Tag: Trump Doral

Report: U.S. Department of Justice investigating former President Donald Trump’s ties to LIV Golf amid larger probe

Three Trump properties will host the Saudi-backed circuit in 2023.

The United States Department of Justice is ramping up its investigation into how former President Donald Trump has handled classified documents since his time in office ended. But what does that have to do with golf?

According to a New York Times report, amid the larger investigation the DOJ has subpoenaed the Trump Organization for records regarding LIV Golf and President Trump’s ties to the upstart circuit financially backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

In LIV Golf’s inaugural season last year, Trump National Bedminster and Trump National Doral both hosted events. The pair of properties will do so again in 2023, as will his resort in Potomac Falls, Virginia, outside of Washington, D.C.

From the report:

It is unclear what bearing Mr. Trump’s relationship with LIV Golf has on the broader investigation, but it suggests that the prosecutors are examining certain elements of Mr. Trump’s family business.

Last year the former president was heavily criticized for hosting LIV Golf just miles from New York City by a group of families of 9/11 victims and survivors.

“I’ve known these people for a long time in Saudi Arabia, they’ve been friends of mine for a long time,” explained Trump ahead of last year’s event at Trump National Bedminster. “They’ve invested in many American companies, they own big percentages of many, many American companies, and frankly what they’re doing for golf is so great.”

A New York City native, Trump’s comments came just days after families of 9/11 victims and survivors sent a letter to condemn the former president for hosting the Saudi-funded series. The letter expressed their “extreme pain, frustration and anger” and even included a quote from Trump’s 2016 comments on the 9/11 terrorist attacks from a segment on Fox & Friends:

“ … Who blew up the World Trade Center? It wasn’t the Iraqis – it was Saudi. Take a look at Saudi Arabia. Open the documents. We ought to get Bush or somebody to have the documents opened because frankly, if you open the documents, I think you are going to see it was Saudi Arabia …”

“The former President correctly speculated in 2016 that Saudi Arabia knocked down the towers and now the FBI has released the documents to prove him right,” Brett Eagleson, an advocate for the 9/11 Justice group, told CNN at the time, “yet he is choosing money over America. So much for America First. A sad day.”

LIV Golf has long been criticized as a way for the Kingdom to “sportswash” its human rights record. Saudi Arabia has been accused of wide-ranging human rights abuses, including politically motivated killings, torture, forced disappearances and inhumane treatment of prisoners. And members of the royal family and Saudi government were accused of involvement in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist.

The DOJ is also reportedly investigating the PGA Tour for potential antitrust violations against LIV Golf.

Trump National Washington D.C. will host LIV Golf later this month, May 26-28. LIV will then head to Trump National Bedminster, Aug. 11-13, and return to Trump National Doral, Oct. 20-22. The LIV Golf season ends in King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia, Nov. 3-5.

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‘I’m paid. I don’t give a damn’: Pat Perez gets last laugh at LIV Golf Team Championship in Miami

Perez cleared $7,062,500 in team prize money to walk away with $8,023,500 total after his first year with LIV.

DORAL, Fla. – Many made jokes and quips (this writer included) throughout LIV Golf’s inaugural season, but it was Pat Perez who got the last laugh.

Often the odd-score-out for his loaded 4Aces team that features Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed and Talor Gooch, the 46-year-old veteran couldn’t be happier after a final-round 2-under 70 at Trump National Doral – which tied Johnson and Reed for their team’s low score of the day – at the LIV Golf Team Championship.

“All the push-back, all the negative comments, everything we’ve gotten, at this point I really don’t care. I mean, I don’t care. I’m paid. I don’t give a damn,” Perez said with a laugh in the media scrum after the 4Aces won the event to take home the top prize of $16 million. “My team played unbelievable this year. I feel like I’m really part of something that I’ve never been part of, other than me and my caddie, we’ve just been just us our whole life. To have these guys and their caddies and families and coaches and everybody, it’s just one big family now. I just couldn’t be any happier. It’s unbelievable.”

Johnson, the 4Aces captain, said Perez should have felt pressure on the final day, and he did. He always does.

“I don’t want to let the team down. I want to play well every day, and today I finally was able to show up,” said Perez. “I birdied two of my last three holes coming in and had a great up-and-down on the last hole to get up-and-down. You know, it was an unbelievable feeling to hole that last six-footer kind of down the hill and it go in.”

“I thought we had a one-shot lead there, and P-Reed birdied his last hole and then Cap came down and had to make that four-footer. It was a great atmosphere,” he continued. “You’ve got Cap and Cam going down the last hole, you can’t script it any better. Two best players, just unbelievable.”

In six starts on the upstart circuit led by Greg Norman and backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Perez struggled with finishes of T29-T31-T15-T31-40-46 in the 48-player, no cut events. Those results saw Perez individually earn $961,000, one of 21 players who teed it up for LIV to fail to break $1 million in individual earnings. Due to his 4Aces winning four regular-season events as well as the team title, Perez cleared $7,062,500 in team prize money to walk away with $8,023,500 total for the year.

