‘The kingdom is not to be trusted’

Strada’s husband, Tom, died in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and for that she blames the Saudi royal family.

A golf enthusiast, Strada also considers LIV something of an abomination.

“This ‘sportswashing’ and using the time-honored sport of golf is despicable, but that’s how they are,” she said during a recent phone interview. “That’s how they operate.

“They are despicable.”

LIV, the Roman numeral for 54, was so named because the tournaments feature 18 fewer holes than 72-hole PGA tour events.

Strada said LIV “bothers me as a 9/11 widow, but it also bothers me as an American and as a fan of golf. They came out, guns a-blazing, trying to destroy the PGA. I love the PGA Tour. I’ve loved golf since I met my husband when I was 19 years old.”

Strada chairs 9/11 Families United, a group of about 3,000 formed in 2002 under the name 9/11 Families United to Bankrupt Terrorism. The group has a long-standing federal lawsuit against the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in which it accuses the Saudis of being complicit in the attacks.

At least seven people with Oklahoma ties died in those attacks. Among them was Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Brian Moss, a Sperry native who was killed at the Pentagon, and Jayesh “Jay” Shah, a Tulsa Memorial and University of Tulsa graduate who worked for a division of Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment firm that lost 658 employees in the World Trade Center towers, and where Tom Strada was a senior vice president and partner.

Over time, Terry Strada and others have only become more convinced that the Saudi government or elements within in it provided money and assistance to the 19 hijackers — 15 of whom were Saudi nationals — who flew three airliners into New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., and crashed a fourth in rural Pennsylvania.

To Strada, the families and survivors of 9/11, and those appalled by Saudi Arabia’s documented history of human rights abuses — including the 2018 murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi — LIV Golf is seen as an attempt to spruce up the kingdom’s image through what is known as “sportswashing.”

Mike Troilo, Chapman Chair and Professor of International Business and Finance at the University of Tulsa, said LIV is part of a broader Saudi strategy that he compared to China’s “Belt and Road” initiative.

“This is something that Saudi Arabia believes it can do to expand its influence and burnish its image globally,” Troilo said recently.

Aside from flexing these forms of “soft power,” Troilo said, Saudi Arabia is trying to retool its economy to become less reliant on oil and gas and petrochemicals.

“Among the sectors they’re seeking to invest in are tech, entertainment, tourism, etc.,” Troilo said. “If you look at the demographics of Saudi Arabia and a lot of those Gulf states, it makes sense. About a quarter of their population is under the age of 14. … These are sectors that can create job growth.”

LIV Golf is largely if not entirely funded through Saudi Arabia’s $620 billion Public Investment Fund, which explains why LIV has been able to pony up such huge guarantees, bonuses and prize money for the 48 golfers who make up the tour.

The PIF, as it’s called, is invested in everything from electronic games to hotels to oil and gas. Some $2 billion is invested in a fund managed by Jared Kushner, son-in-law of former President Donald Trump. Three of LIV’s 14 events this year are at Trump-owned courses.

“They have such deep pockets behind them, and they’re not concerned about … profit maximization,” Troilo said when asked about LIV’s survival chances. “The business model would not work for a private enterprise, but when you have (the PIF) backing you, they could go on for years. The Saudi kingdom, I would imagine, is quite content — as long as the objectives of supercharging their image and the reordering of their economy are achieved, then they would call it a success.”

Some in golf have been unwilling to become partners in LIV, either because of ethical considerations or because they fear retribution from the PGA Tour, which has had professional men’s golf almost to itself for decades.

Others, though, have found the opportunity offered by LIV too great to pass over. Such was the case with Cedar Ridge Country Club.

“I can you tell you that the board of directors at Cedar Ridge evaluated all aspects associated with hosting a LIV event,” Frank Billings, a longtime club member and its tournament director, told the World’s Bill Haisten. “At the end of the day, what we really focused on was the opportunity to bring 48 of the best golfers in the world back to Oklahoma (and) back to Tulsa — to our golf course. We’re a community at Cedar Ridge of 425 members, and we come to Cedar Ridge to enjoy golf and celebrate golf.”

“It was a great opportunity for Cedar Ridge to continue its tradition of high-level competitive golf,” said Golf Director Dave Bryan. “If you look back, we’ve hosted USGA events, AJGA events (and) LPGA events. The one thing missing is men’s professional golf. To me, that’s what the club was so excited about — the opportunity to bring that caliber of golfer here to Cedar Ridge.”

In fact, said Troilo, the PGA was ripe for competition from an organization like LIV.

“The PGA has not done a very good job relative to other sports leagues such as the NBA and the NFL to expand globally,” he said. “They’re still appealing to a demographic that’s a little bit older. When you look at their sponsors, they have (companies) like Cadillac. Whereas LIV is introducing innovations, specifically to appeal to a young viewership. To a monopoly, this is very unwelcome.”

At least some of the furor surrounding LIV Golf may have been encouraged by the PGA. A Jan. 6 Sports Illustrated story linked a group called 9/11 Justice with the PGA and the Washington PR firm Clout. The story said LIV, as part of its antitrust lawsuit against the PGA, asked a Washington court to compel Clout to disclose any payments to 9/11 Justice or 9/11 Families United.

Strada called the suggestion “outrageous” and told Sports Illustrated neither she nor 9/11 Families United had received any money from Clout, the PGA “or anyone connected to golf.”

In a March 10 column, Politico’s Michael Schaffer said that as sportswashing, LIV Golf may be a failure.

“It’s hard to call something sportswashing if nearly every LIV news cycle seems to dirty up the kingdom’s reputation,” Schaffer wrote.

While the evidence is intriguing but not conclusive the Saudi government had a hand in 9/11, its human rights record, with mass executions and draconian punishments for political or religious dissent, is well-known and kept in front of the public largely because of LIV Golf.

Terry Strada is more than happy to help.

“We want the American people to know the kingdom is not to be trusted,” she said. “They are not one of the good guys.”