LIV Golf’s Controversial Bedminster Tournament Debuts

LIV Golf League comes to Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey this weekend. The Saudi-financed golf tour will play a 54-hole event from Aug 11-13.

The New Jersey suburb of Bedminster is 40 miles west of New York City and is the highest-ranked Trump-owned course. This weekend’s tournament is the 11th of 14 events in this year’s LIV calendar, wrapping up its second year of operations in Miami on Oct. 22.

Last year’s LIV Golf Bedminster Invitational saw Henrik Stenson take home the spoils, finishing at 11-under par. The three-day tournament has a shotgun start and $4 million up for grabs for the winner. Unlike the traditional format on the PGA Tour, golfers are members of teams that compete in a league format, combining their scores from each event.

Major champions Cam Smith, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, and Brooks Koepka are scheduled to play for their respective teams. DeChambeau is entering the weekend after a remarkable 12-under score of 58 on Sunday at Greenbrier to clinch his first win since 2021. The 2020 U.S. Open champion held a 35-foot putt, recording the first-ever sub-60 score in a LIV Golf event.

This weekend marks the second of three LIV tournaments scheduled at a Trump-owned course. The tour played at the former president’s Washington D.C. course in May and will visit Trump National Doral Miami later in the year. The Tom Fazio-designed course opened in 2004 and hosted the U.S. Women’s Open in 2017.

Formed in late 2021, LIV Golf quickly enticed some of the world’s best players from the PGA Tour. It offered huge signing contracts supplied by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Phil Mickelson reportedly joined for $200 million in June 2022.

The emergence of this rival league motivated the PGA Tour to increase its purses and change its event formatting to increasingly benefit players. The total PGA Tour purse grew from $421 million in 2022 to $563 million in 2023.

In June 2023, it was announced that the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and the DP World Tour would merge into one entity under the same governing body, essentially presiding over men’s professional golf.