9/11 Family Group 'Shocked and Deeply Offended' by PGA's Merger with Saudi-Backed-LIV Golf
In a statement released Tuesday, 9/11 Families United said LIV is a 'league that is bankrolled by billions of sportswashing money from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia'
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A 9/11 families organization is slamming the PGA Tour after its decision to merge with Saudi-backed LIV Golf.
In a statement released on Tuesday afternoon, following the announcement involving the formerly acrimonious tours, 9/11 Families United said it was “shocked and deeply offended” by the deal, and called LIV a “league that is bankrolled by billions of sportswashing money from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
“PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan co-opted the 9/11 community last year in the PGA’s unequivocal agreement that the Saudi LIV project was nothing more than sportswashing of Saudi Arabia’s reputation,” 9/11 Families United Chair Terry Strada, whose husband Tom died in the World Trade Center’s North Tower, said.
“But now the PGA and Monahan appear to have become just more paid Saudi shills, taking billions of dollars to cleanse the Saudi reputation so that Americans and the world will forget how the Kingdom spent their billions of dollars before 9/11 to fund terrorism, spread their vitriolic hatred of Americans, and finance al Qaeda and the murder of our loved ones. Make no mistake — we will never forget.”
Related: PGA Tour to Merge with Controversial, Saudi-Backed LIV Golf in Surprise Move
Others who are having trouble reconciling the announcement include many of the PGA’s biggest stars, including Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm, who were not forewarned about the merger, according to ESPN, and learned about it on social media.
Commissioner Monahan met with players — who are set to tee off for this week’s RBC Canadian Open at Oakdale Golf and Country Club in Toronto — late Tuesday in what was described as a heated meeting in which the leader was called a “hypocrite.”
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"It was mentioned, yeah, and he took it," Australian golfer Geoff Ogilvy told ESPN. "He said, 'Yeah.' He took it, for sure."
Meanwhile, three-time PGA Tour winner Johnson Wagner told The Golf Channel that the meeting was “contentious.”
"There were many moments where certain players were calling for new leadership of the PGA Tour and even got a couple standing ovations," he said.
Meanwhile, golfers who play on the LIV Tour, including Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson, seemingly welcomed the news. On Tuesday, the former joked that a "welfare check" should be conducted on Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee, who is one of LIV's sharpest critics.
Monahan’s decision was made after weeks of talks with Saudi Public Investment Fund officials as well as PGA Tour policy board members, per ESPN.
But his reverse course is notable, given the comments he made to CBS in an interview, exactly a year ago at the same tournament.
"I think you'd have to be living under a rock not to know there are significant implications," Monahan said at the time about the competing tour. "I would ask any player who has left or any player who would consider leaving, 'Have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?' "
Related: Tiger Woods Criticizes LIV Golf Players Who 'Turned Their Back' on PGA Tour
Now, however, the commissioner is speaking out about his change of heart.
"I recognize everything that I've said in the past and my prior positions. I recognize that people are going to call me a hypocrite," Monahan said in a press conference Tuesday. "Anytime I said anything, I said it with the information that I had at that moment, and I said it based on someone that's trying to compete for the PGA Tour and our players. I accept those criticisms, but circumstances do change. I think that in looking at the big picture and looking at it this way, that's what got us to this point."
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