DALLAS, Texas — Many in the sports world were stunned Tuesday when the PGA Tour announced it would merge with LIV Golf, an organization backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and an initiative accused of sportswashing the country's human rights violations.
It's an unforgettable shocker because the PGA Tour, through its messaging and actions, made it clear they wouldn't tolerate what the LIV tour was setting out to do.
When LIV began to poach high-profile players with big money paychecks, the PGA Tour drew a line in the sand and said those players wouldn't be able to return to the tour.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan even sided with 9/11 survivors and families of victims after the coalition 9/11 Families United spoke out about LIV using golf to sportswash the country's ties to the 9/11 attacks.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has long denied involvement in 9/11 despite 15 of 19 hijackers involved in the attack being from the country.
However, FBI documents declassified by the Biden administration in 2021 allege that some government and intelligence officials connected to Saudi Arabia set up a support network for several hijackers before the attack.
"As it relates to the families of 9/11, I have two families who were close to me who have lost loved ones... have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?" Monahan said during an interview.
Those sympathies now mean nothing to Terry Strada, the national chair of 9/11 Families United.
"PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan co-opted the 9/11 community last year in the PGA’s unequivocal agreement that the Saudi LIV project was nothing more than sportswashing of Saudi Arabia’s reputation," Strada wrote. "But now the PGA and Monahan appear to have become just more paid Saudi shills, taking billions of dollars to cleanse the Saudi reputation so that Americans and the world will forget how the Kingdom spent their billions of dollars before 9/11 to fund terrorism, spread their vitriolic hatred of Americans, and finance al Qaeda and the murder of our loved ones. Make no mistake – we will never forget."
Strada's husband, Tom, was in the North Tower on the 104th floor on Sept. 11, 2001.
He called Strada after the second plane hit his building.
"I knew that he was trapped," Strada said. "They were in this burning inferno from hell that you can't imagine. They were tortured up there for the hour or so that they lived before the building went down."
Strada called the merger by the PGA Tour a complete betrayal.
"It's so disgusting and upsetting and wrong," Strada said. "All they've done is hurt a community that has been through more pain and suffering than I can tell you."
Survivors and families of 9/11 victims are suing Saudi Arabia in federal court through a 2016 law that allows anyone to sue a country over an act of terror.