owed to Saudi benevolence and the ample ranks of those willing to prostrate themselves for it. What it needs to endure now, however, is an absence of spine in those who know better.

The coming months will see a steadily increasing drumbeat from a band of gobshites and charlatans who insist a deal must be reached for the good of the game, that accommodating LIV is the only way forward for professional golf. Some will advocate for such an agreement just because they abhor conflict. But for others it will be nothing more than a noble-sounding means to keep Saudi money in the game long enough to peel off their share.

The narrative we’ll hear from these graduates of the Neville Chamberlain school of diplomacy will demand that the PGA and DP World tours act as defibrillators for LIV, that they must come together to resuscitate an ebbing party so others may pick its pockets a while longer. That position is as shameless as it is specious, and needs to be dismissed with contempt. Only one of these tours is endangered, and it isn’t headed by Jay Monahan or Keith Pelley.

Whatever divisions need to be bridged in golf, whatever personal relationships must be healed, doing so cannot involve offering the sport wholesale as a life raft for sportswashing ambitions in Riyadh. No amount of investment by the Saudi Arabian regime can be rendered respectable or accepted without dire reputational consequences for the entire sport. Golf cannot choose to host a cancer and expect to remain healthy.

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A numbers game: At 65, Bernhard Langer can tie PGA Tour Champions win mark of 45 in season finale at Charles Schwab Cup Championship

Just a week after earning win No. 44, Bernhard Langer can claim No. 45.

PHOENIX — Where to even begin with Bernhard Langer.

His age? He turned 65 in August and became the oldest player to win on the PGA Tour Champions at the TimberTech Championship last week.

Shooting his age? Langer has shot or beaten his age six times now. Last week, he shot a 63 in the second round to beat his age by two shots. In 2021, Langer shot a 64 on his 64th birthday and afterward said he was serenaded three separate times by fans singing “Happy Birthday” on that Friday in Michigan.

Champions tour titles? Langer is back at Phoenix Country Club a year removed from claiming his record-setting sixth series championship. That’s four more than Hale Irwin, Tom Watson, Jay Haas, Lauren Roberts and Tom Lehman, all tied for second on the list. He is fifth in the points this time around but has been mathematically eliminated from winning a seventh title.

Career Champions victories? When Langer won last Sunday, he did so in runaway fashion, posting a six-shot rout to get within one of Irwin’s all-time Champions mark of 45.

“It’s amazing. Like last week, I mean, beat his age again,” said Steven Alker, who leads the series points race. “He just keeps going like an energizer, it’s just amazing. And there’s lots to learn from that, too. Just the perseverance, he just keeps going. It was impressive, it really was.”

It was 15 years ago that Langer won his first Champions event, which came about ten months after Irwin won his last.

Does it feel like 15 years already on this tour? “In a way it does and in another way it feels like time flew by, so it’s weird,” Langer said.

He’s won every year on tour and there were only two seasons where Langer only won once. In 2017, he won seven times.

Talk about consistency.

“That is Bernhard Langer to a T,” said Jerry Kelly. “He’s just always going to be there. He’s battled some injuries the last couple years, you know, and he still won the Cup last year. Yeah, it’s beyond words for me.”

Langer won just three times during his PGA Tour career, but two of his wins came with a green jacket, as he won the Masters in 1985 and 1993. Only eight golfers have won the Masters more than he has. In 2020, when they held the Masters in November, Langer became the oldest player to make the cut at Augusta at the age of 63 years, 2 months, 18 days old.

Then there’s the money. Langer has won $65 million in on-course earnings, with $33 million coming on the senior circuit. First place is worth $440,000 at the Schwab Cup finale, an amount that would push him over the $34 million mark.

Set aside the trophies, the money, the accolades. Why is he still playing golf week in and week out?

“It’s the love of the game and competing at the highest level with the best players my age,” he said. It never gets old teeing it up? “Very seldom. No, it doesn’t.”

Langer and Kelly are in the second-to-last group Thursday. They tee off at 2:50 p.m. ET. The final group is Alker and Padraig Harrington, who are Nos. 1-2 in the points. They tee off at 3 p.m. ET.

