Saudi-funded LIV Golf Invitational Series

[deankham]

^ quite right Barney. Plenty of available employment all over the middle east but with very few thais filling the jobs (apart from the massage shops in Bahrain).

Hundreds of thousands of Flippas, Nepali's, Indians, etc, etc all who can speak good english and happy to take the money.

[stattointhailand]

Do they have the sam H & S regs as Quatar? If so I really need to help a couple of cousins with their English

[deankham]

^ The main contractors are good, almost works class , 3rd and 4th tier contractors about as good as H&S on the village farm

[Barney]

^ quite right Barney. Plenty of available employment all over the middle east but with very few thais filling the jobs (apart from the massage shops in Bahrain).

Hundreds of thousands of Flippas, Nepali's, Indians, etc, etc all who can speak good english and happy to take the money.

Philipinos can’t enter Saudi at the moment. Unless already having a visa.
Point is Thai males will get a chance now.
Just talking work in Saudi. Not the rest of Middle East.


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[AlexO]

Now all is forgiven between Saudi and Thailand with the doors opening for employment opportunities I hope some UM members do not discourage any close by relos from going abroad to find the pot of gold.
The need for a little English will now sink home to some younger ones.
Probably a trillion bucks worth of construction coming up in Saudi plus all the services the tag along with that.


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Did not take long before LIV Golf was not the subject anymore

[pepesgrill]

so yank phil mickelson got thrown under bus for broaching topic and the little brown noser leprechaun mcilroy getting max suckup points

[AlexO]

so yank phil mickelson got thrown under bus for broaching topic and the little brown noser leprechaun mcilroy getting max suckup points

Troll Alert, Troll Alert.

[AlexO]

so yank phil mickelson got thrown under bus for broaching topic and the little brown noser leprechaun mcilroy getting max suckup points

Troll Alert, Troll Alert.

Caution!! Super Troll has woken up. Excessive bullpoo coming your way.

[Barney]

so yank phil mickelson got thrown under bus for broaching topic and the little brown noser leprechaun mcilroy getting max suckup points

Troll Alert, Troll Alert.

Caution!! Super Troll has woken up. Excessive bullpoo coming your way.

You certainly called it early Alex, didn’t take long for LIV golf to go by the wayside.
2 in a row is a winner


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[pepesgrill]

Troll Alert, Troll Alert.

i know rory mcilroy is " your boy" it sends you spinning over edge if someone gives you the
straight dope. but calling others money grabbers?

he has literally 5-6 major sponsors whose multi-year contracts total hundreds of millions $

[tamada]

For your regular oil and gas man, construction worker, welder or electrician, it's not money grabbing. I have worked in KSA on three occasions including my very first overseas work. The last two gigs were working directly for Aramco. Each time I leave, I say that's the last time but if they call me tomorrow, I'm in.

I go there to earn money for my family and their future. When it comes to the LIV players, just how much money do you need for yourself, your family and your future? I am confident that a fair few of them already have all sorts of charities to tax launder their earnings. You know, those thoughtfully named entities that sink about half the winnings into "administration" costs?

LIV is simply sports washing. The sign-on fee alone is the equivalent of an entire Championship team's payroll. When I first worked there, the incentive was an end-of-contract bonus. I almost bought Patong Beach with mine way back in 1979. The Saudi's have to pay higher-profile sporting elites to get off any moral high horse they ever before they'll consider joining the club.

I hear that that the once great golfing moral cowboy Tiger Woods spurned their offers. If any professional golfer badly needs an 'end-of-contract' bonus, I would reckon he's the one.

'Norman told the Post's Kent Babb that Woods was offered a "mind-blowingly enormous" deal
“We’re talking about high nine digits,” Norman told The Washington Post.
Woods rejected the offer.
That means Woods turned down $1 billion.'

Nice one Tiger. That's 'my boy'!

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/golf/ne ... opti1fsntv

[tamada]

Bit embarrassing to hear some professional golfers responses when put on the spot. With Poulter and Westwood questioned on a point of morality (If Vladimir Putin had a tournament, would you play?), they chose to obfuscate and conflate speculation with hypothetical, thus leaving lingering questions on their education as well as to their morals.

https://twitter.com/SkySportsGolf/statu ... 6590639108

More recently, on saying he will appeal the PGA ban, Poulter got his other foot in his mouth when he handily threw Japan into his list of countries with questionable ethics or human rights that he's previously played golf in without censure.

The Saudi's reportedly gave Norman a $3 billion budget to poach the best players. Rather than waste it trying to get Tiger onside, maybe they should have invested some of that in some PR coaching for these golfing twits? Even the Myanmar junta employed a PR spin doctor. Ari Ben-Menashe, a Tehran-born, Israeli-Canadian lobbyist's resume was impressive having previously worked for Zimbabwean ruler Robert Mugabe, Sudan’s military junta and presidential candidates in Venezuela, Tunisia and Kyrgyzstan, among others. I'm sure he'll fit right in at LIV but allegedly he's not cheap.

