Saudi PIF builds U.S. sports role with backing for women’s golf

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund will back a U.S. women’s golf event for the first time on the LPGA Tour when the Aramco Championship is held in Las Vegas this coming April.

The sovereign wealth fund said it will offer a $4 million purse, making it one of the largest prize funds for a regular LPGA event outside the four major women’s golf competitions in the U.S., the Associated Press reports.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has steered the PIF into becoming a leading backer of professional sports, creating the LIV Golf tournament and becoming a sponsor of the ATP tennis series. The PIF also owns a stake in the English Premier League’s Newcastle United football club. LPGA commissioner Craig Kessler described the Saudi-sponsored event as “exactly where we’re headed” in building a truly global schedule.

The move comes amid ongoing tensions in men’s professional golf, where efforts to merge the PGA Tour and PIF-backed LIV Golf remain stalled. Negotiations that once seemed poised to formally integrate LIV’s model into the PGA Tour framework were never finalized, leaving both sides in limbo. Although a framework agreement was signed in June 2023 between PIF and the PGA Tour and European Tour, the deal has yet to yield a merger.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump used the PIF-sponsored American Business Forum in Miami on Wednesday to celebrate the one-year anniversary of his election victory. Asserting that the U.S. has the “greatest economy” in the world, he blamed Republican setbacks in Tuesday’s off-year elections on the party’s communication failures, not economic conditions, the AP reported.

Princess Reema bint Bandar, Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the U.S., hailed technology ties between the two countries during a moderated discussion at the forum.|

Also causing a stir was an unverified report that the PIF is preparing a competing $70 billion offer for Warner Bros. Discovery amid Paramount’s attempt to buy the U.S. media and entertainment conglomerate.