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This weekend, the US Open golf tournament will be played outside Boston in Massachusetts in the northeastern United States. All the world’s best male players, including our own Viktor Hovland, are present to fight for one of the four major titles in golf, a so-called “major”. It may be the last time in a very long time we experience something like this. For the golf world is heading into its very biggest split ever. And no one knows how to collect it. If not then it will be on Saudi soil, either physically or in a figurative sense. For the very controversial kingdom of the Arabian Peninsula has decided to take over the entire sport of golf. And may be on the way to success with it faster than anyone has had time to fear. What they tried to do with the Superliga in football last year, Saudi Arabia has taken to another arena, the one with 18 holes – and many times more moral pitfalls. Not to mention an absurd amount of money from the state petroleum fund, PIF, which is also formally the owner of the football club Newcastle. FOOTBALL AND GOLF: Director of the Saudi Arabia Fund Yasir Al-Rumayyan is chairman of the board of Newcastle United and is also involved in the LIV tour. Photo: PAUL ELLIS / AFP Spann This is in a slightly transferred sense as if you have finally found your dream house, where you thrive and plan to stay for the rest of your life. Then the doorbell rings. Outside is an investor who offers you not ten, but a hundred times that house is worth moving. If you refuse once, the investor is back at the door the next day and has doubled the amount you are offered. In the end, not many people can say no. Even if you have to move from the house you like so much. And in addition, agree to travel from girlfriends as well as family and friends. The golfers who have agreed to report the transition to the Saudi-funded LIV tour have received amounts that are at the fantasy level. Despite the fact that they are not among the very best players right now. No one in the top 10 has yet said yes. Still, a slightly failed star like Phil Mickelson has reportedly been paid $ 250 million just to join the LIV tour. 2.5 BILLION: Phil Mickelson is said to have been paid 250 million dollars, or 2.5 billion kroner, to join the LIV tour. Photo: Andrew Redington / AFP 2.5 billion kroner, that is. Before he had struck a single blow. It is understandable that it is a challenge to say no to Mickelson, who has previously also spoken openly about his gambling problems. The biggest star in the golf universe is still Tiger Woods. The amount he is said to have been offered is “mind-blowing enormous”, as Greg Norman so picturesquely put it to the Washington Post. And indicated that we were approaching four times what Mickelson received. Tiger Woods still said no. Australian Norman, once called golf’s first rock star, did not. Already controversial Norman is the face of the entire LIV tour. The guys who have experienced it all It’s a battle for money, position and prestige. Like much else in this world. But it is also the first attempt to take control of one of the world’s biggest sports that is close to success. Because everything can simply be bought for the right price. Those who have agreed to join the LIV tour, also say no to what is still the most important tournament series, namely the PGA. One can not say yes to both, as the PGA clearly said in connection with the LIV tour’s opening tournament last weekend. Except when it comes to the four biggest tournaments, which have a different leadership. Until further notice, the players who have been bought by Saudi Arabia will also be allowed to be there as well. It can not necessarily continue like this. This is the basis of existence for the entire traditional food chain in golf. Then those who govern must set very clear boundaries. But many of those who say yes to the LIV project have already won these tournaments – and will hardly do so again. Then you rather prioritize the money. MAJOR: Players, such as Dustin Johnson, who has agreed to play on the LIV tour, will for the time being participate in the four major tournaments. Photo: Warren Little / AFP If I were you This is otherwise only about men, in case anyone was wondering. Of course, Saudi Arabia will not make a golf series for women. But the gender equality perspective has nevertheless found a place here. For the rights of women in Saudi Arabia will be indirectly harmed through the credentials the LIV tour and its participants give the regime, as veteran Kerrie Webb put it to NBC. WOMEN’S skepticism: Veteran Kerrie Webb believes the LIV tour will indirectly harm women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. Photo: LM Otero / AP The women have said no before. Their entire tour, the LPGA, is in a way based on a community idea that goes back to the fight against discrimination against black players in the late 1960s. Now they want to show solidarity with Saudi women. Without it changing anything, unfortunately. Sitting on a bomb You can be as worried as you want or will not be about the future of golf in the men’s class. If all of the world’s best players want to state all of the principles for money, then unfortunately it also says something about the golf sport’s