What are some of the problems LIV Golf is facing for the 2023 season?
While LIV Golf is facing several problems ahead of its 2023 season, there is one particular pressing issue awaiting them
LIV Golf came pounding on the sport’s door in 2021, signing up a host of top-tier players in exchange for massive earnings and saying goodbye to the PGA Tour to play catch-up.
Funded by Saudi Arabia’s Private Investment Fund (PIF), a sovereign wealth fund with assets of around $700 billion, LIV golf has been consistently making headlines for all the wrong reasons: its attachment to Saudi’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman- the man believed to be behind the brutal murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi 2018, as well as negligence of 9/11 victims, and its connection to Donald Trump, staging tournaments at the former president’s golf courses as he publicly urges PGA Tour players to switch over to LIV Golf.
And while LIV Golf is facing several issues as of late, including an incomplete schedule just weeks ahead of its start, failure to attract corporate sponsors and no new star player signed, those aren’t even the most pressing issues.
Recruitment issues have indeed plagued LIV president Greg Norman and co., but players are also dealing with a whole other issue: a legal battle with authorities over the absence of ranking points at events. This basically means that some players could be in danger of missing major championships pretty soon.
Additionally, when LIV filed an antitrust suit against the PGA Tour, the Tour countersued bringing to light some discoveries of the Saudi fund and its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, that they are frantically trying to evade.
Things are getting ugly for LIV Golf and the Saudis
In the long and puzzling battle between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, court documents have revealed a thread from the PGA Tour and Clout Public Affairs to an advocacy group called 9/11 Justice.
Brett Eagleson, the president of 9/11 Justice, confirmed that his organization had reached out to the PGA Tour and hired the D.C.-based public strategy and consulting firm (Clout) in June, to aid 9/11 Justice with one goal in mind: to force Saudi Arabia to admit its involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks.
On Dec. 13, LIV Golf, as part of its uncovering in its antitrust case against the PGA Tour, discovered Clout’s existence and filed a motion complaint in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to pressure Clout to answer questions about its relationship with the PGA Tour, and 9/11 Justice.
Clout wrote in their opposition to the LIV Golf subpoena that along with their 9/11 Justice, they have “a reasonable fear that disclosure of their internal communications about the Saudis and September 11 will provoke retaliation.
First, as explained above, the Saudis are already believed to have murdered Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist and witness in the 9/11 families’ litigation against the Kingdom, in order to stop his activities in the United States. Additionally, the Saudis have already hired an agency in the United States specifically to track and monitor the advocacy activities of the 9/11 victims and families.”
While the 2023 LIV Golf season is set to get underway on February 24, 9/11 Justice plan to rally in April in Augusta during Masters week.