Saudi Arabia Money in Golf

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Golfer, Bryson DeChambeau won the LIV Golf Invitational, August 6. 

Everything has a price, even the U.S. dollar can be bought. Ask Middle East money movers from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The U.S. can flaunt its war arsenal as much as it wants, but Arabs know its Achilles heel, sports. American sports is run by men, and men can be bought.

Golf for example. The PGA Tour, an American institution recognized all over the world because of its green blazer, joined hands with LIV Golf, its arch rival in June. Both sides labeled the merger as a partnership. So what’s new? That is standard business etiquette. If you can’t beat them join them. What is unique about the PGA Tour and LIV Golf are the pieces on the chess board.

The product.  Professional golf players that travel all over the world for the prize money. Before LIV Golf, swinging those irons in the PGA Tour was the ultimate dream.

Money. You don’t play golf, but you always see it on television, and that is money. However, Arabs have a bigger purse. That’s why they formed LIV Golf in 2022, to lure players away from the PGA tour. The attractive purse comes from the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF).

The PGA Tour was not amused at all by players doing LIV Golf, so it threatened them with all kinds of bans. It even tried to play the moral card that Saudi Arabia does not have a good human rights record. Players did not listen. Money has no stain. To cut a long story short, the two called it a truce and formed a board of directors.

They are one big happy golf family now. Arabs know what they want from America, and they are starting with the pawn (sports), the smallest piece on the chess board, but one that leads to the queen.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

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