Trump Finds Saudi Money Tempting So He Agrees to Host One of the LIV Golf Tournaments This Weekend
LIV Golf is Financed by the Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund that also Gave Kushner $2 Billion Though He Never Ran an Investment Fund Before
Trump is hosting an LIV Golf Tournament this Weekend at his Bedminster, NJ Club, the place where he last week buried his first wife, Ivana, in a grave near the first tee. Normally divorced spouses do not decide where to bury their ex-spouse, so one must assume that Ivana’s children, Ivanka, Don, Jr. and Eric agreed to this unusual burial site. Knowing Trump, he probably charges Ivana’s Estate a generous fee to permit her body to be buried near the first tee. But one wonders if Ivana was of sound mind when she agreed, if she agreed, to this eternal view of golfers starting their round.
So, keeping with the degree of respect that only Trump could offer, he is hosting the Saudi funded LIV Tournament this weekend, bringing together professional golfers who decided to abandon the PGA Tour that fed them and cultivated them as they honed their skills in highly competitive golf. And what was the reason these golfers decided to abandon the PGA Tour to supposedly assist the Saudis to improve their image: MONEY. Unlike the PGA Tour, the golfers receive a guaranteed payment starting at $100,000 for the weekend of poor play up to $3,000,000 or more for the winners. On the PGA Tour, if a player misses the cut after 36 holes, they get no money though they incurred expenses for travel, lodging, meals and caddie stipends. So, LIV Golf offers steady and reliable income for golfers even those who score poorly.
But these golfers are giving up much to be the beneficiaries of Saudi money. The PGA Tour may bar them from Major Championships such as the Masters and the FedEx Cup. The United States Golf Association may bar them from the US Open. And the R&A in Britain has said they probably will not be allowed to play in the British Open, and showing great hostility to LIV, Greg Norman, the president of LIV Golf, who was told he was not welcome at even the parties at the British Open.
These Saudi funded golfers may have money in the bank, but they may lose the opportunity to play in the Majors, the real test of who are the best professional golfers. So, a duffer like me could collect my $100,000 by showing up, but is that why these golfers dedicated themselves to mastering the ever-challenging game of golf? No, they want to achieve the height of the competition success and be Number 1.
Now many people object to the Saudi involvement in this enterprise particularly as it is organized and funded through the grace of MBS, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, after his power play among the royal family to displace others with higher rank than he had. Recall his ruthless incarceration of other wealthy Saudis who he locked in the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Riyadh where the price for their release was a huge payment by each as dictated by MBS, and he did that to other Saudis some of whom were his family.
But uppermost in American minds was his successful plot to lure Washington Post writer, Jamal Khashoggi, to the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, where he was almost immediately attacked by the MBS hit squad sent there the day before to carry out his execution. The Saudi hit squad included Mr. Surgical Saw who promptly carved up Mr. Khashoggi’s body, hopefully after he was dead, and while his fiancé was waiting for him outside the Saudi embassy. The body pieces were then taken to an unknown location, and his remains have never been found. And what did Khashoggi do to warrant this extra-judicial execution: he criticized MBS and the Saudi government. US Intelligence Agencies investigated the Khashoggi murder and concluded that MBS knew and approved the murder in advance.
Trump, while president, ran interference for MBS and refused to condemn his actions in killing Khashoggi. Trump went out of his way to accommodate MBS and rebuffed any governmental action to hold MBS and the Saudis responsible.
A group of Americans have protested the Trump-LIV Golf Tournament: they are the survivors of the approximately 2,900 Americans who were killed on September 11, 2001 when 15 of the 19 airplane hijackers were Saudi citizens and were following the orders of Saudi citizen: Osama Bin Laden, the son of a prominent Saudi construction company owner. These fifteen Saudis and their Saudi commanders hijacked four airplanes and crashed two into the Twin Towers in NYC, one into the Pentagon and the other had a passenger attack on the Saudis but resulted in their crash landing in Pennsylvania after a desperate attempt to get control of the aircraft. The survivors believe the Saudi government was behind or financed the bin Laden operation
The Saudis have a dismal human rights record resulting in incarceration and death for their own citizens. The Saudis regularly sentence offenders to beheadings, after judicial proceedings not meeting US and other advanced nation standards. They have a square in Riyadh they call Chop-Chop Square where medieval beheadings occur with regularity.