The results weren’t there throughout the year, but Perez stepped up when every shot counted and his team needed him most. And that’s nothing to laugh at.

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LIV Golf Team Championship Miami prize money payouts for each squad at Trump National Doral

Check out how much money each player and team won at the season finale.

DORAL, Fla. — LIV Golf’s inaugural season has come to a close.

The upstart circuit led by Greg Norman and backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund held its $50 million season finale team championship this week at Trump National Doral, where Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces won the top prize of $16 million that will see each player take home $4 million each.

Cameron Smith’s Punch GC finished second to earn $8 million, with Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC in third ($6 million) and Louis Oosthuizen’s Stinger GC in fourth ($4 million).

Here’s how much money all 12 teams and 48 players earned at the LIV Golf Team Championship.

Team championship prize money payouts

Position Team Prize money Share per player
1 4Aces GC
(Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Pat Perez, Talor Gooch)		 $16 million $4 million
2 Punch GC
(Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman, Matt Jones, Wade Ormsby)		 $8 million $2 million
3 Smash GC
(Brooks Koepka, Peter Uihlein, Jason Kokrak, Chase Koepka)		 $6 million $1.5 million
4 Stinger GC
(Louis Oosthuizen, Branden Grace, Charl Schwartzel, Hennie du Plessis)		 $4 million $1 million
Eliminated after semifinals Cleeks GC
(Shergo Al Kurdi, Laurie Canter, Graeme McDowell, Richard Bland)		 $3 million $750,000
Crushers GC
(Bryson DeChambeau, Paul Casey, Charles Howell III, Anirban Lahiri)		 $3 million $750,000
Fireballs GC
(Sergio Garcia, Carlos Ortiz, Eugenio Chacarra, Abraham Ancer)		 $3 million $750,000
Majesticks GC
(Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Henrik Stenson, Sam Horsfield)		 $3 million $750,000
Eliminated after quarterfinals Niblicks GC
(Harold Varner III, Hudson Swafford, James Piot, Turk Pettit)		 $1 million $250,000
Iron Heads GC
(Kevin Na, Sadom Kaewkanjana, Phachara Khongwatmai, Sihwan Kim)		 $1 million $250,000
Hy Flyers GC
(Phil Mickelson, Bernd Wiesberger, Matthew Wolff, Cameron Triangle)		 $1 million $250,000
Torque GC
(Joaquin Niemann, Scott Vincent, Adrian Otaegui, Jediah Morgan)		 $1 million $250,000

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‘My hands were not real steady’: Dustin Johnson makes final putt, leads 4Aces to win LIV Golf Team Championship in Miami and claim $16 million prize

The 4Aces will take home the $16 team prize, with $4 million going to each player.

DORAL, Fla. — Four teams were left standing for Sunday’s final round of the LIV Golf Team Championship and it was Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces GC who came out on top.

Louis Oosthuizen’s Stinger GC were out of the picture for the majority of the day, leaving the battle for the top three to the 4Aces, Cameron Smith’s Punch GC and Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC. The latter fell off later in the round, leaving a two-way race to the finish.

The 4Aces led by one stroke with one hole to play before Punch’s Marc Leishman tied the 4Aces at 6 under with a late birdie, just his second of the day. Patrick Reed then delivered a birdie on his final hole to reclaim the lead at 7 under and eventually earn the win after his teammate Johnson made par on the last.

“Hell yeah, I knew where I was,” Johnson said of the late-round situation. “I was watching (Reed) make his putt. I was like, ‘All right, I’ve just got to two-putt and we win,’ because I knew Cam — I played with Cam. He hit it to 10 feet for par. He made everything he looked at so I knew he was making it. I’m like, ‘I’ve got to two-putt.'”

“I do not like stress, so that was a little more stress than I was looking for,” he continued. “If that was an individual tournament, it would have been no problem, that putt. It’s straight in from three feet. But with it being the team aspect and I knew the whole team — like I had to make that for the team to win — I didn’t like it very much. My hands were not real steady.”

“I don’t know where I hit it on the putter face, but it went in the middle.”

The 4Aces were unbeaten on American soil this year and were the dominant team for most of the season after winning four consecutive events during the series’ U.S. swing. Johnson also claimed the season-long individual title a week before the regular-season finale in Saudi Arabia. The win earns the team the top prize of $16 million, with $4 million going to each player.

Smith shot the low round of the day, a 7-under 65, as his Punch finished one shot back in second at 6 under to take home $8 million.

“65, yeah. That was probably right up there for me,” said Smith. “I feel like I really didn’t miss a shot today. I felt like I holed everything.”

Smash finished in third, 11 shots behind the leaders at 4 over, to take home $6 million. Stinger closed out at 10 over to win $4 million.

