How the Saudis bought pro golf

Today, Explained

Vox

News, Daily News, Politics

4.3 • 10.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2023

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The PGA Tour wanted nothing to do with a rival Saudi-funded golf tour, but like Silicon Valley and the White House, it couldn’t resist the Kingdom’s influence. A sports guy (Rick Maese of the Washington Post) and a foreign policy guy (Jonathan Guyer of Vox) explain. This episode was produced by Haleema Shah, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Michael Raphael, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. Read more: How Saudi money returned to Silicon Valley (Vox) Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Earlier this week, I called up my colleague Chad Munn, who, with Vox Media Studios, produces
0:05.9	a documentary series about golf called Full Swing for Netflix.
0:19.2	The US Open kicks off today, but that is not the biggest news in the golf world.
0:23.2	I remember we talked in Netflix.
0:24.4	They were like, where's the drama in golf?
0:26.8	I was like, I don't know.
0:28.0	Sometimes people play slowly and in noise other players, you know, I mean, it was
0:31.9	literally I was grasped at straws, you know, and then we get this.
0:36.4	The PGA and European tours have a greed to merge with Saudi-backed rival Liv Golf.
0:41.9	I had remit to almost 300 tech messages, and my first reaction when I saw the news, I actually
0:48.2	thought that maybe CMBC and the PGA Tourism website had been hacked.
0:53.1	I mean, that's how acrimonial things have been, and I don't think anything will ever be
0:59.0	the same again, can I go forward?
1:01.5	How the Saudis bought Pro Golf?
1:03.9	Coming up on today's point.
1:09.1	The search is heating up for the people who make football better.
1:12.3	People like Sally Butler.
1:13.8	It's really us about putting mums on the pitch where they belong.
1:17.4	Jimmy the Moa.
1:18.4	It might only be a council feel next to the tip, but round here, it's Wembley.
1:22.2	Rachel O'Sullivan and Sophie Dowling.
1:24.3	Bringing women's football to a wider audience.
	...

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