For Harrington to win the championship, he needs to win the tournament and he needs Alker to finish outside the top five.

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Players, fans, the PGA Tour and more: The winners and losers from LIV Golf’s first year

A lot happened in the 143 days that passed between LIV Golf’s first and last events of its inaugural year.

Believe it or not, just 143 days passed between LIV Golf’s first event outside London and its eighth last week at the season-finale team championship in Miami.

The upstart circuit led by Greg Norman and backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has dominated much of the conversation surrounding the world of golf this year, and will likely continue to do so. Despite a three-month offseason between now and when the yet-to-be-released 2023 schedule is slated to start in February, there will still be plenty to talk about from the ongoing court cases to future player movement.

But for now, let’s take a look back at the biggest winners and losers from LIV Golf’s inaugural year.

Lynch: As LIV Golf’s season winds down, the propaganda war is just getting started

LIV golfers are peddling a narrative of success achieved and traction gained, despite scant supporting evidence.

Edward Bernays was considered the godfather of American propaganda, the dark art politely referred to in corporate circles as public relations and marketing. During a lengthy career—he died at age 103—Bernays successfully sold women on the idea that smoking was preferable to eating and that Lucky Strikes were to be brandished as feminist ‘torches of freedom’ (while privately imploring his wife to quit). Later, he leveraged manufactured populism and credulous journalists to warn of a communist threat in Guatemala, eventually helping engineer a CIA-backed coup that installed a dictator more friendly to the interests of another client, United Fruit Company.

“A rubber stamp inked with advertising slogans, with editorials, with published scientific data, with the trivialities of tabloids and the profundities of history, but quite innocent of original thought,” was how Bernays summarized his methodology.

Decades later, the tools in a propagandist’s Pandora’s Box remain largely unchanged. The contriving of phony public support may be more technologically advanced, but access-hungry stenographers and rote messengers can be had for a few riyal. Well, not quite that cheaply, at least not for LIV Golf. And yet the Saudi-backed circuit’s attempt to simulate buzz for its season finale at Donald Trump’s Doral Resort in Florida was executed with a predictable clumsiness that belies its budget. The more money Greg Norman spends, the less Crown Prince MBS seems to get in return.

Friday brought a deluge of social media posts by players declaring their happiness, excitement, gratitude and amazement at LIV’s growth and game-changing impact. Their dispatches bore all the spontaneity and authenticity of hostage tapes, albeit from willing and well-compensated captives.

“What an amazing year it’s been. Game-changing,” wrote Sergio Garcia.

“Incredible to see LIV grow the sport,” added Louis Oosthuizen.

“This was an amazing year and can’t wait for the next years to come. I’m super honored to be part of Fireballs.” That from Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra. Fireballs refers to his team and not to the missiles his employer has been raining upon Yemeni civilians since the Spaniard was 14 years old.

“I am so proud and honored to be part of the Niblicks,” said Bubba Watson, referring to the team that owns him but for which he hasn’t actually played due to injury. “It’s been an amazing year. Five months ago to where we are today—LIV Golf is taking off. Yeah, I said it. LIV Golf is taking off.”

“Making the jump into a start up product like LIV and seeing it grow so much, so quickly has been exciting and rewarding to be part of,” wrote Graeme McDowell. His followers seemed unconvinced. “Are they literally standing over you with the sabre when ‘you’ write this crap?” one replied.

Thus golfers are rendered bots, peddling en masse a narrative of success achieved and traction gained, despite scant supporting evidence that LIV is in fact “taking off.”

The worldwide viewing audience for LIV events is often comparable to the number of Super Bowl viewers who might die of natural causes before the halftime show, and that in turn is a multiple of the number of spectators on site. Tickets to the game-changing event that’s growing the sport this weekend in Miami were being sold—or, more accurately, were available—for $4 on the secondary market. There’s no TV deal, despite LIV negotiating to buy time on Fox Sports for its product, and no major sponsors eager to don a hazmat suit and climb aboard the Good Ship Shark. Those touting LIV as a rousing success are paid by LIV, or aspire to be. Beyond that congregation, believers are harder to come by.

