$75 to spare

I attended a golf tournament funded by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia staged at a golf course owned by the Trump family.

Label me. Judge me. Dismiss me. Praise me. Stop reading. It doesn’t matter. I slept fine the night of Friday, July 29.

I happened to be in New Jersey gathering content at the same time as the LIV Golf Invitational at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster. I follow golf, study golf history and work in the industry. The launch of LIV Golf represents the biggest golf story since the emergence of Tiger Woods in the 1990s. I don’t have children and my wife never frets when I extend a work trip. I had $75 to spare — yes, I paid full price for a ticket — and had a prearranged visit at one of Trump National Bedminster’s golf neighbors earlier that morning. I would have regretted being so close and not attending the tournament.

I planned on attending the tournament solely for observational purposes. I then needed material for this column!

Because I attended the event as a spectator, I opted against bothering Trump National Bedminster director of grounds Rob Wagner and his team. I walked the rolling property surrounded by New Jersey farmland admiring how Wagner’s crew presented championship conditions on short notice for a global event in the middle of a cruel summer. I also felt a bit dispirited knowing that Trump National Bedminster lost the 2022 PGA Championship — a career-defining event for somebody in the industry — for non-golf reasons. The decision likely cost a region battered by the COVID-19 pandemic more than $100 million in economic impact. The hotel where I spent five nights and the diners where I ate are among the hundreds of businesses affected by moving a major championship.

Unlike smarter content creators, I’m not qualified to interpret the relationship between geopolitical affairs and golf. Learning the people and places of this industry represents a 24-7-365 pursuit. I don’t have the time or intelligence to understand the desires and motivations of the nearly 200 countries on this planet. I can only describe what my eyes saw while walking around Bedminster on a 90-degree afternoon.

I parked in a field across a two-lane road from the course. I boarded a shuttle with two dozen fans. I turn 42½ this month. For the first time in 28 years of following golf, I was the oldest person in a shuttle headed for a course. The shuttle deposited us at the entrance. I heard high-energy music. A friendly worker scanned my digital ticket, and I trampled across a drought-stressed field to the Fan Village. I heard more music, and saw putting contests, dancers, bars, food trucks and a videoboard. I noticed hundreds of young men carrying booze and wearing untucked golf shirts. Many of them were accompanied by young women.

Trump National Bedminster covers more than 600 acres and the walk from the Fan Village to the practice green took 10 minutes. Seeing major champions such as Sergio Garcia, Graeme McDowell and Patrick Reed on golf carts traveling from the range to the practice green proved strange. When 2022 started, I never expected to observe four dozen tour pros scurrying to holes in anticipation of a 1:15 p.m. shotgun start to begin a three-day event with a $25 million purse. Once play started, it felt like any other non-major tournament, with players methodically grinding out putts and assessing wind and yardages with their now-highly paid caddies. The tournament sounded different, because speakers pumped music through the grounds.

The rise of LIV Golf resembles what the game has experienced over the past two years. New ways to consume and engage with golf and lifestyle changes stemming from the pandemic are bringing new people and investors into the business. Besides the handful of turf teams that will be hosting these tournaments, LIV Golf will have little impact on the people who provide playing conditions despite all the noise it has produced.

It’s one more option for people with $75 and free time. Those options tend to make astute owners and operators in the same space better.