Euro Tour Player On Playing For Saudi Arabia: "It’s time to stand up" And Boycott
/Journeyman Mike Lorenzo-Vera spoke out to Tom Kershaw about the question of taking Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia money. (Thanks to reader B for sending.)
His views were shaped after watching a BBC documentary on the war in Yemen.
“If you go to the players’ lounge at any time, at least one table is speaking about [the LIV Series],” he tells The Independent. “Even me, I’d love to play for that amount of money as well for my family, my passions, but there is a time when you need to stand up a little bit and be a human being. I know there are players who are uncomfortable with it but it feels like they are staying quiet just in case there’s a piece of the cake coming to them one day. Some players will speak but the crowd needs to boycott it as well, don’t go there.”
Lorenzo-Vera also mocked the format:
Until such a rival league is properly established, though, Lorenzo-Vera likens the invitational events, which will be played over 54 holes without a cut, to a “comedy show”.
“If you play like s***, you still take a hundred grand,” he says. “The guys at the top will be fighting but for the rest, it’s like a paid holiday. The format is not golf. It’s just a show.”