PGA Golf Merger Is Saudi Arabia’s Biggest Soft Power Win Yet

The shock merger of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf means Saudi Arabia’s strategy of using vast oil riches to boost its soft power by investing billions in global sports can claim its biggest victory to date.

Until yesterday it had looked a risky bet.

The kingdom’s Public Investment Fund spent hundreds of millions of dollars attracting some of the PGA’s most famous names, including Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, to its LIV tournaments. The PGA responded with a costly lawsuit that had already dragged in families of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and threatened to see the ...