A boisterous spectator unleashed a blistering criticism of Phil Mickelson while the golf legend was teeing off on the first hole of a LIV Golf event in New Jersey on Friday.
Mickelson stepped away from his first shot of the three-day event after a fan in the gallery was heard yelling, "Do it for the Saudi royal family!"
The breakaway golf circuit is bankrolled in large part by the Saudi government's sovereign wealth fund, sparking criticism about the regime's use of professional sports and athletes to whitewash its well-documented human rights abuses.
Mickelson, along with LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman, was one of the first high-profile golf stars to depart the PGA Tour for the upstart circuit. Countless other household names have followed, including Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed, Cameron Smith, Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, and more.
This weekend's LIV event was held at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Former President Trump has been on hand for the festivities and participated in a pro-am event on Thursday.
The staging of the event only about an hour's drive from the site of 9/11 terrorist attacks has been protested by 9/11 victims families' groups. The majority of the 9/11 attackers were Saudi nationals and wahhabi extremists, an ideology funded and fomented by the Saudi government.
As a candidate in 2016, Trump blamed Saudi Arabia for the attacks, though he has since seemed to change his tune, meeting with the Saudi royal family as president and now boosting LIV Golf while slamming the PGA Tour. Trump's successor, President Joe Biden, has maintained the US' longstanding relationship with the Saudi monarchy, publicly bumping fists with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a recent visit to Saudi Arabia.
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