The widow of journalist Jamal Khashoggi didn’t hold back when discussing the 48 players who competed in the LIV Golf Invitational Series London event over the weekend.
Saying they are “complicit in the whitewashing of Saudi Arabia’s reputation” Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi’s widow, said the players should be banned from all major tournaments.
“If they still carry on and play as if everything is normal, then they should be banned from playing in the world’s major tournaments,” she told USA Today. “This will show that there are consequences for supporting murderers, and it will show the murderers that they are not escaping justice.”
All of the players who competed in London have been suspended by the PGA Tour, but the PGA Tour does not have the authority to ban players from the four major championships.
The United States Golf Association (USGA) which runs this week’s U.S. Open has already said all eligible LIV golfers will be allowed to play
“Our decision regarding our field for the 2022 U.S. Open should not be construed as the USGA supporting an alternative organizing entity, nor supportive of any individual player actions or comments,’’ the USGA said in its statement. “Rather, it is simply a response to whether or not the USGA views playing in an alternative event, without the consent of their home tour, an offense that should disqualify them for the U.S. Open.’’
The governing bodies of The Masters, the Open Championship and the PGA Championship have not commented on whether they would ban players from their respective tournaments.
“They should be insisting on justice for Jamal and the countless persons targeted and abused in the Kingdom,” Cengiz said. “They should not be participating in sports paid for by the very abusers.”
The London event, won by 2011 Masters champion Charl Schwartzel, also featured major champions Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia among others. Bryson DeChambeau, the 2020 U.S. Open champion, has said he will be leaving the PGA Tour to join the rival LIV Series.
Mickelson, one of the leading proponents of the LIV Series, was repeatedly asked about Saudi Arabia and human rights violations in the press conference leading up the event.
“I don’t condone human rights violations at all. Nobody here does,” he said.
“I’m aware of what has happened with Jamal Khashoggi and it’s terrible. I have also seen the good that the game of golf has done throughout history and I believe LIV Golf is going to do a lot of good for the game as well.
“I don’t condone human rights violations. I don’t know how I can be more clear.”
Mickelson is reportedly being paid $200 million to play in the LIV Series, while Schwartzel won $4 million for the 54-hole event. By comparison, Justin Thomas took home $2.7 million for winning last month’s second major of the year the PGA Championship. Masters champion Scottie Scheffler won roughly the same amount at the first major in April.
Últimas Noticias
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
