There was no shortage of unpleasant things the commissioner of America’s premier golf circuit, the PGA Tour, said about Saudi Arabia as an upstart league backed by the oil-rich kingdom began recruiting its high-profile players.
The Commissioner, Jay Monahan, lamented a “foreign monarchy spending billions of dollars trying to buy the game of golf”. He scoffed at players leaving for the new competition, dubbed LIV Golf, and alluded to the stain the Saudi government’s human rights abuses would leave on them.
But on Tuesday, he sat down next to the head of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund – both smiling jovially – for a televised interview to announce that the PGA Tour and LIV Golf formed a promising partnership.
“I recognize that people are going to call me a hypocrite,” Mr. Monahan said later that day. “But circumstances are changing.”
If the deal goes through, it will represent a huge victory for Saudi Arabia and its de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in the country’s bid to become a major player in global sport, giving the kingdom significant clout on the golf game. . But the significance of the moment transcends sports as Saudi Arabia under Prince Mohammed seeks greater political clout in the Middle East and beyond.
In recent weeks, the country has seen a flurry of diplomatic activity and some successes, including the opening of an embassy from its old regional rival, Iran, as the two countries move towards restoring normal relations.
And the golf deal is just the capstone of a busy week in which Prince Mohammed also hosts visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who represents another once-outspoken critic of the kingdom, President Biden. On the 2020 campaign trail, Mr Biden pledged to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” state over the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and other human rights abuses.
“I’m not going to lie. This is a moment enjoyed by many of us,” Prince Talal Al Faisal, a Saudi businessman and member of the royal family, said in an interview. Like many Saudis, the prince said he often found the flood of negative coverage of his country unfair or inaccurate.
“It gets to a point where you think to yourself, okay, this is hopeless,” he said. “And at that point you think, ‘Wait a minute, well, if you try hard enough, you’ll eventually get what you want.'”
Five years ago, this moment seemed almost impossible.
In 2018, Saudi agents killed and dismembered Mr. Khashoggi, a Saudi exile who had fled to the United States, at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul. The international condemnation was sharp and for a while it seemed that Prince Mohammed was isolated on the world stage.
A US intelligence investigation found that the crown prince likely ordered the assassination, a charge he has repeatedly denied.
The assassination was the culmination of a wider crackdown on dissent in Saudi Arabia that continues to this day. But the frosty mood didn’t last long.
Within months, US and European chief executives who had canceled their appearances at conferences in the kingdom quietly returned. Prince Mohammed told visitors he was determined to continue with his plan to diversify and socially open up the economy of the conservative Islamic kingdom.
Foreign leaders began to return for visits. Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which oversees approximately $650 billion in assets, continued to roll out high-profile investments around the world, such as LIV Golf.
As Prince Talal points out, “We are, whether we like it or not, at the center of many of the things that are happening around the world.”
Saudi Arabia’s attempts to enter the golf world had led, among other things, to an earlier approach by the PGA Tour about forming a partnership. But that approach was rejected, and it was only after the introduction of the rival LIV Gulf last year – which sparked a bloody legal battle and ultimately a series of secret meetings between PGA Tour leaders and Saudi officials – that Mr. Monahan and his lieutenants came . all around.
Saudis have become accustomed to their former critics changing tack.
In 2018, after Mr. Khashoggi’s assassination, South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham called Prince Mohammed “venomous” and a “wrecking ball”, promising he would never visit Saudi Arabia “as long as this man is in charge” . But in April, Mr. Graham to the Saudi capital of Riyadh and was photographed grinning with Prince Mohammed.
“Things in Saudi Arabia are changing very quickly for the better”, he told ABC after his visit. “His vision for the country economically is transformative.”
Indeed, in the space of five years Prince Mohammed has taken serious steps towards diversifying the oil-dependent economy, investing in mining, tourism and entertainment. Under him, the country ended the ban on women driving, significantly loosened gender segregation, and even promoted electronic music raves in the desert, ripping to shreds ideas of what was possible in the kingdom.
“Keeping up with Saudi Arabia is not only difficult for non-Saudis, but for Saudis themselves,” said Bader Al-Saif, an assistant professor of history at the University of Kuwait. “This shock-and-awe approach hopes to deliver faster results than those of previous waves in Saudi history,” he added.
During Mr Blinken’s visit to the kingdom this week, he will attend a meeting of a global coalition to counter the Islamic State terror group. For Prince Mohammed, this summit is another chance to show his leadership.
He was keen to hedge against Saudi Arabia’s former dependence on the United States, its main security guarantor.
“The relationship now seems more like the way the US compares to some European partners,” said Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scientist at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. “Security cooperation is essential and maintained by both sides, but the Saudis are flexing their muscles in an effort to become a significant regional and international player in a world where power is scattered, and the US is choosing their fight much more carefully.”
Just days before Mr Blinken’s arrival on Tuesday, Prince Mohammed welcomed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro for a visit. Next week, the Saudi Ministry of Investment will host a large gathering of Arab and Chinese businessmen.
And, at least for a few days, the kingdom can continue to bask in the glow of its wave victory.
The head of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, Yasir al-Rumayyan, will also lead the board of the new golf entity, although the PGA Tour will hold a majority of the board seats. The endowment fund has the exclusive right to invest in the new company in the future, opening the door for the company to increase its stake in the years to come.
The deal protects Mr. al-Rumayyan, a golf enthusiast, opposed the prospect of being impeached and investigated in US courtrooms, a risk that had surfaced during the legal battles the PGA Tour and LIV golf were fighting over their deal.
The sovereign wealth fund has also seen rapid returns with its investment in English football club Newcastle United, which qualified for the UEFA Champions League just 18 months after purchase.
Critics have accused Saudi Arabia of using its purchasing power in sports to distract from its poor human rights record, allegations Saudi officials have dismissed.
During his meeting with Prince Mohammed on Tuesday, Mr Blinken stressed “that our bilateral relationship is strengthened by progress on human rights,” said Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
But for Saudis whose relatives are in prison, the target of the crackdown, such words offer little comfort.
Abdullah al-Qahtani, a dual Saudi American citizen, has not heard from his father, Mohammed al-Qahtani, since October, when he disappeared shortly before he was due to be released from a Saudi prison. He had served a 10-year prison sentence in connection with establishing a human rights organization.
“It’s getting to the point where all doors are closing in front of our eyes,” the younger Mr al-Qahtani said at a virtual press conference on Tuesday. “What I want is to expose his problem because they need to know. I know that Minister Blinken will be in Saudi Arabia. He must bring up my father’s situation.’
Alan Blinder contributed reporting from Atlanta.
