First published 2023
Professional golf erupted into chaos when Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund launched LIV Golf, luring top players away from the PGA Tour with massive payouts. New York Times bestselling author Alan Shipnuck takes readers inside this unprecedented battle for control of the sport. He reveals conversations from luxury yachts where LIV executives plotted their assault on traditional golf, and follows PGA Tour leadership as they scrambled to respond. Shipnuck interviewed players, agents, financiers, and executives from both sides, capturing the bitter personal feuds that divided locker rooms and friendships. Phil Mickelson called it "sportswashing," while players like Rory McIlroy struggled to compete alongside former colleagues who had defected. The author documents secret negotiations between tour leaders that culminated in the shocking armistice of June 2023. Through unprecedented access to key figures including Greg Norman, Tiger Woods, Jay Monahan, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Shipnuck chronicles how vast oil wealth disrupted golf's established order and forced a reckoning with the sport's values and future.
Genres: business, politics, sports, non-fiction, 21st-century, current-affairs
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers
Setting: Saudi Arabia
Period: 2023
336 pages · Kindle Edition · Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster