Saudi Arabia’s influence in sports extends far beyond professional golf.
Lured by the Saudis’ sovereign wealth fund with reputed nine-figure bonuses last year to play the rival LIV Golf tour, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson climbed into Forbes magazine’s annual list of the 10 highest-paid athletes. Johnson and Mickelson rated Nos. 6 and 7, respectively, despite significant hits to their off-course earnings as many sponsors dropped them upon their indefinite suspensions by the PGA Tour.
Johnson earned a reported $107 million in the period May 1, 2022 to May 1, 2023, with $5 million of it in endorsements, according to Forbes. Mickelson made $106 million, with only $2 million in off-course earnings. There were no golfers on last year’s list.
Middle East petrodollars have influenced the top of the list. With funding from the Saudis or Qataris, soccer’s Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé ranked Nos. 1-2-3, respectively.
Critics label the trend by Saudi Arabia to use athletics to improve its image worldwide amid a backlash for human-rights violations as “sportswashing.” The Saudis also have built a large presence in women’s golf, notably on the Ladies European Tour. READ MORE
Phil Mickelson lashed out at a number of perceived slights last week, some of them not even directed at him. He criticized the USGA and CEO Mike Whan for a revised exemption criteria for the U.S. Open, which left LIV Golf colleague Talor Gooch on the outside looking in, as a “d!*k move” in a vulgar social-media rant. Earlier, he alleged “collusion” by PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and the Official World Golf Ranking to keep LIV Golf out of the world order. READ MORE and MORE
The U.S. Department of Justice has subpoenaed the Trump Organization for records relating to former President Donald Trump’s ties to LIV Golf, which will compete on three Trump golf properties this year, The New York Times reported. The inquiry is part of the DOJ's probe into the former president’s handling of classified documents. READ MORE
Peter Uihlein has withdrawn as a plaintiff in LIV Golf’s antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour, according to a filing in U.S. District Court in Northern California. The move leaves only Matt Jones and Bryson DeChambeau from an original group of 11 players alongside the Saudi-funded tour as court opponents of the PGA Tour. READ MORE
This will be homecoming week for Talor Gooch when LIV Golf visits suburban Tulsa, Oklahoma. Gooch, a Midwest City native who played college golf at Oklahoma State, is one of six players with Oklahoma collegiate ties expected to compete at Cedar Ridge Country Club in Broken Arrow. Gooch won LIV’s past two stops, in Australia and Singapore. He will be joined by OSU alumni Eugenio Chacarra, Charles Howell III, Peter Uihlein and Matthew Wolff and former Oklahoma Sooner Abraham Ancer. READ MORE
Orlando Ramirez, Getty Images
Lance Ten Broeck, a former player and caddie on the PGA Tour who was known as “Last Call” for his off-course antics, died April 30 of organ failure at a hospital in West Palm Beach, Florida, his family told The Palm Beach Post. He was 67.
Ten Broeck, a Chicago native, played the tour in the 1980s and ’90s, making 355 winless starts though he had 11 top-10s among 162 made cuts. (He won the 1984 Magnolia Classic, but it was not considered to be an official victory because it was played opposite the Masters.) He scored a mulligan on the PGA Tour as a caddie. Broke and out of playing options in 1999, he was invited by Jesper Parnevik to caddie in the Greater Greensboro Classic, which Parnevik won, yielding one-tenth of the $468,000 winner’s check for Ten Broeck.
At the 2009 Valero Texas Open, he caddied for Parnevik in the morning, then learned that he had landed an eleventh-hour spot in the field. With borrowed clubs, shoes and other gear, he shot 71 that afternoon, clipping Parnevik by a stroke. Though Ten Broeck shot 70 the next day and missed the cut by two strokes, he had cemented his legend on tour.
“He was one of the great characters in golf,” Parnevik told the Post’s Craig Dolch. “Wherever we traveled and played, he had friends in every city and corner of the world. Everybody was always happy to see him.” READ MORE
The former live-in girlfriend of Tiger Woods followed her recent civil lawsuit against a trust controlled by the champion golfer with an accusation of sexual assault in a new lawsuit filed Friday in Florida.
