9/11 Families Send Letter To The American Golfers Sportwashing For Saudi Arabia

/

Next week’s U.S. Open is the first in Boston since 1988 and also the first since 9/11 when 15 of the 19 hackers were from Saudi Arabia, as was ringleader Osama bin Laden. As most know by now, the hijackers had multiple problematic ties to the government, with much of the information only coming out thanks to the persistence of victim families. And of the terrorists at Al Qaeda, like like LIV Golf, enjoyed Saudi funding.

Two flights hijacked on that awful day from Boston’s Logan Airport eventually flew into the World Trade Center, killing thousands.

With all of this horror in mind, families of 9/11 victims have sent a letter to Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed and Kevin Na expressing outrage for participating in the new Saudi-backed LIV Golf league, reports the New York Post’s Brian Wacker.

“As a freedom-loving American, I am grateful to have the freedom of choice where I work and who I work for, and I respect your right as well,” wrote Terry Strada, the organization’s national chair and a mother of three whose husband, Tom, was on the 104th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center during the attacks. “As a 9/11 widow, I feel compelled to help you understand the level of depravity the Kingdom engaged in when it knowingly sent government agents here to establish the support network needed for those hijackers.

“As you may know, Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers were Saudis. It was the Saudis who cultivated and spread the evil, hate-filled Islamist ideology that inspired the violent jihadists to carry out the deadly 9/11 attacks.  And, most egregiously, it is the Kingdom that has spent 20 years in denial: lying about their activities, and cowardly dodging the responsibility they bear. Yet these are your partners, and much to our disappointment, you appear pleased to be in business with them.

“Given Saudi Arabia’s role in the death of our loved ones and those injured on 9/11—your fellow Americans—we are angered that you are so willing to help the Saudis cover up this history in their request for ‘respectability.’  When you partner with the Saudis, you become complicit with their whitewash, and help give them the reputational cover they so desperately crave—and are willing to pay handsomely to manufacture. The Saudis do not care about the deep-rooted sportsmanship of golf or its origins as a gentleman’s game built upon core values of mutual respect and personal integrity.  They care about using professional golf to whitewash their reputation, and they are paying you to help them do it.”

Meanwhile, the LIV Golf league’s backers in Saudi Arabia continue to withhold oil production, which when combined with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has led to record prices.

The Day That Will Live In Rich, Greedy And Egomaniacal Golf History

/

The Curtis Cup At Merion Is Here!

/

It's Only Day One: Phil Mickelson, Greg Norman Stay True To The Values Of Their Saudi Arabian Benefactors

/

We all get that Phil Mickelson didn’t like Alan Shipnuck’s book or the things he said about the Saudis. But for Mickelson, ravaged by gambling debt, to ultimate land a big payday from the Public Investment Fund should put a smile on his face. This is what he’s always dreamed of, growing the game at a rural upscale London club with some of the game’s least likable former stars and young guns who were in the right place at the right time!

So you’d think he might let bygones be…uh no.

Shipnuck flew to London last minute without a credential to cover the LIV Invitational at Centurion, was later granted a press pass, and when he turned up for Mickelson’s post-round remarks, was ordered to leave after being seen by Lefty.  Alan’s post and

Not a great look there for Mickelson instructor Andrew Getson or Greg Norman, who seem to be enjoying the moment.

Later on, Shipnuck revealed that he felt a presence behind him as he quarreled with security and shared his texts with Norman. Who, it turned out, was watching it all and not looking a day under 100.

The memes are flowing…

Quadrilateral: Major(s) News & Notes, June 9, 2022

/

Tour Sources Begin Spilling On Defectors Bryson DeChambeau And Patrick Reed

/

While they sound happy to see both go, the amount of First World dirt spilled on Bryson DeChambeau to Golf Digest’s Dan Rapaport suggests his impending LIV departure for a $100 million advance really stings.

And it should. DeChambeau is a draw. Reed is not and never will be.

From Rapaport:

DeChambeau’s defiant and often erratic behavior began shortly after he played his way onto the PGA Tour in 2016. At an AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am early in his career, DeChambeau unleashed a profanity-laced tirade on a volunteer who failed to spot his errant ball. The incident was reported up the chain of command and, per sources familiar with the tour’s operations, almost certainly resulted in discipline. The tour didn’t speak to the incident, as is their long-standing policy, but according to one tour player, a similar situation played out years later at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.

