Fresh from playing in the LIV Golf pro-am, retired Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner, says her support for the Saudi-backed tour roots from her athlete’s perspective and commends the capitalist endeavor.
The big-name, three-day event took place at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. Swedish professional golfer Henrik Stenson won the $4 million tournament prize, and all players went home with earnings in their pocket.
Caitlyn shared her experience participating in the tour with Fox News.
"Not only did I have a fun time playing, I played with Ian Poulter and Paul Casey, but it was just a really good, positive attitude…all the players looked like they were enjoying themselves, and it was great competition."
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The new tour is funded by the Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia which has teed up a golf war with the PGA.
Jenner says the competition is good and will push the PGA Tour to figure out ways to keep appealing to players.
"If you're on the PGA Tour and don't make the cut, you don't get any money whatsoever, and you're out your expenses, your hotels. The PGA Tour is really going to have to look at this very seriously and figure out a way in the future that they can all work together. And I think that's the way and I think at the end, it's going to be better for the golfers," she shared.
The Saudi-backed tour has received widespread criticism pointing to repression of human rights under Sharia Law extending to alleged ties to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Jenner says the criticism the tour faces "is very hypocritical in so many ways [especially] with the Saudi’s Public Investment fun."
Major U.S. publicly traded corporations such as Meta Platforms Inc., FedEx Corp, Uber Technologies Inc., and Walmart Inc. are heavily invested in Saudi Arabia's PIF sovereign wealth fund.
"To be honest with you, who put the bulk of that money? They're probably us. We've been buying oil from the Saudis for years and years and years and years. I mean, they're heavily involved in so many things with the billion-dollar fund. I mean, they're heavily invested in Boeing. Are people not flying on Boeing aircraft because of this?" shared Caitlyn.
In an interview on Sunday, Tucker Carlson sat down with LIV CEO Greg Norman to discuss the heat the tour has faced.
Norman pointed to PGA sponsors saying he thinks they "ha[ve] about 27 sponsors who do 40-plus billion dollars worth of annual business on an annual basis in Saudi Arabia."
"The LIV tour is around to stay…it's not only in the future is the golf going to be interesting and good business, but the business side of professional golf is going to be very interesting to watch and to see what happens," Jenner said.
