Trump appears during the Pro-Am Tournament ahead of a LIV event at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf course in 2023.
Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images
Saudi Arabia upended the golf world a few years ago with a simple strategy: Throw barrels of money at the biggest stars in the sport. Aging greats Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson hauled in an estimated $125 million and $200 million, respectively. Still-spry Jon Rahm got a reported $300 million. One big name LIV didn’t have to pay much to get on its side? Donald Trump.
The president of the United States, who is expected to offer a warm welcome to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House Tuesday, received about $800,000 for hosting a LIV Golf tournament in 2022, according to an income statement included in court filings. Another statement suggests a 2023 LIV event brought in $950,000. Trump has hosted seven LIV tournaments by now. If each of them generated similar amounts, his total take would add up to roughly $6 million over four years. That might sound like a lot, but it’s virtually nothing in the LIV Golf world, where no-name golfers can easily earn that much in prize money.
The events also provided Trump with something else he values: prestige. During his first presidential campaign, the PGA announced that its annual tournament at Trump National Doral in Miami would be relocating to Mexico, of all places. “We just jump over the wall,” Rory McIlroy, the No. 2 golfer in the world, reportedly quipped at the time.
Trump, whose representatives did not respond to a request for comment, took golf tournaments seriously, even after becoming president for the first time. “Big crowds expected,” he tweeted six months into his first term, when his course in Bedminster, New Jersey hosted the U.S. Women’s Open. Trump also reportedly tried to get his ambassador to the United Kingdom, billionaire Woody Johnson, to steer the British Open toward Turnberry, one of the president’s properties in Scotland. Trump claimed he never talked to Johnson about it.
The January 6 riot on the U.S. Capitol upended Trump’s golf plans. The PGA of America moved the 2022 PGA Championship away from Trump’s club in Bedminster almost immediately. The chief executive of the Royal and Ancient, the body that oversees the British Open, announced it would not consider Turnberry for tournaments in the foreseeable future. Trump, it seemed, had shut himself out.
Until LIV stormed onto the scene. Backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, LIV splashed money around and split the world of golf. Some players left the PGA for LIV’s bags of money; others remained loyal to the original tour. Trump left no doubt about which side he favored in the schism.
“Just arrived in Bedminster for the big LIV Tour Golf Tournament,” he posted on July 27, 2022, ahead of the third-ever LIV event, hosted at the same course that had lost the PGA Championship. “Record money to winners, great excitement. Come on out on Friday, Saturday or Sunday to watch the great play by the best players!” Among the attendees: Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Al-Rumayyan palled around with Trump in a golf cart, taking advantage of the sort of high-level access that armies of lobbyists could only dream of securing. Hecklers also showed up. “Do it for the Saudi royal family!” one yelled at Mickelson as he lined up for a shot, forcing the golfer to step back from the ball to regain his composure.
Three months after the Bedminster tournament, LIV held its league championship at Trump National Doral in Miami. Looking ahead to additional events, the president dumped more money into Doral, adding thousands of palm trees. The once-and-future president hosted three of LIV’s 14 events at his courses in 2023. The same year, LIV and the PGA announced a partnership, prompting some grandstanding from Trump. “I wonder if the PGA players who didn’t heed my advice and take the massive amounts of money that was offered to them by LIV Golf, feel somewhat ‘stupid’ right now,” he sneered on social media. “I predicted a MERGER, and that is exactly what happened.”
With Trump back in power, both leagues are now eager to partner with him. On April 3, the president traveled to Miami to attend a LIV Golf dinner leading into the league’s event at Doral. In 2026, the PGA Tour will return to the property for a tournament at the end of April. Just four days after it ends, LIV will tee off its eighth Trump-tied event—this one at his club in Virginia, 20 miles from the White House.
—With additional reporting by Justin Birnbaum