In the summer of 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, tour officials and volunteers were instructed to be particularly conscious of where people could and could not go. After pounding range balls long after sundown, DeChambeau attempted to enter a building without his credential. When he was denied access, he grew agitated. Shortly thereafter, a tour official addressed the incident with an adamant DeChambeau, who was dumbfounded that the volunteer did not recognize him. This was the same week he objected to a cameraman following him for too long, after which he took a thinly veiled shot at the PGA Tour.

The story goes on to detail how Justine Reed had a direct line to a Tour executive who had to play the role of Team Reed concierge. Hope the benefits package for whoever that is included therapy and extra vacation time!

Soul Machine! Watch Jack's Final "Content" For Nicklaus Companies

/

When Jack Nicklaus resigned last month from the Nicklaus Companies we assumed it was over an oldmanspat with Howard Milstein. A lawsuit since means the two will be going at it for a while in legal proceedings. But they bonded over the metaverse one last time!

We now get to see the final contribution of Nicklaus to the Nicklaus Companies and 8 a.m. family of brands before saying sayonara.

First, the full and and wildly entertaining release followed by Nicklaus interviewing Bernhard Langer…errr…avatar Jack.

SOUL MACHINES ANNOUNCES NEW ENTERTAINMENT DIVISION

June 7, 2022

Partners with Nicklaus Companies to launch the inaugural Digital Twin of Jack Nicklaus to engage with fans and brands to bring interactive sporting and entertainment experiences online 

SAN FRANCISCO, CA. – June 7, 2022 – Soul Machines, the groundbreaking company pioneering the creation of autonomously animated Digital People in the metaverse and the digital worlds of today, announced today the launch of a new Entertainment division with the goal of creating unique and highly personalized experiences redefining fan engagement and entertainment enterprise.

Bingo board full after one graph!

On the heels of a recent US$70 million Series B1 round (led by new investor SoftBank Vision Fund 2), this new business division will launch its inaugural Digital Person – an avatar of legendary American professional golfer Jack Nicklaus through a partnership with the Nicklaus Companies. 

With this launch, Soul Machines continues its quest to redefine the future of digital entertainment with hyper-realistic Digital Twins of real-life celebrities, professional athletes, entertainers, and public figures.  Avatars, like  ‘Digital Jack’ — which depicts Nicklaus at age 38, the height of his playing career — are autonomously animated using AI and natural language processing to depict their real-life counterparts in digital spaces. ‘Digital Jack’ has the ability to provide a range of user experiences by answering questions from fans and providing insight based on more than 60 years of memories. Digital Twins also offers exciting opportunities for companies to incorporate these avatars as digital brand ambassadors, elevating the future of Brand Experience.   

Future content will have Digital Jack declaring his love and admiration for all things Howard Milstein!

“Our hope is to enrich the entertainment space with our humanized AI platform. Because Digital People are constantly learning, they present uncapped potential to interact with fans through empathetic and personalized experiences across cultures, languages, and geographic regions 24/7,” Cross added. “As a result, we have observed an increase in brand loyalty and customer engagement when digital avatars enable entertainers to broaden their reach.”

“I have always valued the ability to connect with golfers through golf course design and my writings. By teaming up with the innovative team at Soul Machines to create my Digital Twin, I now have the ability to share my passion, stories, and philosophies for the sport with generations to come, and am excited to be a part of this new and thrilling frontier,” said Jack Nicklaus.

And now a word from the man suing Jack.

“Quality is the foundation upon which Jack’s legacy is built,” said Howard Milstein, Executive Chairman of the Nicklaus Companies. “Just as Jack is the gold standard against which the golf world is measured, our goal in this effort is to create the industry standard avatar that advances this new frontier of artificial intelligence and the metaverse. In addition to the exciting technology, this new collaboration is another step in the institutionalization of the Jack Nicklaus brand, which was a goal he had many years ago,” Milstein added. “Jack wanted to ensure his company would live on, and—as with everything he’s done in his illustrious career—he’s succeeding beyond all expectations.”

For your sake, hopefully not in court!

