A LIV Executive on Upending the Business of Golf

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The Wall Street Journal

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4.2 • 5.8K Ratings

🗓️ 24 August 2022

⏱️ 20 minutes

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Summary

The goal of LIV is to disrupt golf as fans know it. Funded by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, LIV has proposed new game formats and offered players hundreds of millions of dollars - leading to a major rift with the PGA Tour. We talk with LIV’s Chief Operating Officer, Atul Khosla, about the controversy that surrounds it and its vision for the future of golf. Further Reading: -Threatened by LIV Golf, the PGA Tour Launches Major Overhauls Further Listening:-The Saudi Money Splitting Golf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Earlier this year, a new golf league launched.
0:08.5	It's called Live.
0:11.0	The controversial new golf tournaments.
0:13.6	Live golf could fundamentally change the professional men's game.
0:17.0	An alternative to the PGA tour.
0:19.2	It's considered the Rebel League among golf insiders.
0:22.0	And in just a few months, this new league has upended the world of golf.
0:26.9	One of the tour's top players, including World No. 1 Dustin Johnson, Brooks Capka, Justin
0:32.4	Rose and Phil Mikkelson, giving up the PGA tour in exchange for millions in guaranteed
0:38.6	money.
0:39.6	Off it upwards of $30 million contracts to some of the tour.
0:42.8	All this is causing a big stir in the world of sports and a big response from the PGA tour.
0:49.4	But the controversy isn't just because of the changes it's making to the game.
0:53.5	It's also because of where Live gets its money, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a country
0:58.4	that's been widely criticized for its human rights record.
1:02.0	Earlier this week, we spoke with Ahtel Kholsa, the chief operating officer of Live.
1:07.6	We asked him about the upheaval that Live is causing in the world of golf and the controversy
1:12.0	that's surrounding it.
1:14.3	Did you anticipate that this league would be so controversial when you were thinking
1:18.4	about taking the job?
1:20.0	I didn't view it as controversial, I very much viewed it as we are going to shake up a
1:27.1	lot of things and along the way we'll take a bunch of punches from folks that probably
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