A day may arrive when LIV becomes the success that its paid endorsers and would-be bootlickers claim it already is. But for now, the only storyline it has is money. That grants LIV staying power—so long as it suits the whims of its isolated, mercurial benefactor—but sports fans tend not to grant allegiance to cash-centric enterprises (Jay Monahan would be advised to note that this is as true of FedEx Cup payouts as it is of LIV purses).

This weekend’s conclusion of the LIV season won’t herald an interval in the accompanying theatrics. Expect rumors of fresh defections, more threats of litigation, increased bluster, more frequent claims of conspiracies. But there will also be a steady drumbeat for a deal to end the rancor. It won’t emanate only from those with no stomach for a fight and who want an exit ramp to easy street, but also from industry figures who sense an opportunity to suction Saudi money and who need to first position their avarice as an act of conciliation for the good of the sport.

Beware the approaching troupe of ethical acrobats who try to convince us that long-term commerce can’t be hostage to short-term concerns, like bonesaw murders and rights abuses. They represent the final push of Saudi propaganda, outwardly respectable moral ciphers whose aim is to exhaust doubters and critics to a point where accommodations can be reached and checks cashed. A long winter lies ahead.

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Peter Uihlein says he’s ‘freer, happier’ since joining LIV Golf Series. And much, much richer

“This is the first time in my entire career I’ve had a guaranteed place to play.”

DORAL, Fla. — Peter Uihlein had been grinding for more than a decade on the PGA Tour when he decided to reach out to Greg Norman. Though winless, Uihlein made a very comfortable living. But for an ultra-competitive professional athlete, frustration had set in.

“In reality is I wish I played better,” Uihlein said about the past four years. “I’m not denying that.”

Then came the conversation with the face of LIV Golf.

Uihlein, who has lived in Jupiter, Florida, for about a decade, says pursuing LIV Golf was not an easy decision and it was not just about the money. LIV offered an opportunity to break a mold — “I’ve always kind of done things differently” — and rejuvenate his career.

“Golf got stale for a lot of these guys and they’re able to let loose and enjoy the team and the atmosphere,” said Chelsea Uihlein, Peter’s wife.

Uihlein, 33, made just more than $4 million on the PGA Tour after turning pro in 2011. That was in 126 tournaments.

Since joining LIV, he has played in seven 54-hole events entering this week’s season-finale at Trump National Doral and earned more than $11.3 million, $7.3 million in prize money plus a $4 million bonus for finishing third in the season-long individual points standings.

“I didn’t get the $100 million or whatever the rumors you hear, the $50 million,” Uihlein said about his two-year contract. “So I knew that I needed to play well to make that kind of money. I’ve been fortunate to be able to do that.”

But the decision was not an easy one to make. Uihlein understood the reaction to attaching his name to a league that is financed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, a country with atrocious human rights violations.

Americans ‘do a lot of business with Saudi Arabia’

“There’s criticism to it, which is fine, everyone’s entitled to their own opinion,” he said. “The reality is we, as Americans, do a lot of business with Saudi Arabia.”

Peter warned Chelsea there would be backlash. But criticism is part of the gig. When Uihlein joined LIV, he was No. 311 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

“If you asked social media, I’ve been a terrible player,” he said.

Still, it all has been worth it, for many reasons.

“He just wasn’t seeing his full potential on the PGA Tour. It was really difficult, it was really risky. but I think it was the right decision,” Chelsea said Friday as Peter prepared for his head-to-head match with James Piot, which Uihlein won 5 and 3.

The season could not have been scripted any better for Uihlein. His game is the best it’s been in years and he cherished the team aspect. Especially his team.

Uihlein plays for Smash, which is captained by Brooks Koepka. Uihlein has known Koepka for about 16 years and when he moved to Jupiter, the two shared a house. Uihlein, who plays out of Medalist, was born in Massachusetts and went to high school in Bradenton.

