Saudi elephant in room overshadows Dubai Desert Classic buildup

Gone are the days where the only backdrop to the Dubai Desert Classic is the city’s famous skyline. As a number of the world’s top golfers prepared for the 34th staging of this classic event, all discussion surrounded a large Saudi elephant in the room.

Next week’s Saudi International will offer $15m in appearance fees and has become the sport’s bete noir as Saudi Arabia continues with its pursuit of a super league. Under that plan, hotly contested by the European and PGA Tours, 14 events – mainly US-based – would see players paid in telephone numbers simply for involvement. Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau have been routinely linked with the breakaway.

Rory McIlroy made his lack of interest in all things Saudi perfectly plain long ago. He speaks from afar in this context. The Northern Irishman defends the right of high-profile colleagues to go to Riyadh next week but believes lofty appearance payments can distort sport. “It’s the competitive integrity, to me,” McIlroy said. “That’s one of the biggest issues here. How hard are guys going to compete when they know that they are guaranteed whatever the money is?”

McIlroy is uneasy with the notion of Saudi money automatically equalling bad money. He cites Uber as an example of a widely-used company backed by Saudi’s public investment fund. Yet in professional terms, McIlroy views the potential to be a poster boy for a nation castigated for human rights abuses as not worth any cheque.

“I like being my own boss,” said the four-times major winner. “I don’t want to be told what to do. I don’t want to be told where to show up, when to show up, you have so many events, you have to travel here. It’s nice to feel like taking a couple weeks off and doing that. That’s the nice