Henrik Stenson has not won since 2017 and like García, Poulter, Mickelson and Westwood is being paid on name not formSportswashing is not supposed to make commercial sense. Therein lies the reason that no normally functioning business saw fit to throw hundreds of millions of dollars at a disruption plan for golf. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) can attempt to rebrand a kingdom for which the murder of a journalist and human rights atrocities are typical reference points with the benefit of an apparently bottomless pit of cash. If the PGA and DP World Tours find themselves embroiled in a commercial long game with the Saudi-backed LIV Series, they know they will be outmuscled.Events of recent days did, however,...
The European Tour breaks new and controversial ground in the Middle East this week, with Justin Rose among the players being paid up to $1m to compete in the Saudi InternationalIn a flawlessly manicured instance of cosmic timing, last Sunday saw Justin Rose become the sixth golfer to surpass $50m in PGA Tour earnings. With his win at the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego, the world No 1 now sits on a total of $51.02m, and counting. That, however, does not include his European Tour earnings, which currently stand at a further €27.25m. And counting. Related: European Tour makes a serious bogey in visiting Saudi Arabia | Ewan Murray Continue reading...
There has been needle in the past, with Poulter’s attempt to bracket himself with Woods raising eyebrows, but now they meet in Augusta’s third round amid contrasting comebacksTiger Woods and Ian Poulter have history with capital H. As they formed a four-hour morning two ball at Augusta National on Saturday, with hopes of Masters triumph having evaporated at equal time but with contrasting effect, the hope is they reflected on such jousts of old. Woods and Poulter, for different reasons, also contributed so much to the buildup to this major championship.Poulter infamously laid down his professional credentials in affirmative terms a decade ago. “The trouble is I don’t rate anyone else,” the Englishman said. “Don’t get me wrong, I really...
Players Championship runner-up has been accused of ‘not playing to win’ at Sawgrass – but sensible strategy was the right approach in the circumstancesA fortnight ago, Ian Poulter could only have dreamed about being part of such a discussion. As it transpires, the Englishman’s runner-up finish at the Players Championship – a terrific achievement, given the context – has triggered a curious debate among analysts. The accusation is this: that Poulter was overly conservative over the closing stretch at Sawgrass where, to the extent as believed by the Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee, he “clearly did not play to win”.Poulter immediately and understandably took umbrage with such sentiment. If there was ever a time to have a pop at him, this...