A certain golf reporter claims that LIV Golf went to extraordinary lengths to monitor him amid the rampant rumors that the Saudi-backed golf league was going out of business.
After a report surfaced that the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) – which runs LIV Golf – was leaning towards pulling its support for the PGA Tour’s rival league, The Athletic’s Brody Miller traveled to Mexico City to attend the LIV tournament and delve deeper into the real story.
It was at that tournament that Miller claims a security officer approached him and revealed that LIV was watching him closely.
“But as I walked the property Friday, I was stopped by a LIV security worker,” Miller explained. “He pulled out his phone and showed me a company chat with a large photo of my The Athletic headshot and said I needed to come with him. I asked if there was some sort of security alert sent out on me, and he said yes, there was on Thursday. I don’t know how they even knew I was on the property Thursday, but I certainly wasn’t sneaking, as my goal was primarily to run into a LIV official and talk. I explained I was just given a credential that morning, which greatly surprised him. He made two calls to ask, and I overheard him say, ‘Oh, he’s OK now?’ before he let me go.”
Miller added that LIV officials said they were unaware of any “security alert.”
LIV’s sensitivity to media reports is well-known. Just last week, LIV CEO Scott O’Neil revealed the true state of affairs: LIV Golf will go on, for this year. But anything beyond that is up in the air.
“The reality is that you’re funded through the season, and then you work like crazy as a business to create a business and a business plan to keep us going,” O’Neil said in an interview with TNT Sports UK.
“But that’s not different from any other private equity-funded business in the history of mankind.”
However, TNT Sports UK later deleted O’Neil’s comments.