lack of foundations. And about human nature in the modern world, which is perhaps the saddest thing here. The greatest risk in this entire Saudi-funded project therefore lies in the potential contagion effect of other sports. The new golf tour is more than anything else a danger signal for all world sports. If Saudi Arabia succeeds in recruiting the entire world top in golf just by offering enough money, then there is no reason why they or other states or groups should try to do the same in other sports. Our own tennis star Casper Ruud was scheduled to have played a lucrative tournament in Abu-Dhabi before Christmas, but had to retire. Tennis is one of the sports that can quickly become attractive for a competitive tournament series to the ATP currently organizing. Competitive – and extremely lucrative. As it is for Formula 1 to arrange World Cup rounds in Abu Dhabi as well as Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Even the Alpine World Cup race has been proposed by the new FIS President Johan Eliasch to be added to the snow hall in Dubai in the not too distant future. When the natural snow disappears, a hall is a hall a hall, no matter where you are in the world. Then it is instead just a matter of paying enough. SNOWHALL: FIS President Johan Eliasch has proposed adding a World Cup alpine race to the snow hall in Dubai. Photo: KAMRAN JEBREILI / AP And nothing is more lucrative than football. Attempts to launch a European Super League temporarily stalled, following a riot among fans. Such a counterforce does not exist in golf. But new attempts will come, also in football. The Spanish Super Cup has already been played, absurdly, in Saudi Arabia for two years. It was recently revealed that a new agreement negotiated by Barcelona player Gerard Pique and his sports investment company Kosmos, has extended this to 2029. SUPERCUP: The Spanish Super Cup will be played in Saudi Arabia until 2029. Photo: FAYEZ NURELDINE / AFP Pique’s argument was that this gave the Spanish big clubs income at a level this tournament had never been close to providing them. The same big clubs that were the most central in the plans for a super league. Pique himself received a bonus of around NOK 40 million for landing the agreement. The next thing you might want to get to Saudi Arabia or one of the neighboring countries is Champions League matches – or an extended club World Cup. If it does not end up being played in China. FIFA also knows how to listen to good offers. In the meantime, an entire sports world looks at how LIV is doing. Which is the Roman numeral for 54, if you are still wondering about the somewhat whimsical name choice. This symbolizes the number of holes you go in each tournament. Where the tournament format has also been changed, so that all players go out at the same time. And thus losing much of the dramaturgy we hitherto thought was important. But nothing is as it has been. And may never be like that again. In addition, LIV rhymes with “give” in English. And if there’s something this tour does, then it’s just to give. Everything can be repaired? The PGA Tour has banned players who have left them for LIV. And have not said if they will ever take them back, if applicable. The tournament’s reputation is so toxic that almost no TV station anywhere in the world showed the first competition in the tournament. Norwegian Viaplay was one of the few exceptions. What they with the sense of dark humor so far can most enjoy are the increasingly wide-ranging explanations for why they have said yes to the Saudi money. “We all make mistakes,” as Greg Norman mentioned, so reflectively analyzed the regime’s human rights violations. EXTERNAL FACE: Golf’s first rock star, Australian Greg Norman. Photo: PAUL CHILDS / Reuters But no one has been better than Graeme McDowell. “If Saudi Arabia wants to use the sport of golf as a way to get where it wants and has the resources to speed up that process, then I think we should be proud to help them on that journey,” as he so lyrically put it. Sports laundry has hardly been more clearly defined. If you pay enough, you should get all the help in the world to cover up human rights violations, is the message of the times. Take me with us So far, we are happy that neither our own Viktor Hovland nor any of the other players in the top 10 have said yes to the billion offers. But also he, who has played tournaments in Saudi Arabia before, and several of the new stars have taken their reservations. If the sporting reasons become convincing, they must deal with it. So if too many of the best are tempted by the obscenely large sums, the others have the excuse they need to join as well. If one goes, everyone goes fast. And there are only 48 seats available. The next weeks and months will be very interesting for golf’s way forward – which can also help define the future of more sports. The last competition in the first year of the LIV tour will otherwise be played symbolically enough at Donald Trump’s own facility in Miami in October. The only sure thing then is that no matter what result one has reached, there will be some who refuse to accept it. THE DONALD: The LIV tour ends at Donald Trump’s own facility in Miami. Photo: David Moir / Reuters



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