It felt like the death of irony at the beginning of the first-ever LIV Golf Invitation Series event.
As The O'Jays' "For the Love" played in the background, Phil Mickelson walked to the first tee at the golf club.
Money, money, money, money ... money!
Some people got to have it
Some people really need it
Listen to me why'all, do things, do things, do bad things with it
You want to do things, do things, do things, good things with it
The song was written to warn about the dangers of doing anything for the dollar. The intent of the song was meaningless by the end of the week. The opening riffs were the most important. It was being used as a call to the best golfers in the world.
Greg Norman, the CEO of LIV Golf, said during the trophy presentation that this is just the beginning.
Thanks to the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, the world of professional golf is likely to never be the same again.
Norman said that the evolution of the game was here. The golf was always going to be a force of good.
Depending on your perspective, that is either true or not. Schwartzel received $4.75 million for winning the individual and team titles, the largest haul in the history of tournament golf. He had gone winless for six years prior to Saturday and it was an immediate boon to his career.
Schwartzel called it a historic moment. It is the first LIV league tournament.
Schwartzel was not affected by the fact that LIV Golf can offer unprecedented prize money.
Schwartzel has never looked at the source of the money. You could find fault in anything.
Terry Strada was following the news of the tournament back in the US, but it was not as great as he would have liked. 9/11 Families United is a group of people who lost family members in the 9/11 attacks. Strada's husband, Tom, died in the World Trade Center, and she said listening to golfers justify their decision to be in England was stomach-churning. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is being sued by 9/11 Families United for its alleged role in training and financing the 9/11 hijackers.
Strada sent a letter to the tour's American players asking them to rethink their association with LIV Golf. The letter stated that when you partner with the Saudis, you become complicit with their whitewash and are willing to pay handsomely to manufacture it.
Strada felt like a betrayal. My husband used to play golf. He was a big fan of the golfer. He tried to be a pro before he started working. My youngest is a golfer. The integrity of the sport is something our family is aware of. These guys don't care about that. They are sports washing.
A country or entity that uses sports to improve or obscure a questionable reputation is called sportswashing.
She said that they were trying to buy respectability. My family is still reeling from being a victim of a terrorist attack, and they are boasting about taking millions for their family. It's very sad.
The moral debate over whether LIV golfers should be seen as complicit sportswashing stooges or savvy independent contractors will continue despite Schwartzel's win. New PGA Tour defectors were welcomed even as the final round was going on. Patrick Reed and Pat Perez both joined the broadcast to say they had signed on.
Reed's arrival wasn't a surprise, but Perez's was a prime example of how quickly money can change hearts and minds. At the Genesis Open in February, arguably the PGA Tour's crown jewel outside the Players Championship, Perez delivered a lengthy, passionate monologue to the media about how no one on tour would follow Lefty or DeChambeau.
Perez said that Tiger was their guy. He says it is gold.
Perez said "F--- no" when he was asked if he would take Saudi money. After four months, he was able to convince him of the benefits of a relaxed schedule.
Perez said that he has more motivation now than ever. I'm looking forward to this next chapter in my life. I've been on the tour for over two decades. The run has been enjoyable. The PGA Tour has been great for me. People are great there. I'm looking forward to slowing it down a bit.
There were reasons to be skeptical of the long-term prospects of LIV Golf. The names of several players were not spelled correctly. LIV Golf decided to give away tickets because they were so poorly received. Any fan who entered a discount code was given a free ticket to the game. There was a website that didn't have a Leaderboard. The pre-tournament news conferences were memorable because of the clumsy answers offered by players when asked if they were morally involved in Saudi Arabia trying to "wash" its reputation.
Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, hired by LIV Golf to serve as a news conference moderator, tried to steer the conversation back to golf but had little success.
Talor Gooch said he didn't think it was fair that Saudi Arabia might be using him to distract the world from its many human rights violations. I am also a golfer. I don't think I'm that smart. I attempt to hit a golf ball. It's enough to play golf. I try not to think about golf.
The golfers seemed lost when they tried to address how they felt about what happened to the Washington Post journalist, who was tortured and murdered in the Turkish embassy, his body cut into pieces with an electric bone saw.
"Look, this has been extremely divisive," he said. We all agree that it's reprehensible to have a person in a position of power. No one is going to argue that fact. We are not involved in politics. I know you don't like that expression but we are not. We are professionals at golf. If Saudi Arabia wanted to use the game of golf as a way to get to where they want to be, we would be proud to help them.
Human rights activists were upset by the use of the word "proud" by McDowell.
To be honest, it was disgusting. I think it's gross. It is cruel. The Saudi people are no longer human. The regime uses it as a ruse to pretend they're opening up. I don't want to talk about sports. The use of sports is at the center of it. You're using famous people to cover up what's going on in the country to make it seem like they're having reform. Players are repeating the story of criminals. They are willing to be used to whitewash what is happening in the country and siding with the government. My sister is liked by people.
One of the Kingdom's most outspoken advocates was Alhathloul's sister Loujain. She supports ending the male guardian system that only allows women to travel, get married or work with the permission of their father or husband. Loujain was taken back to Saudi Arabia and charged with terrorism after he was kidnapped in the U.A. in the year after the murder of the journalist. After an international human rights campaign led by her family, she was released in 2021. Loujain Alhathloul can't speak to the press because she's on a permanent travel ban.
There will be others if everyone rehabilitates Mohammed bin Laden. It will have less media attention and public attention. It could become a standard in other regimes. I'm sure many other people will be in prison and tortured as well. The pressure around him can be changed. The country is in a state of darkness. Nobody speaks. There is fear in the air. The reality is behind the curtain that hides all of it.
At the golf club on Saturday, it felt more like a festival than a golf tournament. Hundreds of young kids partied in the Fan ExperienceZone. They played the makeshift miniature golf course, hit shots into giant nets from real sand traps, danced to music, and ate a lot of food. At most golf tournaments, alcohol can be purchased for as much as five pounds. The golf didn't feel important to the party happening. There was no shot hit all week, except for the opening tee shot by Phil.
The head of the Public Investment Fund brought up the subject of money again during Schwartzel's trophy presentation, saying that since LIV was 54 in Roman numerals and 54 is a perfect score in golf, it's time to start talking about money. It was obvious that LIV Golf can offer no one else the same amount of money as it did.
When a reporter asked their teammate Hennie du Plessis how it felt to make more in one day than he had made in his entire career, Schwartzel, Louis and Branden couldn't stop laughing.
du Plessis said that he had worked hard to earn the money. LIV Golf gave me the opportunity.
The four players on the winning team were all born and raised in South Africa, so it made sense to ask what role sports might have in the country's future. Grace admitted that he had been thinking about the subject after watching a documentary about South African cricketer Hansie Cronje.
Grace said that any sport has the ability to change things. Sports people come together. You see a lot of it in America, how athletes come together. They make a difference in lives. Sport does a lot for charities around the world, and everyone can benefit from this.
It's true that some will benefit more than others.
At the end of the news conference, the four South Africans stood together and posed for a picture with $10,916,666 in their hands.
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