The Saudi International, branded as the PIF Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers for sponsorship reasons, is a professional
golf tournament that is held at
Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in
King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia. Founded in 2019 as an event on the
European Tour, in 2022, it became the flagship event on the
Asian Tour with a new title sponsor, the
Public Investment Fund (PIF), a Saudi government sovereign wealth fund.
History
Established in 2019 as a
European Tour event, it was the first European Tour event to be played in Saudi Arabia and was one of six European Tour events staged in the countries on the
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...
. The event has drawn criticism due to the involvement of Saudi Arabia's government in the event, based on their record of human rights within the country and their ventures of
sportswashing. This included paying large appearance fees to some of the world's top players.
The tournament ceased to be a European Tour event after the 2021 edition, and later that year it was announced that as a result, the
PGA Tour would not allow their members to compete in future editions, with the European Tour expected to do the same. In September 2021, it was announced that it would become part of the
Asian Tour's schedule. This involved a ten-year deal starting in 2022, with an increased prize fund of . In October, it was announced that the event would become the flagship event of the Asian Tour. In December, the PGA Tour revealed that they would grant their members releases to play in the event in 2022; on the condition that they committed to play in the
AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am
The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, held annually at Pebble Beach, California, near Carmel. The tournament is usually held during the month of February on three different courses, currently Pebble Beac ...
in some form in the following years.
In January 2022, it was announced that the Saudi
Public Investment Fund had become the new title sponsor of the event.
Winners
Notes
References
External links
*
Coverage on the Asian Tour's official siteCoverage on the European Tour's official site
{{Portal, Saudi Arabia
Asian Tour events
Former European Tour events
Golf tournaments in Saudi Arabia
Recurring sporting events established in 2019
2019 establishments in Saudi Arabia