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Take a look at the golf courses owned by Donald Trump

There are 12 Trump Golf-owned properties in the U.S., two in Scotland, one in Ireland and one in the United Arab Emirates.

Before Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, he was well known in the golf community as the namesake of the courses and grounds that share his name.

There are 12 Trump Golf-owned properties in the United States, two in Scotland, one in Ireland and one in the United Arab Emirates. The Trump Organization manages Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point in New York, though for a short period of time it lost control until winning a legal battle. It also has three golf properties opening soon: two in Indonesia and one in Dubai.

Seven of the current Trump Golf-owned/managed properties are open to the public for tee times and nine of the clubs are private.

Here’s a look at the 16 current Trump Golf properties around the world.

Report: Trump properties in thick of Saudi schedule discussions; Doral, Bedminster likely landing spots

According to reports, officials from LIV Golf Investments have held conversations with the Trump Organization.

A plan for the breakaway golf league funded by the Saudis will likely include a mix of international and domestic events, and as was previously reported, a number of former President Donald Trump’s courses could be among those on the future schedule.

Trump has been sympathetic to the Saudi regime in the past, even delivering a full-throated defense of the country in 2018, casting doubt on a U.S. intelligence assessment that the kingdom’s crown prince knew about the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

The Washington Post wrote on Saturday that “at least two of Trump’s courses in Bedminster, N.J., and Doral, Fla., could be named as sites for the nascent tour, according to the people familiar with the talks, who like others requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Officials from LIV Golf Investments, the apparatus funded by the Saudis to host the tour, have held conversations with the Trump Organization, these people said.”

Despite the $135 million offer reports and non-disclosure agreements, no players have officially committed to leave the Tour just yet, although rumors and smoke have been flying in recent days.

According to the Post, a spokesman for Trump’s political action committee offered a statement saying the courses would be plausible sites for the new events.

“It certainly sounds possible given the fact that President Trump owns some of the most beautiful and renowned golf courses in the world — from the cliffs of Rancho Palos Verdes, to the majestic rolling hills of Bedminster and, of course, the iconic Doral property,” Taylor Budowich told the newspaper.

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The relationship between Trump and the Saudis never got frosty, even when the tenor of the nation toward the Middle East power had soured. In fact, a day after indicating he would do nothing to Saudi Arabia after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi back in 2018, then-President Trump thanked the Saudis for lowering oil prices through more production via social media.

“Oil prices getting lower. Great! Like a big Tax Cut for America and the World,” Trump tweeted. “Enjoy! $54, was just $82. Thank you to Saudi Arabia, but let’s go lower!”

The thank-you tweet came after Trump – in seeming defiance of the U.S. intelligence community – said he saw no reason to hold the Saudis accountable for the death of Khashoggi, a columnist for the Post.

“It could very well be that the crown prince had knowledge of this tragic event – maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” Trump said in a written statement, adding that he would not change the U.S. business relationship with the key Middle East ally.

In terms of his golf courses, in January of 2021 the PGA of America announced that Trump Bedminster would no longer host its major championship in 2022. The news came just days after a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters breached the United States Capitol and caused chaos. And while Trump was in the midst of impeachment discussions at the time, he was “gutted” by the loss of the major, according to a tweet from New York Times’ reporter Maggie Haberman,

Moving the 2022 PGA Championship had been debated internally at the PGA of America for more than two years, but executives had previously been reluctant. The event is now scheduled to be held at Southern Hills Championship Course in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Some players who had previously taken part in Saudi events have wondered aloud if this new plan is good for the game. For example, Graeme McDowell told Golf Channel after Greg Norman was named the commissioner of the fledgling circuit that while competition is good, the current PGA Tour product is healthy.

“It’s such an unknown quantity right now. It’s so hard to make a comment. Is it good for golf or bad for golf? It’s very difficult,” McDowell said. “Competition is typically good for everyone. I feel that typically the PGA Tour product has never been as strong as it is right now and it continues to get stronger. I certainly don’t have any contracts [from the new circuit] right now. I’m certainly very happy where I am right now on the PGA Tour.”

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Trump Golf properties have reopened in Los Angeles, Miami

Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization, made the announcement on Monday.

Trump Golf properties in Los Angeles and Miami are open after previously closing due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Eric Trump, son of President Donald Trump and executive vice president of the Trump Organization, announced on Monday that Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles and Trump National Doral in Miami have both re-opened.

Trump National in Los Angeles re-opened Saturday, according to the club’s Twitter account.

“The courses are absolutely impeccable and our teams are waiting for you!” Eric wrote in part in a tweet.

Trump Doral temporarily laid off 560 workers in April after shutting down operations mid-March due to the threat of COVID-19. As of Tuesday morning, there were 41,923 confirmed cases and 1,779 deaths associated with the virus in the state of Florida, according to the USA TODAY.

Trump Doral is also the site the President once planned to host the 2020 Group of Seven Summit in June.

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