Soul Machines’ new Entertainment division will be headquartered in Los Angeles; ‘Digital Jack’ is the newest addition to the company’s already impressive celebrity roster which includes NBA All-Star and entrepreneur Carmelo Anthony, launching later this summer at Collision, and music sensation will.i.am. Upcoming Digital People in the new Entertainment division include Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe, in partnership with Authentic Brands Group (ABG), owner of the Marilyn Monroe Estate, and K Pop superstar Mark Tuan of Got7.  More on these partnerships will be announced at a later date.

Can’t…wait.

Watch GMac's Classy Brand Melt Before Your Eyes

/

You can watch the Ryder Cup captaincy and broadcast gig slipping away as he admirably tries to answer what other players wouldn’t even address. Still, a sad sight for someone.

Under questioning from AP’s Rob Harris at the LIV London opening tournament, Graeme McDowell does better than moderator Ari Fleischer who brushed off his past Tweets about Saudi Arabia.

Things reportedly grew testy and Harris was escorted out of the room by security and later allowed to return.

But they are trying to keep media from becoming thirsty. Nice work from ESPN’s Kevin Van Valkenburg to share all of this from the proceedings.

Mickelson To Play Majors Again; U.S. Open Final Qualifying Roundup

/

Mickelson Grabs The Scary @#$%@#&^%$%@#'s Money, Intends To Still Play Majors

/

Mark Cannizzaro of the New York Post had it first and led with: “The Great White Shark has caught his biggest fish.”

Commissioner Greg Norman is happy to have landed Mickelson. For now.

“Phil Mickelson is unequivocally one of the greatest golfers of this generation,’’ Norman said. “His contributions to the sport and connection to fans around the globe cannot be overstated and we are grateful to have him. He strengthens an exciting field for London where we’re proud to launch a new era for golf.”

Not long after the story broke, Mickelson issued the above statement announcing his return while maintaining a plan for continued therapy and his intention to play the major championships. Presumably next week’s U.S. Open is a go.

Mickelson made the back cover of the New York Post:

"The LIV Golf broadcast will be unlike anything fans have seen before"

/

Where have we heard that before? Oh right, Fox Sports with Greg Norman as its lead analyst. We know Fox did end up innovating, raising bars and showing new ways to televise golf. Perhaps the LIV streams will do that, though given the complexity of televising golf on short notice, the first impressions could be rough.

In announcing their uninspired broadcasting team, the Chief Media Officer of throwing out a lot of superlatives instead of suggesting a goal of getting to new places.

“The LIV Golf broadcast will be unlike anything fans have seen before,” said Will Staeger, LIV Golf Chief Media Officer. “The innovations we are introducing to the sport will be distributed to existing and new audiences all over the world as we deliver golf coverage dedicated to entertainment and access. We’ve built a world class production team that has combined the industry’s best practices with a reimagined experience for viewers to create a one-of-a-kind broadcast. We’ve been counting down the days to Thursday’s start so fans can tune in and watch what we have been working on.”

The broadcast will be available on LIVGolf.com, YouTube and Facebook. 

Besides prying Jerry Foltz away from Golf Channel LPGA on-course reporting duties to be the analyst after Darren Clarke said no, the rollout suggests plenty in the golf broadcasting world passed. From Bob Harig’s Morning Read story:

Arlo White, the voice of the Premier League in the United States for nearly a decade, will handle lead play by play duties.

Foltz, who played professionally for more than 15 years, has spent more than two decades as an analyst, play-by-play host, studio host, instructional series host and on-course reporter. Foltz has been an on-course reporter for various tours, with a focus as a leading voice for the LPGA Tour. 

The three-person booth will be completed with Dom Boulet, a former player on the Asian Tour who is widely known throughout Asia as the voice of golf.

Well he’s got that going for him.

Su-Ann Heng, a former No. 1 ranked golfer of her native Singapore and six-time member of the Singapore Ladies National Team, will lead on-course commentating. An experienced golf analyst with networks including FOX Sports Asia, she has covered women’s major championships and hosted marquee global events for more than seven years.

Troy Mullins will serve as an on-course reporter and social influencer for LIV Golf. Mullins is a former Women’s Long Drive Record Holder (402 yards) and a regular contributor on the Golf Channel. 

