Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer appeared at the first LIV Golf press conference on Tuesday in St. Albans in London.
The 61-year-old previously worked as President George W. Bush’s press secretary from 2001–03. Now, it appears that he has a role with the LIV Golf league.
Fleischer asked questions to the four professional golfers present at the first press conference on Tuesday: Dustin Johnson, Louis Oosthuizen, Graeme McDowell and Ratchanon Chantananuwat.
This isn’t Fleischer’s only sports media job. He also works as a media consultant for the College Football Playoff.
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The press conference was full of unexpected twists and turns, as expected for the controversial tour. Reporters asked various questions about the funding behind the league, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, which invests funds on behalf of the Saudi Arabian government. Some questions asking about political matters in the country were turned down.
However, during the press conference, Fleischer was asked about how his relationship with LIV Golf is holding up based on a claim that Saudi Arabia “spent and is willing to spend hundreds of billions” to prevent its leadership from being overthrown, and whether the LIV Golf league was an example of that, per ESPN. The MC’s response was that the tweet was from “a long long time ago.”
The question comes in reference to the large money pools associated with the eight-event tour. The prize amount at each event is $25 million, more than any PGA Tour event has distributed.
The league officially kicks off on Thursday, spotlighting a few PGA players such as Phil Mickelson and Johnson. The latter announced during the Tuesday press conference that he is leaving the PGA Tour to focus on the LIV Golf tournaments. Mickelson has not resigned from the tour yet.
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