The LIV Golf tournament is scheduled to tee off its U.S. tour at Trump National Golf Club in Virginia.
This comes a week after the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced it would pull out. The Saudis created LIV as a rival to the PGA Tour and reportedly burned at least $5 billion on it.
Now they are leaving LIV to fend without their help.
LIV Tournament Finds a Home
The tournament will be played virtually in the lap of the Saudis’ biggest apologist after U.S. intelligence implicated Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Trump can’t shake his Saudi infatuation.
Saudi Arabia’s Involvement and Shift in Focus
The kingdom has fomented a yearslong war against Yemen that has killed or contributed to the deaths of more than 250,000 people while creating arguably the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Saudi Arabia is also the birthplace of 15 of the 19 men who carried out the 9/11 attack.
When Americans who lost loved ones in the attack criticized President Donald Trump for hosting a LIV tournament on one of his properties four years ago, he said, “Well, nobody’s gotten to the bottom of 9/11, unfortunately, and they should have.”
The Washington Post reported the day Trump went to war with Iran that the Saudi crown prince helped convince Trump to launch the attack. More than five weeks later, at least 13 U.S. service members have been killed and upward of 400 have been injured.
Domestic and foreign economies have been wrecked by the war from higher fuel prices due to oil exports trapped in the Strait of Hormuz from a retaliatory U.S. blockade in response to Iran’s threatening of tankers trying to make it to the Indian Ocean and beyond. Iran further responded by striking its oil-producing Arab neighbours who are U.S. allies — most notably the United Arab Emirates, Dubai and Saudi Arabia, as well as Israel. The spreading regional war early on trapped at least eight LIV golfers in the Middle East, where they were practicing before LIV’s Hong Kong event.
It all led to the Saudis announcing last week that they would pull out of funding LIV. Saudi Arabia’s deal with the women’s tennis tour, the WTA, has wrapped up. An F1 race in Saudi Arabia and a Fanatics flag football extravaganza there have also been canceled.
Saudi Arabia’s Changing Priorities
In the wake of Trump’s unsanctioned war against Iran, the Saudis are reportedly focusing on domestic concerns and ending their strategy of attempting to cleanse their international reputation through investing in sports around the world.
LIV has canceled its June tournament in New Orleans. But it limped into Virginia for this week’s date.
The tournament will take place at the course owned by the crown prince.