When Koepka defected to LIV and was anointed a team captain, he surrounded himself with familiarity selecting Uihlein and his brother, Chase, along with Jason Kokrak.

“Known him for years … and obviously got closer and closer,” Koepka said of Uihlein. “It’s good to see him playing well and returning to capabilities that I know that he can do.”

Uihlein spearheaded Smash’s victory Friday over Niblicks on the Blue Monster, allowing them to advance to Saturday’s semifinals.

Koepka’s team advances, but Brooks loses

Smash won two of the three head-to-head matches, with the lone loss coming when Brooks Koepka who was easily handled by Harold Varner III, 4 and 3.

Eight teams remain in LIV’s season-finale with the champion being crowned Sunday. Each of the remaining teams are guaranteed of splitting at least $3 million. The winning team receives $16 million.

“I love it,” Uihlein said about the team events. “There’s interaction but you’re out doing your own thing. You’re out competing, you’re out trying to beat that person.”

Uihlein and Brooks Koepka were tied for the individual lead entering the 54th hole at the LIV Saudi Arabia event this month. At stake was the $4 million first place individual prize. After hitting their tee shots, Kokrak and Chase Koepka were being shuttled to scoring when Brooks called them over. He asked where the team stood.

After learning they had a five or six shot lead and guaranteed the $3 million first-place team prize money, Brooks and Uihlein returned to concentrating on beating each other.

The two went to a playoff, which Koepka won. Uihlein had to settle for the $2.125 million runner-up check.

Uihlein was asked what has changed with his game. He mentioned adjustments to his swing, working with Jason Baile at Jupiter Hills.

But then there was this:

“The other part of it is I’m happier,” he said. “That could play a little bit into it. I feel better. I feel freer, I feel happier. And then the reality is, this is the first time in my entire career I’ve had a guaranteed place to play for the next year or the following year. I’ve never had that in my career. I don’t know if that’s another reason but I’ve never experienced that.”

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Phil Mickelson among LIV golfers reacting to Rory McIlroy’s comments on the PGA Tour, Ryder Cup ahead of finale in Miami

“It’s pretty remarkable how far LIV Golf has come in the last six, seven months.”

DORAL, Fla. — Phil Mickelson didn’t want to “detract from what’s happening this week” at LIV Golf’s Team Championship in Miami at Trump National Doral, but a recent Rory McIlroy interview with the Guardian was too juicy to avoid.

At a press conference ahead of the upstart circuit’s season finale, Mickelson was complimentary of McIlroy, who said the “us versus them” dynamic between LIV Golf and players on the PGA and DP World tours has gotten out of control.

“You know, I think a lot of Rory. I really have the utmost respect for him, and I look at what he’s done in the game and how he’s played this year and his win last week and No. 1 in the world now, and I have a ton of respect for him,” said Mickelson. “We’ll have three months off after this event to talk about things like that and so forth, but this week something is happening that I don’t want to deflect focus on, which is we’ve never had a team event like this in professional golf.”

McIlroy also took exception to Mickelson’s recent comment that LIV Golf is trending upwards and the PGA Tour is trending downwards, calling that statement “propaganda.”

“But just — maybe I shouldn’t have said stuff like that, I don’t know,” responded Mickelson, “but if I’m just looking at LIV Golf and where we are today to where we were six, seven months ago and people are saying this is dead in the water, and we’re past that, and here we are today, a force in the game that’s not going away, that has players of this caliber that are moving professional golf throughout the world and the excitement level in the countries around the world of having some of the best players in the game of golf coming to their country and competing. It’s pretty remarkable how far LIV Golf has come in the last six, seven months. I don’t think anybody can disagree with that.”

The Greg Norman-led operation receives its financial backing from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, where no expense has been spared. Building a new golf series certainly isn’t easy, and LIV has done well to attract a few of golf’s biggest names like Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith. But the problems that come with building a startup become less challenging when you’ve got hundreds of millions of dollars to throw around. According to Sports Illustrated, LIV Golf’s first-year expenditure totaled upwards of $784 million, with another $1 billion committed for next year, when the series becomes a 14-event league.

