![\"Dustin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/FUpIaOLX0AA_HlS-1024x768.jpeg\")
Dustin Johnson, Louis Oosthuizen, and Graeme McDowell in a press conference at LIV Golf London in 2022 | Source: NCG<\/p>\nOn June 7, I got up at something like 5 am to steam down the M1 towards St Albans, or Hemel Hempstead \u2013 wherever Centurion Club can be found.<\/p>\n
The event certainly wasn\u2019t in London, where the new LIV Golf League had marketed it.<\/p>\n
I think I\u2019d planned to go on Wednesday, but there was a late change of plan as LIV\u2019s first-ever press conference schedule arrived late on Monday and detailed an early kick-off the next morning. It was unmissable, for sure. <\/p>\n
I was doing something that no other golf reporter in the world could say they\u2019d done to that point, despite only being in my second year of golf writing, and the vast presence of national papers, fellow golf publications and the multitude of US reporters that attended.<\/p>\n
The then LIV boss Greg Norman had attracted Golf.com, Sports Illustrated and ESPN, even with the US Open at Brookline starting in the week after.<\/p>\n
Dustin Johnson and Graeme McDowell were among the first press conference subjects in this newest of dawns in pro golf, the thing I\u2019d left my Salford flat for bright and early. <\/p>\n
Dustin Johnson, Louis Oosthuizen, and Graeme McDowell in a press conference at LIV Golf London in 2022 | Source: NCG<\/p>\n
ALSO: Which LIV golfers can play in the majors in 2026?<\/a><\/p>\n LIV was being funded by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), now nearing a trillion dollars in worth. Despite such mindblowing degrees of investment, this inaugural occasion was rather put up overnight, though, or so it seemed.<\/p>\n There were teams, but no uniforms. Stands to sit in, but they weren\u2019t grand. And respectfully, barring about six names, the field didn\u2019t warrant a second glance.<\/p>\n DJ revealed he had resigned his PGA Tour membership, and McDowell admitted he\u2019d made a business decision to leave the game\u2019s established tours for a big bag of cash. Two days later, this pair plus Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter played in LIV\u2019s first-ever event.<\/p>\n During the week, former Associated Press reporter Rob Harris was temporarily ejected from the media centre after confronting former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, enquiring if he \u2018had blood on his hands\u2019.<\/p>\n This somewhat set the tone for the week, and epitomised the surreal, awkward nature of each press conference.<\/p>\n Given how wet my ears were at the time, I wondered if it was always like this.<\/p>\n LIV Golf Centurion event started what became four years of chaos<\/p>\n Neil McLeman of the Mirror asked Westwood and Poulter if they\u2019d play in an event held by Vladimir Putin, or Apartheid South Africa, in the backdrop of a week being bankrolled by a nation with a questionable-at-best human rights record. <\/p>\n Dan Roan of the BBC also asked Mickelson if he could now be seen as a \u2018Saudi stooge\u2019.<\/p>\n I asked one towards the end, whether Phil had contemplated the reception he\u2019d receive if he actually won the US Open. He gave a witty reply and somewhat got everyone back onside with a chuckle. What better way to summarise the great many contradictions of the man?<\/p>\n It was comments from Alan Shipnuck\u2019s remarkable book about the six-time major champion that not only led to this commotion but also allegedly nearly burned down the LIV house before it was built.<\/p>\n On pro-am day, a very sunny day, Mickelson and Westwood played together, with Asian Tour CEO Cho Minn Thant. While walking behind the group down the fairway on one hole, I was shooed away by Mickelson\u2019s henchman.<\/p>\n It was a cagey week for that camp. Mickelson had missed the Masters during his hiatus from the game, into which he retreated after these on-record\/off-record comments to Shipnuck were made public:<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re scary motherf*****s to get involved with,\u201d he said of the Saudis. \u201cWe know they killed (Jamal) Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.\u201d<\/p>\n He was peppered with questions relating to human rights abuses, the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, and the contradiction of his incendiary words about the Kingdom, and accepting a reported $200 million cheque to play on its golf tour.<\/p>\n The press wasn\u2019t finished with Mickelson at the US Open a week later, where he was stung with probes from one reporter who brought up the 9\/11 families\u2019 dismay at players taking cash from a nation linked with the terrorist attacks of September 2001.<\/p>\n ALSO: What\u2019s next for LIV Golf \u2013 could it become part of the PGA Tour cycle?<\/a><\/p>\n London taxis shuttled the players to each tee box of the shotgun start. Men dressed as royal guards welcomed marquee groups on the first tee.<\/p>\n Stood outside on the wooden decking after round one, former Ryder Cup teammates McDowell and Garcia took questions, while over my shoulder, a bouncer prevented Mickelson\u2019s biographer Shipnuck from even approaching the media tent, let alone reaching the door.<\/p>\n Norman denied knowledge of all of this, but Shipnuck later made him blush by posting an image of the Aussie lurking in the background, watching the chaos unfold.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t until after the first round that players such as Westwood and Poulter discovered the PGA Tour had suspended them for playing at Centurion.<\/p>\n We all huddled around Westwood, a former World No.1 and Ryder Cup legend, hovering our phones under his chin for a reaction. Poulter was given the same treatment a few minutes later.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t resigned because I don\u2019t feel like I\u2019ve\u00a0done anything wrong. I\u2019ve been all over the world for 25 years, played a lot of tournaments outside of continental Europe, all in a calendar season,\u201d Poulter said.<\/p>\n As a reporter, my word, what a week. The action on the course was meaningless. Former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel won $4,750,000. His move to LIV was already vindicated, and these purses became the norm both with LIV and in response, the PGA Tour too, in an attempt to keep up in the prize money marathon.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t long after that when Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith, Patrick Reed, Brooks Koepka and Joaquin Niemann hopped over to LIV, then Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton later.<\/p>\n Koepka and Reed left at the start of this year, news which seemed to get the ball rolling in a dangerous direction. <\/p>\n It isn\u2019t long until the fourth anniversary of that bonkers week in St Albans\/Hemel Hempstead.\u00a0<\/p>\n When I sat in my 2010 Ford Focus on my fourth coffee of the morning, preparing to come off at junction 8 down Breakspear Way, I was about as sure of what was going to happen with this new league, and we could all say the same right now.<\/p>\n Confusion seems to be the current feeling among the LIV ranks, based on various reports and what anonymous sources have been prepared to reveal. <\/p>\n The 2026 season will go on with Saudi funding, but beyond that, a significant change is expected. That is about as much as we know as fact at this stage. LIV Louisiana at the end of June might be axed\/rearranged, adding to the uncertainty.<\/p>\n The feeling of the unknown, and the intrigue that branched from it, used to be LIV\u2019s strength. Now, this feeling forms a cloud over its future.<\/p>\n NOW READ: Report: Saudi PIF on the brink of cutting support for the LIV Golf League<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Phil](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/FU5LRzmWUAEGcsI-1024x768.jpeg\")
Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson at LIV Golf London in 2022 | Source: NCG<\/p>\n