What Saudi Arabia Really Wants Out of LIV Golf

July 28, 2022

This week, the Saudi-funded LIV Golf Invitational series is holding its third-ever tournament, LIV Bedminster, at a golf course owned by former president Donald Trump. Now there’s a sentence that our 2015 selves—even our 2020 selves—couldn’t have imagined writing. But here we are, and we need to come to grips with some complex topics. That’s why Brendan Quinn’s article “LIV Golf and the king-sized ambition behind a game on the bring,” published yesterday in The Athletic, is so valuable. It calls on the expertise of those who have been studying Saudi Arabia and its royal family for decades, and presents a clear, detailed picture of where LIV Golf came from, how it’s financed, and how it fits into the Saudi government’s plans for the future. Brendan discusses all of this and more with Garrett Morrison in this episode.