In total, 14 golf players from the LIV tour – owned by Saudi Arabia's state investment fund Pif – have signed up for the Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland this week.
Among them are the former world number one Jon Rahm, Spain, and Englishman Tyrrell Hatton. The duo should have paid fines to the European Tour (now DP World Tour) for their switch to the LIV tour, but both players have filed an appeal.
Touched course record
While waiting for it to be processed, the players are free to play on the European Tour, and Hatton showed off dream golf on Saturday at St Andrews Old Course. With an eagle, nine birdies, and the rest par, the Englishman scored 61 strokes – 11 strokes under par and touched the course record on the classic course.
This means that Hatton – on –22 total – leads the competition by one stroke ahead of Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts going into Sunday's final round. Rahm is tied for seventh on –15, which is one stroke better than the top Swedish player, Jens Dantorp.
The PGA Tour in the USA and the European Tour have been trying to reach an agreement with the LIV tour for 16 months, which could reunite men's golf again. It is possible that the negotiations continued on the golf course in Scotland.
Negotiated on the course?
During the competition, the PGA Tour's commissioner Jay Monahan played in the same ball as Yasir al-Rumayyan, who is the chairman of the state investment fund Pif and also the CEO of the LIV tour.
In the competition, professionals also form teams with amateurs, but neither Monahan nor al-Rumayyan will play Sunday's final round. Their team was far from making the qualifying limit.
