YASIR AL-RUMAYYAN, chairman of the breakaway LIV golf tour, is among the field in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
As first reported by The Scotsman, Al-Rumayyan initially entered the event under a pseudonym, Andrew Waterman, and his real name was included among the field list yesterday afternoon.
The tournament is played across three of Scotland’s great courses – the old course at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns – and comprises two events run concurrently, a DP World Tour event among professional players and a team event in which a a professional is paired with an amateur.
Al-Rumayyan has been paired with LIV golfer Peter Uihlein, and will tee off today at St Andrew’s in a group with R&A CEO Martin Slumbers. There are another three LIV golfers in the field in Talor Gooch, Louis Oosthuizen and Laurie Canter. All are in the field courtesy of a sponsor’s invite.
Al-Rumayyan is also the chairman of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund PIF, which is currently in negotiations with the DP World Tour and PGA Tour following the publication of a framework agreement that would lead to an effective merger between the two organisations and the PIF-owned LIV tour.
The three courses will be played in rotation across the tournament’s first three days, with the top 60 and ties making the cut among professionals for the final day’s play at St Andrew’s, along with the top 20 teams.
Padraig Harrington will play alongside JP McManus, while Mark Power, who made his professional debut at the Irish Open last month, will play with AP McCoy. Also in the field are Tom McKibbin and John Murphy.
Three members of Europe’s Ryder Cup winners are teeing it up this week: Tommy Fleetwood, Matt Fitzpatrick, and Robert MacIntyre.
Gareth Bale is also among the amateurs involved.
Elsewhere, Lexi Thompson will become the seventh female golfer to play in a PGA Tour event when she tees it up at the Shriners Children’s Open next week, having accepted a sponsor’s invite to play. Thompson became the youngest woman to qualify for the US Women’s Open in 2007, aged just 12, and holds the record as the youngest LPGA champion, aged 16 years, seven months and eight days, after prevailing at the 2011 Navistar LPGA Classic.
