This week the Ladies European Tour moves to Sotogrande for round three of the Aramco Team Series, a series backed by Saudi money with Aramco the world’s largest oil producer.
There will be a wealth of Solheim Cup stars on show joining the likes of the Korda sisters in Spain. This is big business with a total prize pot of $1m which is a substantial uplift on many of the tournaments on the calendar – for the record Golf Saudi currently backs six events on the LET, five of which are the Aramco Team Series.
This year’s golfing headlines have been absolutely dominated by the never-ending talk and rumours surrounding LIV Golf as the men’s game has been fractured beyond belief – imagine at the start of the year the likes of Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka not featuring in the FedEx Cup Playoffs or the likes of Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter putting a line through their hopes to one day becoming a Ryder Cup captain.
The inaugural LIV Golf Invitational took place on June 9-11 at Centurion Club and the event was dominated by the howls of outrage over the players taking the Saudi money, a week later the women of the LET were playing at the same course, in an event also backed by the same money, and there wasn’t a hint of any criticism.
Dame Laura Davies, who will be featuring at Sotogrande this week, remains one of the most forthright voices in the game so who better to ask why the double standards?
“This is a completely different thing, LIV Golf is wealthy players getting wealthier and I would never criticise players for any decision that they make as we’re all self-employed. On the women’s side it’s prize money where the girls can make enough money in the Aramco Series to pay for their season with a couple of good finishes – that’s all that the LET want, to provide for the players and, if the LET is strong, then that can only be good for women’s golf,” the 58-year-old explains.
“The LPGA Tour has huge money but not everyone can play on it. The Aramco Team Series is giving girls the option to be able to play a full season and make money -…
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