White was expensive to pry away from his NBC duties hosting Premier League, reports Andrew Marchand of the New York Post.

And White, not surprisingly, will be paid very handsomely, according to sources. We do not have exact figures, but White has gone from making hundreds of thousands per year to millions in the move, according to sources. And we are told besides the eight-to-ten events for LIV, White is still allowed to add a soccer component to his duties. 

White had been NBC’s lead Premier League soccer play-by-player and has been the game-caller on Apple TV’s “Ted Lasso” series. (By the way, he will continue on “Ted Lasso,” The Post has learned.)

The shows will be run by former Golf Channel producer Keith Hirshland, the husband of current United States Olympic Committee CEO and former USGA executive Sarah Hirshland.

Norman On Nicklaus: “One hundred percent truth? Jack’s a hypocrite."

/

The Washington Post’s Kent Babb profiled Greg Norman on the eve of LIV Golf’s first event and shared several eye-opening anecdotes. Including how he’s “cut off his longtime mentor” according to Babb’s description.

“One hundred percent truth? Jack’s a hypocrite,” he says. “When he came out with those comments, I’m thinking: Jack must have a short memory.” He says Nicklaus attended a LIV presentation and later wrote in an email that the new tour had his blessing.

“Quote-unquote, he said: ‘This is good for our game. If it’s good for the game of golf, it’s good by me,’ ” Norman says. “So, you want the facts? You’ve got the facts. Know what you said before you open your mouth.”

A spokesman for Nicklaus, who’s being sued by his own company partly because of his negotiations with the Saudis, declined to make him available for an interview but sent a statement reiterating Nicklaus’s “unwavering support” for the PGA Tour and wishing Norman well.

I think their mutual friend, hero and favorite President Donald Trump should bring these two back together! The Palm Beach Peace Accords! Jared can package it so everyone profits.

Norman on critics and players who’ve signed up:

“It doesn’t bother me,” he says. “I’m not going to back off. I’m not going to show weakness to my team. I’m not going to show weakness to monopolists. I’m going to stand up for the rights of the players.”

He pauses before continuing. “The players who decide to come on board, God bless them,” he says. “They’re going to make a lot of money.”

Norman recently went to say goodbye to his dying father and, well…

Three weeks before this year’s Masters, Norman traveled to Brisbane. The time had come to say goodbye. He walked in for the first time in four years and saw Merv in a chair he rarely leaves, where he sleeps 17 hours a day, the once-muscular man who had raised and taught and scarred him now frail at 135 pounds.

He won’t let Norman pay for a nurse, won’t sit in a wheelchair. Imagine being that stubborn, Norman says. Merv faded in and out, and Norman spoke fast as he tried to explain this thing he’s building. It’s big, he said, though Tiger and Phil and Jack, of all people … But Merv couldn’t hear him. He’d fallen asleep. 

Norman talking about LIV Golf will do that to a lot of people.

Seems his sister and mother aren’t enjoying this much, either.

When Norman was in Brisbane this spring, his mother and sister tried probing him. Toini was alarmed by some of what her son was saying, in particular that Nicklaus had flipped on him. Janis said she recently stopped reading about LIV and her brother in the Australian press because, she says, they’re “crucifying” him.

“I know he doesn’t always care,” Janis says. “But we do.” “We don’t want his reputation to be ruined completely,” Toini says. “He’s always been looked up to, and now …”

Norman’s 91-year-old mother pauses.

“We don’t know,” she says. “He’s certainly becoming more and more like Dad,” Janis says. “When he gets an idea,” Toini says, “then he will just — he won’t give up on anything.”

LIV Golf's London Fire Sale: Free Tickets For Anyone Who Wants Them!

/

England’s Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter are the top stars returning to home turf for LIV Golf’s first event in London this week. To celebrate, they gave out a coupon code offering free passes to the first 100 fans using the codes POULTER25 or WESTWOOD25.

Days later the offer still works in Westwood’s case, while 24 hours in the freebies are still there using Poulter’s name. Note in the example above, I asked for the max of 8 and

Some just tried for fun, put in JOHNSON25, and also got a free pass. Or up to 8 if they want.

One player + 25 who did not work? MICKELSON.

Some Google searchers are also getting this 70% off ad when entering a query for the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia’s grow the game initiative: