Dylan Bettencourt
South African golfer Charl Schwartzel claimed victory in the inaugural LIV Gold Invitational event.
The controversial new tour, established by Saudi Arabian owners, has been met with criticism for so-called sportswashing. Saudi Arabia has a terrible human rights record.
Several big-name golfers have joined the tour as the prize money is much larger.
“The evolution of golf has arrived,” LIV Golf chief executive Greg Norman said after the event on Saturday.
Schwartzel, from Johannesburg, walked away with R75-million, an amount that took him four years to earn on the PGA tour.
The tour was set up by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia as the majority shareholder.
However, the tour has been deemed as controversial as Amnesty International accuses the organisers of “sportswashing” – an attempt to use sports to detract from their appalling human rights record.
Saudi Arabia recently implemented the death penalty, with 81 people killed in one day this March.
Women in the nation have limited rights involving marriage, divorce and child custody, according to Amnesty International.
“There remains substantial evidence of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community being subjected to arrests in the country,” the Human Dignity Trust said.
But huge rewards have attracted several top golfers to leave the PGA and play in the LIV tour.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think we could play for that much money,” Schwartzel said.
“As you saw I was taking a bit of heat down the final stretch. There was a lot of money involved.”
The PGA have suspended 17 of its members indefinitely for taking part in the newly created tour.
The LIV tour features 52 holes, as opposed to the 72 of the PGA. The events are also streamed on YouTube and Facebook – where there are no advertisements during play.
About 100,000 individual users streamed the event on YouTube.
Image source: @TheJapanTimes
