When a Saudi-backed burgeoning golf league began recruiting top-flight players from the top US circuit, the American Tour commissioner lamented a “foreign monarchy spending billions of dollars to buy the game of golf.”
Commissioner Jay Monahan, who runs the PGA Tour, berated players who left the tournament the new league, LIV Gulf, hinting at the stain the Saudi government’s human rights abuses would leave on them. But on Tuesday, Mr. Monahan sat smiling with the head of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund and announced that the PGA Tour and LIV Golf would shape what they promise a lucrative partnership.
“I realize people are going to call me a hypocrite,” Mr. Monahan later said. “But circumstances are changing.”
If the deal goes ahead, it will represent a huge victory for Saudi Arabia and its de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in becoming a major player in global sport and giving the kingdom significant influence over the world to provide golf. But the significance of this moment goes beyond sport as Saudi Arabia under Prince Mohammed seeks greater political influence in the Middle East and beyond.
In recent weeks, Saudi Arabia has seen a flurry of diplomatic activity and some successes, including the opening of an embassy by its longtime regional rival Iran, as the two countries prepare for a rapprochement restoration of normal relationships.
And the Gulf deal is just the capstone of a busy week that will see Prince Mohammed host US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who came to visit on Tuesday night.
Mr Blinken represents another once vocal critic of the kingdom, President Biden. Campaigning in 2020, Mr. Biden promised to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” state above the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggiand other human rights violations.
“I won’t lie. This is a moment that many of us are enjoying,” Prince Talal Al Faisal, a Saudi businessman and member of the royal family, said in an interview. Like many Saudis, the prince said he felt the barrage of negative reporting about his country was often unfair or inaccurate.
“It gets to a point where you’re like, ‘Okay, this is hopeless,'” he said. “And a moment like that makes you think, ‘Wait a minute, if you try hard enough, you’re going to get your way.'”
Five years ago, this moment would have seemed virtually impossible.
In 2018 Saudi agents murdered and dismembered Mr. Khashoggi, a Saudi exile who fled to the United States, at the Kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul. International condemnation was harsh and for a short time it seemed that Prince Mohammed faced isolation on the world stage.
A assessment of the American secret service concluded that the crown prince probably ordered the killing, an accusation he has repeatedly denied.
The murder was the climax a more comprehensive crackdown on dissenting opinions in Saudi Arabia, which continues to this day. But the icy mood didn’t last long.
Within months, American and European business leaders were canceling their appearances at conferences in the kingdom came back quietly. Prince Mohammed told visitors that he was determined to move on his diversification plan to strengthen the economy of the conservative Islamic kingdom and open it up to society.
Foreign leaders returned for visits. Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which has around $650 billion in assets under management, has continued to make high-profile investments like LIV Golf around the world.
As Prince Talal states, “Like it or not, we are central to a lot of things happening around the world.”
Saudi Arabia’s attempts to break into the world of golf also included an earlier approach from the PGA Tour about starting a partnership. That approach was rejected, however, and it was only after the launch of rival LIV Golf last year – sparking a heated legal battle and eventually a series of secret meetings between PGA Tour leaders and Saudi officials – that Mr Monahan and his lieutenants perished.
The Saudis have gotten used to their former critics changing course.
In 2018, following the killing of Mr. Khashoggi, South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham called Prince Mohammed “poisonous” and a “wrecking ball” He vowed he would never visit Saudi Arabia “while this guy is in charge.” But in April, Mr Graham traveled to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and was photographed grinning with Prince Mohammed.
“Things are changing for the better very quickly in Saudi Arabia” he told ABC after his visit. “His vision for the country is economically transformative.”
In fact, within five years, Prince Mohammed has made serious strides in diversifying the oil-dependent economy by investing in mining, tourism and entertainment. Below him the land A driving ban for women was liftedgreatly loosened gender segregation and even encouraged electronic music raves in the desert, tearing apart ideas about what was possible in the kingdom.
“Keeping up with Saudi Arabia is difficult not only for non-Saudis but also for the Saudis themselves,” said Bader Al-Saif, assistant professor of history at the University of Kuwait. “This shocking and awe-inspiring approach hopes to yield faster results than those achieved in previous waves in Saudi Arabia’s history,” he added.
During Mr Blinken’s visit to the Kingdom this week, he will attend a meeting of a global coalition fighting the Islamic State terror group. For Prince Mohammed, this summit is another chance to demonstrate his leadership.
He was anxious to hedge against Saudi Arabia’s past dependence on the United States, its main security guarantor.
“The relationship now is more like the way the US is dealing with some European partners,” said Hussein Ibish, a senior researcher at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. “Security cooperation is key and maintained by both sides, but the Saudis are flexing their muscles to become a regional and international player of importance in a world where power is dispersed and the US chooses its battles much more cautiously. “
Just days before Mr Blinken’s arrival on Tuesday, Prince Mohammed welcomed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro for a visit. Next week, the Saudi Investment Ministry will host a major gathering of Arab and Chinese businessmen.
And for a few days at least, the kingdom can continue to revel in the glory of its golf victory.
Saudi sovereign wealth fund chief Yasir al-Rumayyan will also head the board of the new golf company, although the PGA Tour will hold the majority of the board seats. The wealth fund has the exclusive right to invest in the new company going forward, giving it the opportunity to increase its stake in the coming years.
The deal protects Mr al-Rumayyan, a golf enthusiast, from the prospect of being deported and tried in American courtrooms, a risk he faced during the legal battles between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf before their deal.
The sovereign wealth fund was also able to achieve rapid success with its investment in the English football club Newcastle United qualified for the UEFA Champions League just 18 months after purchase.
Critics accused Saudi Arabia of using its purchasing power in sport to distract from its poor human rights record. Saudi Arabian officials have denied these allegations.
In his meeting with Prince Mohammed on Tuesday, Mr Blinken “stressed that our bilateral ties will be strengthened by advances on human rights,” said Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman.
But for Saudis, whose family members remain in prison and targeted by the raids, such words are of little comfort.
Abdullah al-Qahtani, a dual Saudi citizen, has not heard from his father. Mohammed al-Qahtani, since October, when he disappeared from a Saudi prison shortly before his scheduled release. He had served a 10-year sentence in connection with founding a human rights organization.
“We’re getting to the point where all the doors are slamming in our face,” the younger Mr. al-Qahtani said during a virtual news conference on Tuesday. “I want to bring his problem to light because they need to know. I know Minister Blinken will be in Saudi Arabia. He needs to bring up my father’s situation.”
Alan Blinder contributed to reporting from Atlanta.