[AlexO]

The Saudi's reportedly gave Norman a $3 billion budget to poach the best players.

Obvious failure there then.
Apart from perhaps two, most of the players presently in the LIV tour are past their prime and in Phil M's case could and should be playing in the over 50's tour. For players such as Westwood, Poulter and Garcia its really just mega appearance money now, as their chances of winning anything on the PGA or Race to Dubai tours is becoming more and more remote each year.

[tamada]

Saudi rebel tour apologises after ejecting journalist as Greg Norman watched on

'Alan Shipnuck, the US journalist who wrote Phil Mickelson’s revelatory biography, has received an apology from the Saudi rebel circuit after being “muscled out” of the six-time major winner’s press conference here at the Centurion Club - while Greg Norman watched on behind him.

Norman, the chief executive of the LIV Golf Series whose $25million opener is under way in Hemel Hempstead, told Shipnuck by text that he had “not heard” of his removal from the media centre after the conclusion of first-round play. ..'

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/golf/2022/0 ... eg-norman/

Take a look at Norman's face in the picture of the incident that he says he had “not heard” of.

Lucky for this Shipnuck chap that he was left with all his limbs intact, eh?

[stattointhailand]

What I find amazing is the sheer cheek of the PGA. All the years they were poaching the best European players away from the European Tour to go play in their MegaBux Tour, that was just a case of well the players want to play on our tour because its the best and most lucrative and the players should be able to choose when and where they play, then as soon as someone else threatens their hold on the sport ......... panick/rules/regulations/need controls/threat to our gravy train/etc

[jackspratt]

What I find amazing is that anyone cares.

There is very little loyalty in professional sport, and professional sportspersons are going (and are entitled) to pursue the best buck they can make.

Greg Norman - to quote one of our esteemed members - "fake Aussie".

[tamada]

What I find amazing is the sheer cheek of the PGA. All the years they were poaching the best European players away from the European Tour to go play in their MegaBux Tour, that was just a case of well the players want to play on our tour because its the best and most lucrative and the players should be able to choose when and where they play, then as soon as someone else threatens their hold on the sport ......... panick/rules/regulations/need controls/threat to our gravy train/etc

Seems to have worked for the Toon, no? Jumping onto deep pile Arabian magic carpets?

[stattointhailand]

Worked for the European Tour as well ........... and Oxford & Cambridge University ....... and lord knows how many others too numerous to mention.

As it happens the toon have made 5 signings since the Saudi takeover and none beat their record signing made under Ashley

[AlexO]

What I find amazing is the sheer cheek of the PGA. All the years they were poaching the best European players away from the European Tour to go play in their MegaBux Tour, that was just a case of well the players want to play on our tour because its the best and most lucrative and the players should be able to choose when and where they play, then as soon as someone else threatens their hold on the sport ......... panick/rules/regulations/need controls/threat to our gravy train/etc

Statts
I think you will find that its not so much "poaching" as 'accepting' the most successful players from the European Tours applications to join the PGA Tour. Obviously the better players see the PGA tour as the more lucrative and gives them the chance to enhance earning potential not only in prize money but sponsors paying more for increased exposure to the larger audiences both attending and viewing via PFV media. The good thing is the European Tour does not ban outright players who play mostly over the pond but they do allow players to keep their Euro cards and can play in the Euro Tours more attractive matches. Time will tell if the LIV Tour flourishes or just withers away. Will depend if they can attract more of the current crop of top players methinks.

[tamada]

What I find amazing is the sheer cheek of the PGA. All the years they were poaching the best European players away from the European Tour to go play in their MegaBux Tour, that was just a case of well the players want to play on our tour because its the best and most lucrative and the players should be able to choose when and where they play, then as soon as someone else threatens their hold on the sport ......... panick/rules/regulations/need controls/threat to our gravy train/etc

Statts
I think you will find that its not so much "poaching" as 'accepting' the most successful players from the European Tours applications to join the PGA Tour. Obviously the better players see the PGA tour as the more lucrative and gives them the chance to enhance earning potential not only in prize money but sponsors paying more for increased exposure to the larger audiences both attending and viewing via PFV media. The good thing is the European Tour does not ban outright players who play mostly over the pond but they do allow players to keep their Euro cards and can play in the Euro Tours more attractive matches. Time will tell if the LIV Tour flourishes or just withers away. Will depend if they can attract more of the current crop of top players methinks.

So we are in broad, general agreement that some professional golfers have graduated from being nothing more than selfish money grabbers to amoral, selfish money grabbers.

Sorted.