STERLING, Va. — Now that the Public Investment Fund is stepping away from the LIV Golf League, one of its most affable players wonders if no longer being associated with Saudi Arabia will help the controversial circuit encounter more friendly terrain in its quest to gain viability.
Graeme McDowell, 46, the 2010 U.S. Open champion who joined LIV in 2022 and endured considerable backlash, including in his native Northern Ireland, said Tuesday at Trump National D.C. that the PIF’s decision to halt funding of the league came as a surprise and leads to understandable questions about its future.
But McDowell, who said he considered a TV career before joining LIV, said it also could create opportunity.
“I was ready to jump ship and go get a real job,” McDowell said before practicing yesterday in advance of this week’s LIV Golf Virginia event. “And then these guys came along and said, ‘hey, we’re going to do this tour. Do you want to come play?’ I love playing. I love competing. I regret a few things I said in the beginning, stuff like growing the game. I should have just said it for what it was: this is good for my bank account, and I’m getting a runway to play the game of golf for as long as I possibly can.
“I don’t think we could have ever imagined how deep this would go. The hatred. It’s funny, but if we can shift the narrative away from Saudi Arabia and bring some U.S. money and get rid of that narrative … because that narrative is just nasty.”
McDowell said he received death threats and his family was subjected to abuse in response to some of his comments about growing the game on behalf of Saudi Arabia back when the league launched four years ago.
He noted how the same kind of vitriol was not directed at other sports investments that the Saudi PIF backed such as horse racing, boxing, Formula One, boxing, soccer, snooker, “you name it.”
“Maybe we can get rid of that and focus on LIV as a viable golfing product,” he said.
That is the challenge for CEO Scott O’Neil, who was scheduled to have a meeting with players on Tuesday night after meeting with the media to share a confident vision for the future that was short on details.
“Potentially he’s been given some leash now to be able to go and … I think we all knew that we were going to have to stand on our own two feet at some point to be able to make this into a legitimate business,” McDowell said. “When you’ve kind of got the type of cash that we had in the beginning for a startup company, it was a little crazy and maybe not very real. It’s kind of like we’re turning 18 now. I’m going to go into the real world. We got to fend for ourselves a little bit. We try to make this into legit business.”
McDowell said he would not be opposed to downsizing, in the number of tournaments and prize money, in order to make it work.
LIV started with eight events with $25 million in prize money in 2022 and increased to 14 events the last three years. It went to $30 million per event this year ($20 million for the individual portion) and was scheduled for 14 tournaments this year before last week it was announced that next month’s Louisiana event was being dropped.
“At the beginning, no doubt, there was a lot of excess,” McDowell said. “It was maybe a little too flashy on some levels. The purse prizes are incredible. I could never imagine. I remember going to WGCs [World Golf Championship events] when I was in my late 20s, early 30s, thinking these are the most unbelievable things I’ve ever heard of, playing for $7 million. It’s insane. And then we’re playing for $20 million out here. The complacency that can come with that is just embarrassing. You obviously adjust to your surroundings and get on with it.”
McDowell noted how the prize money on LIV Golf lead to an increase on the PGA Tour and its $20 million signature events, such as this week’s Truist Championship in Charlotte. “It’s like an arms race that no one can continue to fund,” McDowell said.
McDowell said he learned of PIF’s possible departure like others three weeks ago when he was preparing for the LIV Golf event in Mexico City. Jon Rahm called it “unexpected. We did hear the news that there would be funding through for many years, so unexpected.”
“I don’t know where this is going to go,” McDowell said. “There’s a lot of players out here that if this goes away, they’ve got nowhere to go. Do they deserve that? Is that their own fault? There’s a lot of people out here that have their jobs tied to this, people who work here. All the negativity on social media the last three weeks … it just disappoints me on so many levels.
“There are people who hate this, hate this produce product with passion, and they can’t wait for it to fail. I partly get it, and I partly don’t get it. It’s a little sad on some levels. I guess it comes from a traditionalist, protective … trying to protect what this game is on a lot of levels, which is history, tradition, legacy.
“But I love a lot about it. I feel very, I feel very fortunate that it came along what it did just on a personal level.”
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