In the sand

Golf's Saudi-backed LIV tour has driven a wedge through the genteel sport and risks coming up short in its sportswashing aim.

- PAUL THOMAS

Even by the dizzying standards of men's professional golf, American Dustin Johnson has had a bumper year. For his efforts during the breakaway LIV tour's inaugural season, he pocketed US$36 million at an hourly rate, by Associated Press' calculations, of US$746,000. Or, to really break it down, US$26,302 per shot. That was on top of a reported US$125 million sign-on fee.

You may be wondering who in their right mind would pay a golfer that sort of money for performing well in eight events (14 are scheduled this year) that hardly anyone watched and even fewer gave two hoots about. The answer, ultimately, is Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, colloquially known as MBS, the 37-year-old Crown Prince, Prime Minister and de facto leader of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

LIV (the Roman numerals signify the 54 holes played, in contrast to the traditional 72 in professional tournaments) is funded by the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, at US$620 billion one of the half-dozen biggest in the world. The league is the golfing component of the "sportswashing" campaign initiated after MBS unveiled his "Vision 2030" masterplan for transforming Saudi Arabia.

It's estimated that the fund has splashed out US$1.5 billion since 2016 on various sporting projects and sponsorships such as the world's richest horse race, world heavyweight boxing championship bouts, Formula One racing and investments in the top tiers of English and Spanish football.

The bid to sponsor the upcoming Fifa Women's World Cup foundered on opposition from co-hosts Australia and New Zealand. Their obvious objection was that a country that subjugates women is an inappropriate sponsor of a women's event. (In 2018, Saudi women were granted the right to drive but remain subject to guardianship laws that reduce them to vassals of their fathers, husbands or other male relatives.)

OBSCENE WEALTH