The Saudi International, branded as the PIF Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers for sponsorship reasons, is a professional

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

tournament that is held at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in

King Abdullah Economic City King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC, ; ar, مدينة الملك عبد الله الاقتصادية) is a megaproject announced in 2005 by King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the former king of Saudi Arabia. It was one of six megaprojects that ...

, Saudi Arabia. Founded in 2019 as an event on the

European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fi ...

, in 2022, it became the flagship event on the

Asian Tour The Asian Tour is the principal men's professional golf tour in Asia except for Japan, which has its own Japan Golf Tour, which is also a full member of the International Federation of PGA Tours. Official money events on the tour count for Wo ...

with a new title sponsor, the

Public Investment Fund The Public Investment Fund (PIF; ar, links=no, صندوق الإستثمارات العامة) is the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. It is among the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world with total estimated assets of $620 billi ...

(PIF), a Saudi government sovereign wealth fund.

History

Established in 2019 as a

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 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 Sportswashing is a term used to describe the practice of individuals, groups, corporations, or governments using sports to improve reputations tarnished by wrongdoing. A form of propaganda, sportswashing can be accomplished through hosting sport ...

. 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 The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also ...

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

'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 in some form in the following years. In January 2022, it was announced that the Saudi

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