The latent threat that has stalked the world of golf for so many months will become a reality this Thursday with the start of the LIV Golf Invitational at the Centurion Club in London, the tournament that inaugurates the dreaded Saudi Super League.
Sergio García, Pablo Larrazábal, Adrián Otaegui and the amateur David Puig will represent Spanish golf in an event with just 48 participants that will distribute 25 million dollars in prizes (20 for the individual competition and 5 for the team competition), four of them will be for the champion. To put this barbarity in context, it is enough to remember that Scottie Scheffler, for example, pocketed less than three million for winning an entire Augusta Masters.
The tournament, sponsored by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and with Greg Norman as a visible face, arrives surrounded by controversy and with the fear that it could blow up the world of professional golf. At the moment, two figures as contrasted as Dustin Johnson and Sergio García have already renounced their PGA Tour card, the most important circuit in the world, to avoid sanctions for their connection with these LIV Golf Series in exchange for stratospheric contracts, which exceed the fixed 100 million dollars just for participating.
The last to jump on the bandwagon was Phil Mickelson, who had been away from the fields for four months due to controversial comments precisely against the Saudi regime, and who at the moment does not want to give up his life membership of the PGA Tour and awaits events and possible sanctions. Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed and Rickie Fowler have all the numbers to be the next to 'bust'.
Although there is no official confirmation, it seems that the Super League will not distribute points for the world ranking. At least for now. Of course, the participants received a small (and temporary?) breath of air when the USGA confirmed that they will be able to participate next week in the US Open. Of the British, at the moment, there is no news.
