A LIV Golf source told Reuters that Trump and his son Eric will meet with 2020 US Open winner DeChambeau and two-time major winner Johnson during the Pro-Am on Thursday before his first round of starts the next day. The LIV Golf Tour has been widely criticized for offering huge funds from Saudi Arabia, a country with a dismal human rights record, to players to abandon traditional golf tours. Earlier this month, Trump told golfers they should join the LIV Golf series and “get the money now.” “All those golfers who remain ‘loyal’ to the very disloyal PGA in all its various guises will pay a heavy price when the inevitable MERGER with LIV comes and you will get nothing but a big ‘thank you’ from the PGA officials making millions of dollars a year,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday. “If you don’t get the money now, you won’t get anything after the merger, and it just goes to show how smart the original signatories were.” His comments come as a group of 9/11 survivors said they were “appalled” by the “offensive, disrespectful and hurtful” LIV Golf Tour ahead of the New Jersey event being held about 50 miles (80km) from the site of the killing . terrorist attack. Speaking Tuesday at a news conference near the Bedminster course, Terry Strada, president of 9/11 Families United — a coalition of families and survivors of the 2001 terrorist attacks — said that playing such a tournament so close to the venue of the worst terrorist attack in American history is wrong. Players have also been criticized for abandoning the established PGA Tour and DP World Tour in search of impressive returns. Allegations of Saudi Arabian government complicity in the September 11, 2001 attacks have long been a point of contention in Washington. Fifteen of the 19 al-Qaeda terrorists who hijacked four planes were Saudi nationals, but the Saudi government has denied any involvement in the attacks. The Congressional 9/11 Commission said in 2004 that it found “no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded” al-Qaeda. But the victims’ families pushed for further disclosures, and last year, the FBI released a document detailing the FBI’s work investigating alleged logistical support that a Saudi consular official and a suspected Saudi intelligence agent in Los Angeles provided at least two hijackers. In response to the criticism, LIV Golf told CNN in a statement: “As we’ve said all along, these families have our deepest sympathies. While some may disagree, we believe golf is a force for good in Worldwide.” The September 11th issue is just one of the criticisms of the LIV Golf series. Fronted by former world No. 1 Greg Norman, the team-based LIV Series is backed by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) — a sovereign wealth fund chaired by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — and has pledged to award a total of $250 million in prize money. The tournaments are played over 54 holes, rather than the PGA Tour’s 72 holes, and there are no players cut during tournament play. The huge sums of money raised and the less demanding requirements have prompted several golfers — many in the twilight of their careers — to leave the PGA Tour and join the LIV, including six-time major winner Phil Mickelson. four-time major champion Brooks Koepka and former world No. 1 Johnson.