I had two cases in the 1980s where US citizens employed by Saudi oil companies were investigated by the Religious Police for having wet coffee cups in the late morning during Ramadan, and for this transgression they were sentenced to 50 lashes each. State Department intervention resolved the problem, but my clients were ordered to leave Saudi Arabia and their jobs. Not a friendly place to put it mildly.
So, the golfers who left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf (LIV roman numerals for 54, the number of holes they play not the traditional 72), face uncertain futures. The Captain of the Ryder Cup team was removed for joining the LIV tour. But there are some famous golfers who have joined LIV, including Phil Mickelson (tied for 40th in this weekend’s play), Henrik Stenson (the individual leader after 36 holes on July 30), Dustin Johnson (in second place), Patrick Reed (in third place), Lee Westwood (tied for 6th), Brooks Koepka (tied for 19th), and Carlos Ortiz (tied for 3rd). One of the most vocal opponents of the LIV is Tiger Woods who said that these players are turning their back on the PGA Tour that gave them experience and the opportunity to excel.
The tempers are hot over this Saudi effort at what is called sportswashing, using sport sponsorship to improve your, in this case a county’s image. Golf magazine reports that Boomer Esiason, a “former NFL quarterback, TV analyst and New York sports radio icon” “unloaded on former president Donald Trump.”
“The former president’s hosting this garbage over there and these guys are accepting the money. It’s an insult to all the people that died on 9/11 and how their families were affected” … “But its also an insult to all the people that have died since 9/11 because of all the toxic carcinogens that they basically ingested while they were trying to clean this place up to make it look like what it looks like now.”
Eskason had one final message directed to all involved with the tournament: “They can kiss my a-. I’m not watching and I don’t care.”
The format for the golf game is a little unusual. Each player hits their first shot from the tee, then they play best ball on the second shot and then return to playing their own ball for the rest of the hole. This is supposed to interest younger players or fans. Doubtful. One terribly stupid idea is that they play loud music continuously on the course. Having played some golf, I like quiet to concentrate on this difficult game, but playing loud music seems only designed to annoy the players, but I guess they don’t care with their guaranteed payments.
Reports are that attendance was very light, perhaps only a few thousand spread out over 18 holes. Tickets were $75, but you could get one for $1.00 plus a $5.00 service fee from StubHub. Food, beer and hard liquor were easily available and no limited entrance to corporate tents was needed. After all LIV is to make the Saudis shine not some American corporation.
They held a Pro-Am Tournament on Thursday, and Trump exhibited some of his unusual golf behaviors. He was always first on the tee out of his foursome, but after he hit his ball, he jumped into his golf cart and headed down the fairway even though the rest of his foursome had not hit yet. So, the others had to play miss the former president, leading to some aberrant shots. Trump needed his full security detail on his course, so he had twelve Secret Service agents and others following him in their golf carts. Of course, we taxpayers had to pay the expense of all these Secret Service agents, and knowing Trump he probably charged an exorbitant rate for Secret Service use of his golf carts.
Trump’s playing is not normally seen by the press, but for this occasion Trump allowed 50 press people to follow along, so we got a first-hand view of Trump’s playing method. His most notable move, apparently repeated on several holes, was to put for a birdie, miss the cup and then pick up the ball and claim a par. He has been noted not to follow the Rules of Golf with any precision. I have had many experiences where I miss the birdie and then take two more puts to get in the hole, but Trump has this special rule designed to lower his score without much effort.
Trump has booked another LIV event at his Doral Club in Miami in October.
One final comment; when Phil Mikelson was ready to tee off on the tenth hole, a fan shouted, “Hit this one for the Saudi Royal family.” Mikelson backed away from his bell as the fan was reminded to remain quiet though the Saudi sound system was blasting rock music as the professional golfers addressed their balls and wondered if this really was the future of golf.
I certainly hope not.