Sergio García and Dustin Johnson have announced that they will be in London in the first tournament of the discord, the LIV invitational, an international circuit financed with Saudi money that puts the PGA Tour on a war footing. The Spaniard and the American, like the rest of professional golfers, had been threatened by the current organizer of the circuit with harsh sanctions if they agreed to participate.
The large prizes are the main incentive for the players registered in the first tournament in London, which will be played at the Centurion Golf from June 9 to 11, where 25 million dollars (about 23.5 million euros) will be distributed, the largest single tournament endowment to date. The 48 players who will participate will be divided into 12 teams of 4 players and will play three rounds instead of four, and in addition to participating as a team they will also participate individually.
The LIV invitational circuit will consist of 8 events, one in London, five that will be played on US soil and two more in Bangkok and Jeddah (Saudi Arabia).
Along with the golfer from Borriol and Johnson will be, among others, the Spaniards Pablo Larrazábal, Adrián Otaegui and the amateur David Puig, the South African Louis Oosthuizen, the Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell or the Englishman Lee Westwood.
There are two proper names in charge of promoting LIV Golf Investments (LIVGI). The first is Mohamed bin Salman, the Saudi prince who owns the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), famous in the sports world for acquiring Newcastle in the Premier League this year, and whose fortune exceeds 350,000 million euros. .
The visible face of this kind of Super League of golf is the Australian legend Greg Norman, appointed CEO of LIVGI to command all operations. In the past he tried something similar with his World Golf Tour but at that time he did not have the capital of someone as powerful as Bin Salman.
