Widow of 9/11 victim calls out PGA merger with LIV Golf
9/11 Families United Chair Terry Strada on why she finds the PGA Tour merger with LIV Golf offensive to 9/11 families
A day after the PGA Tour announced a landmark merger with LIV Golf, 9/11 Families United Chairperson Terry Strada called out PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan for using their stories "to malign LIV Golf" over its ties to the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) when the rival circuit presented itself as a threat to the Tour.
Strada, whose husband died during the 9/11 attacks, told "America's Newsroom" on Tuesday that she was shocked to learn the news that after more than a year of division, the Tour had announced it was merging into a single entity that would include the Saudi’s PIF and the DP World Tour.
Jay Monahan, Commissioner of the PGA Tour, speaks to the media in a press conference prior to THE PLAYERS Championship on THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 7, 2023 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
"I am so disappointed and this was a real gut punch to wake up yesterday and read these headlines," Strada told host Bill Hemmer.
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"And I thought ‘Oh my god, the Saudis have infiltrated professional golf just as they infiltrated our airspace on September 11th when they sent their Saudi-paid agents over here to America to create the support network needed for those 19 jihadists to hijack four commercial airplanes, carry out the worst terrorist attack this country has ever witnessed, murdering nearly 3,000 people on American soil and killing my husband and the father of my children."
Strada was specifically critical of Monahan’s about-face after several of his previous comments specifically related to the 9/11 families and the Saudi’s funding of LIV Golf began circulating online.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan speaks to the media during a press conference prior to THE PLAYERS Championship on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 8, 2022 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
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"He used our stories, our pain and our suffering to malign LIV Golf a year ago, and now he does this complete 180 and has decided that he’s going to give them this bigger platform for their sportswashing entity, which he has said over the last year many times that that’s exactly what LIV Golf is."
The agreement will merge the PIF’s golf-related businesses, which include LIV Golf, with that of the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour into a "new, collectively owned, for-profit entity" and will also include a "capital investment" from the PIF.
"I am embarrassed for him," Strada continued. "He should be embarrassed for himself. He and the other governing bodies of the PGA, including Fred Ridley have all turned their backs on the 9/11 community."
Team captain Dustin Johnson celebrates making his putt on the 18th green to win during the team championship stroke-play round of the LIV Golf Invitational - Miami at Trump National Doral Miami on Oct. 30, 2022 in Doral, Florida. (Charles Laberge/LIV Golf via Getty Images)
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Strada said the organization is working towards boycotting upcoming tournaments, noting that they have not yet made a decision on the U.S. Open, a major run by the United States Golf Association (USGA).
Last year, the USGA announced that it would be allowing LIV golfers to compete despite participating in LIV's first inaugural tournament.
"We pride ourselves in being the most open championship in the world and the players who have earned the right to compete in this year’s championship, both via exemption and qualifying, will have the opportunity to do so. Our field criteria were set prior to entries opening earlier this year and it’s not appropriate, nor fair to competitors, to change criteria once established," the USGA said in a statement at the time.
The major, although not run by the Tour, is an official tournament on both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour schedule.