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The pro-am at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster will be held
the day before the third event of the LIV Golf Invitational
Series -- which is already disrupting the dynamics of men's
professional golf -- takes place on the same course.
Critics say LIV Golf, which is bankrolled by Saudi Arabia's
Public Investment Fund, amounts to blatant 'sportswashing' by a
nation trying to improve its reputation in light of its history
of human rights abuses.
LIV Golf CEO and former world number one Greg Norman has said
the new series offers players "free agency" and fans an exciting
new way of watching golf.
The LIV Golf circuit has lured some of the game's biggest names
away from the PGA Tour with the promise of guaranteed, big-money
paydays and a reduced schedule.
The U.S.-based PGA Tour has suspended members who opted to join
the breakaway circuit and said anyone else who makes the jump
will face the same fate.
Just last week Trump urged players to "take the money" and join
LIV Golf, suggesting that those who remain loyal to the PGA Tour
will ultimately pay a bigger price for staying put.
"All of those golfers that remain 'loyal' to the very disloyal
PGA, in all of its different forms, will pay a big price when
the inevitable MERGER with LIV comes, and you get nothing but a
big 'thank you' from PGA officials who are making Millions of
Dollars a year," Trump wrote on the social medial platform Truth
Social.
"If you don't take the money now, you will get nothing after the
merger takes place, and only say how smart the original signees
were."
Former world number one Johnson, who counts the 2020 Masters
among his two major wins, and 2020 U.S. Open winner DeChambeau
are among those competing this week where the individual winner
gets $4 million from a $25 million purse.
This year's PGA Championship was supposed to be held at
Bedminster but was relocated after Trump exhorted thousands of
his supporters to march on the Capitol as Congress met to
certify his presidential election defeat by Joe Biden.
The final event of LIV Golf's inaugural season, where there will
be $50 million in total prize money, will be held at Trump's
Doral course in Florida from Oct. 27-30.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Toby Davis)
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