Erica Herman, a former employee in Woods’ restaurant in Jupiter, Florida, claims that Woods pursued a sexual relationship with her when she managed The Woods Jupiter and then forced her to sign a non-disclosure agreement about it. READ MORE
Jim Furyk will captain the U.S. team in the 2024 Presidents Cup, the PGA Tour announced. Furyk, who will turn 53 on May 12, won 17 times on tour, including the 2003 U.S. Open, and compiled a 20-10-3 record in seven Presidents Cups. The biennial match against the Internationals is set for Sept. 26-29 at Royal Montreal Golf Club in Canada. The U.S. leads the series, 12-1-1, after a 17½-12½ victory last year at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. READ MORE
This week’s AT&T Byron Nelson will borrow a page from the WM Phoenix Open’s fan-friendly playbook and create a stadium-like hole. The 147-yard, par-3 17th hole at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas, will be surrounded by an enclosed structure accommodating nearly 6,000 fans. READ MORE
Next week’s PGA Championship is sold out, according to the PGA of America, which is expecting 225,000 spectators at Oak Hill’s East Course in Pittsford, New York. READ MORE
Police are investigating suspected vandalism on two heavily damaged greens at Detroit Golf Club, site of next month’s Rocket Mortgage Classic, according to The Detroit News. READ MORE
TAP-INS
A Florida golfer faces a felony charge after a fight with a pedestrian on a golf course, investigators said. Eddie Orobitg, 52, a Lady Lake dentist whose website offers a testimonial for “the absolute lightest touch,” allegedly attacked a psychiatrist who was walking with his wife on the Harbor Hills Golf Course in Lady Lake. According to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office incident report cited by Orlando’s Fox 35, the verbal confrontation escalated into a physical attack when Orobitg spat upon Joseph Sivak, then beat him with his hands and a golf club. Orobitg, who was playing golf with his son, was arrested without incident at the course April 30 and booked into the Lake County Jail on a charge of aggravated assault, a second-degree felony, according to the jail record. He was released an hour later on a $5,000 bond and faces a May 30 court appearance. Sivak claimed in an interview with Fox 35 to have been treated for broken ribs, broken cheekbones and a torn ear. READ MORE
The eighth edition of “The Match” will pivot from its PGA Tour origins and feature champions of football and basketball. Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce of the NFL-champion Kansas City Chiefs will play Steph Curry and Klay Thompson of the NBA-champion Golden State Warriors in a 12-hole exhibition June 29 under the lights at Wynn Golf Club in Las Vegas, Nevada. READ MORE
Acushnet Holdings, which includes Titleist and FootJoy, announced its first-quarter financial results, highlighted by a 13.2-percent rise in net sales and a 15.2-percent boost in net income year over year. READ MORE
The DP World Tour and the Korean PGA have formalized their relationship with a strategic alliance that will expand access for Korean PGA players to the European tour and produce a co-sanctioned tournament in South Korea through 2025. READ MORE
The field has been set for the NCAA Division I men’s regionals, which will be played May 15-17 at six sites across the U.S. Arizona State, Illinois, North Carolina, Pepperdine, Texas Tech and Vanderbilt were named the top-seeded teams. The top five teams and low individual scorers from a non-qualifying team at each regional will advance to the national championship on May 26-31 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. READ MORE
Tony Petitti, a member of the USGA’s Executive Committee and a former network TV executive, will begin work as commissioner of the Big Ten Conference on May 15. READ MORE
The richest tournament in Epson Tour history will be played late this summer in Utah, the LPGA’s developmental tour announced. The Black Desert Resort Championship, which will award $56,250 to the winner from a $375,000 purse, is scheduled for Sept. 7-9 at Soldier Hollow Golf Course in Midway. The addition of the tournament bumps the Epson Tour’s season prize fund to $5 million. READ MORE
The Shinhan Donghae Open will return to South Korea this fall after a one-year move to Japan, the Asian Tour announced. The tournament, which also is sanctioned by the Japan and Korean tours, will be played October 7-10 at Club72’s Ocean Course in Yeongjongdo. READ MORE
Neil Donaldson has been named captain at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, the R&A announced. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon