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This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies. If you know anything about golf, you know that unlike

other sports, it's marked by a culture of civility. There are a lot of rules for courtesy on the

course, and trash talking among professional players is rare. But for the past couple of years,

a civil war has raged within professional men's golf, driven by a bold move by Saudi Arabia.

This summer, sports fans and business analysts were stunned to learn that a deal had been struck

to give the kingdom a dominant role in men's professional golf in the United States in Europe.

The Saudi regime has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into golf,

soccer, boxing, and Formula One racing in recent years. A practice human rights groups have

termed sportswashing, arguing that the Saudis hope to distract attention from the kingdom's

many human rights abuses, including the murder of journalist Jamal Kashoggi.

The Saudis effectively pressured US golf executives into a partnership by forming their own golf

circuit to rival the American PGA tour. The Saudi-funded tour, called Live,

featured different rules for competition, speakers blaring rock music on the course,

and big money contracts to lure some of the game's best players to the upstart league.

Our guest, New York Times writer Alan Blinder, has followed the battle for the control of golf,

and the fallout from the agreement with the Saudis, which includes anti-trust investigations

by the Justice Department and members of Congress. Alan Blinder is currently a national

correspondent for the New York Times covering education. He has reported from more than 35 states

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