Saudis ‘have signed up two former Ryder heroes’

THE civil war threatening to engulf golf took another bitter twist at the US Masters when it emerged that the rebel Saudi-backed golf series is claiming privately that it has recruited two former world No1 players, both Ryder Cup heroes, to its ranks as it begins the countdown to its launch in England this summer.

The backers of the breakaway Saudi series have spent the week hosting sponsors and golf executives at a sprawling mansion on the outskirts of Augusta, in competition with events organised here by the DP World Tour — formerly the European Tour — and the PGA Tour, which are fiercely opposed to the Saudi plans.

The Saudi tour, which will be known as the LIV Golf Invitational Series, had already cast a shadow over the Masters when three-time winner Phil Mickelson withdrew because of the furore that followed the publication of comments he made where he claimed the Saudis were ‘scary mother ******* ’ and that he had only flirted with involvement in the series to make more from the PGA Tour.

Mickelson was a conspicuous noshow at the Champions Dinner at Augusta last week, hosted by reigning champion Hideki Matsuyama.

Augusta chairman Fred Ridley insisted that Mickelson had not been banned and that the decision was Mickelson’s alone.

But the tensions are impossible to ignore. The top officials of the Asian Tour are not in Augusta after the tour’s acceptance of a $300 million investment from LivGolf, the body set up to oversee the Saudi bid to become major players in the sport.

The LIV Series will have a $250m prize fund and is thought to have

recruited more than 30 USPGA and European Tour professionals, with the two former world No1s leading the way.

It is believed it will attempt to pad out its numbers by targeting the cream of the world’s junior players ahead of its first event at the Centurion Golf Club in Hertfordshire on June 9.

Its main message in the series of dinners it hosted in Augusta was that it is not going away. It is expecting its series to get stronger and stronger as the world’s leading golfers see the money the initial crop of lesser players are earning and decide to join the rebel ranks.

The LivGolf events were held in the affluent West Lake area of Augusta, a few miles from the course. ‘They could not be much more obvious about parking their tanks on our lawn,’ one former European Tour executive said.

The LIV Series has still not released a list of those who will be playing in its series.