MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Saudi Arabia is ending its support for LIV Golf after the end of this year's season. The league created a huge rift in the golfing world four years ago when it pulled some of the biggest stars away from the PGA Tour with the promise of huge paydays. Brody Miller covers golf for The Athletic, and he's with us now to tell us more about this. Good morning, Brody.
BRODY MILLER: Good morning. How are you?
MARTIN: Good. So do we know how much the Saudis invested in LIV Golf and why they're pulling the plug now?
MILLER: Absolutely. So I think there's always been a bit of - there's loose numbers, but it's well north of $5 billion at minimum, and in some projections, even closer to maybe seven or $8 billion. And what makes it so fascinating is that for so long, you know, the leaders of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia have always said, we measure returns in decades, and there's no need to return a profit anytime soon. But very suddenly, that changed. And the primary reason being given both secretly and publicly is because of the war in Iran. That created a strain on PIF, and it's changing their ideas on this. But that doesn't seem entirely true because this has been a subtle shift for months of a global strategy shift toward bringing domestic projects and whatnot to Saudi Arabia. So it's been a very sudden and surprising shift that I think even left the LIV executives kind of caught in the lurch.
MARTIN: Can LIV Golf survive without that Saudi money?
MILLER: That is the No. 1 question going forward. They - you know, they will no longer ever have somebody that gives them just a blank check to give out $30 million purses and $500 million deals. That - those days are definitely over. But right now, LIV executives are in a mad dash to try to find private equity funding to sell equity and their teams that they believe are worth $300 million, but many people find that hard to believe. But they are in a mad dash right now to find funding over the next few months to be able to fund the 2027 season 'cause if they do not, then they will not survive.
MARTIN: You know, I think a lot of people were kind of wondering why the Saudis' Public Investment Fund thought this was a good idea to begin with. I mean, you know, I mean, obviously, there are critics who say that this is sportswashing. They're trying to distract from the Saudis' human rights abuses and improve its image through sport. So if that was the - was that the strategy, and if it was, did it work?
MILLER: Absolutely. That was a strategy. I think sportswashing absolutely has been such a key thing of so much of the Public Investment Fund strategy for the last six years in sports, from buying Newcastle United in the Premier League to funding Formula One, tennis, boxing - so many things. And so much of it is, yeah, building - it's not just image. It's soft power. It's influence. It's getting into rooms that you weren't in. And I think the strangest thing to kind of accept about this all is that it kind of worked. They bought low on Donald Trump back when nobody was speaking to Donald Trump, back when nobody - it was right after January 6, and the PGA Tour pulled its events from Donald Trump courses. All of a sudden, you know, you're seeing they are in White House meetings. Yasir Al-Rumayyan's in White House meetings with Donald Trump. They have these relationships with all the top-money people in the world 'cause of sport. So the strange thing to admit is it kind of worked.
MARTIN: So what does this mean for the golfers who defected from the PGA Tour to play for LIV?
MILLER: That is going to be the No. 1 question. I think the PGA Tour and CEO Brian Rolapp back in January or February offered a one-time, free-return kind of offer to some of the biggest stars - your Jon Rahms, your Bryson DeChambeaus. And only Brooks Koepka accepted it, which was a big move at the time. But those others all turned it down, and most of our sources have said that they are not going to offer that one-time return. They are suspended for at least another year. And while the big names can find other time playing maybe on the European Tour or other opportunities around the world, some of the people who aren't huge stars, they will not have an opportunity to play anywhere else, or they'll have to grind out on mini tours.
MARTIN: Well, hope they invested that money well. That's Brody Miller. He's a staff writer for The Athletic. Brody, thank you.
MILLER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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