As for excitement levels across the world, so far LIV has held seven events: Four in the United States, one in England, one in Thailand and one in Saudi Arabia.

McIlroy also said he felt “betrayal” in regards to LIV players putting their Ryder Cup futures in jeopardy, noting how Graeme McDowell had a chance to captain the Europeans in 2027 and the legacies of Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood are mainly based around the biennial bash against the Americans.

“A betrayal? We can still qualify for the team as far as I’m aware. Unless we’ve been told we can’t qualify, then I’m still ready to play as much as I possibly can and try and make that team,” said Poulter. “I mean, look, my commitment to the Ryder Cup I think goes before me. I don’t think that should ever come in question. I’ve always wanted to play Ryder Cups and have played with as much passion as anyone else that I’ve ever seen play a Ryder Cup.

“You know, I don’t know where that comment really has come from, to be honest.”

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Donald Trump to play in pro-am at LIV Golf 2022 season finale at Doral

The pro-am will not be open to the public.

When Donald Trump played in the pro-am leading up to the LIV Golf Series event on his course at Bedminster, New Jersey, his group was the only one with carts — most of them occupied by a large group of Secret Service that tailed the former president — he offered tips on how to play the course to Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau and several times he praised the course. Unprompted.

Expect the same Thursday with Trump scheduled to play in the pro-am the day before LIV’s final event of the season starts at Trump National Doral.

The pro-am is not open to the public.

Trump’s group will play 18 holes with two pros, one each on the front and back nine. He played with Johnson and DeChambeau at Bedminster in July and his group was 6 under, one stroke off the lead. The pros in Trump’s group at Doral will be determined Wednesday.

“It was an honor,” DeChambeau said following his nine holes with Trump in July. “I mean, anytime you get to play with a president, whether past or sitting, it’s just an honor, no matter who it is. Very lucky to have a relationship with him and he’s always been generous to me.”

Trump has aligned himself with LIV, the breakaway tour financed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, partly because of his disdain for the PGA Tour. Two of LIV’s eight events in its inaugural season will have been held on Trump properties and LIV’s schedule could include more Trump courses next season as it expands to 14 events.

In July, Trump told golfers on the PGA Tour to, “take the money now,” predicting the Tour would eventually merge with LIV Golf. Trump’s anger at professional golf stems from the PGA Tour moving its World Golf Championship event out of Doral and to Mexico in 2017 and the PGA of America moving the 2022 PGA Championship out of his club in Bedminster after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.

“All of those golfers that remain ‘loyal’ to the very disloyal PGA, in all of its different forms, will pay a big price when the inevitable MERGER with LIV comes, and you get nothing but a big ‘thank you’ from PGA officials who are making Millions of Dollars a year,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump is an avid golfer who has played several rounds with Hall of Famers and legendary golfers at his courses in West Palm Beach and Jupiter. He is believed to have played more golf than any other president while in office. During his round at Bedminster he said, “there’s no other president that can hit it like I can,” according to DeChambeau.

“That’s the funny one he talks about all the time,” DeChambeau added. “You know, it’s true from what I’ve seen, what I’ve heard, obviously I haven’t played with other presidents, but he’s up there.”

DeChambeau was asked about Trump’s game.

“He’s actually a really good golfer,” he said. “He stripes it down the middle of the fairway and has good iron game and putts it pretty well.”

Hall of Famer Ernie Els, who lives in Jupiter, has played several times with Trump and was in Trump’s foursome in April when the former president made a hole-in-one at his course in West Palm Beach.

“He hits the ball better than I’ve seen any … I mean he’s 75 (now 76),” Els told the Palm Beach Post in April. “But he can really strike the ball. He makes good contact. He’s got a good swing.

“Like any amateur, you got to do the short game practice. I keep talking to him about his chipping. He’s a pretty good putter. Back in his day, he had to be a 4- or 5-handicap. Today, he’s probably a 10, 12.”

Trump was asked in July how many holes-in-one he’s had in his life.

“Seven. Seven, legitimately,” he said. “People say, ‘Oh wow,’ I legitimately have had seven.”

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