Veteran New York Times columnist and Middle East authority, Thomas L. Friedman, known for his insights into global affairs and a lifelong passion for golf, offers a candid assessment of LIV Golf’s reported shutdown. Friedman, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner who once caddied at the U.S. Open, provides a unique perspective on the intersection of geopolitics and professional sports, particularly regarding Saudi Arabia’s ambitious foray into golf.
Reports indicate that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) will discontinue its $5 billion funding for the LIV Golf Tour after this year. Friedman characterizes the Saudis’ initial goal for LIV as an attempt to boost golf participation within the kingdom, aligning with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s broader strategy to attract sports tourism. However, Friedman recounts advising a senior Saudi leader that a rival tour featuring “professional golfers on the back nine of their careers” was not the way to achieve this. Instead, he suggested dedicating coastline to world-class golf course development.
Friedman, a self-professed golf enthusiast who watches women’s college golf, admits he “never once watched a LIV event” nor cared about its outcomes, viewing it as a “cross between an exhibition event and a weekly giant corporate outing.”
Addressing the controversy surrounding Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and accusations of “sportswashing,” Friedman presents a nuanced view. He acknowledges the “despicable” murder of Jamal Khashoggi, for which MBS bears responsibility, while also recognizing the significant social transformations initiated by MBS to reverse the kingdom’s puritanical turn post-1979. “If you can’t hold two contradictory thoughts in your head at the same time, don’t come to the Middle East,” he states.
Friedman dismisses the notion that LIV was a sophisticated strategic move to clean up the Khashoggi tragedy. He calls it a “bad idea from the start, hatched by some people with too much money and too little judgment,” which only worsened the perception by bringing the controversy from news pages to sports pages.
The ongoing Iran war, Friedman explains, exacerbated existing financial pressures on Saudi Arabia. The kingdom was already slowing down or canceling domestic projects due to over-ambition and rising costs. LIV, a “money drain” that failed to attract new tourists, became an easy target for retrenchment, especially as defense spending needs increased due to Iranian attacks.
He highlights that PIF, unlike other sovereign wealth funds, invested heavily in domestic construction and is currently “short on cash,” reporting near-zero returns in a year when the S&P was up 25%. This financial reality, coupled with war costs, made LIV appear as “another totally unnecessary cash drain.”
While Saudi Arabia continues to host the 2034 World Cup and invests in F1, boxing, and Newcastle United, Friedman believes golf was sacrificed because funding “Sergio Garcia’s retirement” made little sense in the new economic climate, unlike broader investments in professional sports for a young, sports-participating population.
Regarding the potential re-entry of LIV stars like Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau to the PGA Tour, Friedman acknowledges the difficulty. He sympathizes with PGA Tour pros who “turned down a lot of money to preserve the integrity and future of the PGA Tour.” While advocating for healing the breach quickly, he personally states he “won’t be rooting for them” if they contend in a major.
Friedman expresses skepticism about Saudi Arabia rushing back into professional golf investment, viewing the LIV shutdown as part of a wider economic retrenchment.
Reflecting on the turmoil, Friedman emphasizes that “true golf fans like me care about traditions, care about the integrity of the sport.” He argues that when professional golf becomes “only about money,” it loses its appeal, sacrificing the “things that money can’t buy.”
He concludes by downplaying LIV’s significance as a geopolitical trend, calling it a “solar-lunar eclipse—the wrong people at the wrong time—with too much money, too few of the right values and too little good judgment.”
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