Find it irresistible or hate it, one factor that has turn out to be glaringly clear about the controversial Liv Golf series, which tees off with its third occasion starting Friday at Trump Nationwide Golf Membership in Bedminster, N.J., is that it isn’t going wherever anytime quickly.

The Pga Tour has banned players who have participated in the rival circuit, but extra gamers proceed to hitch. Backed by the Public Funding Fund, which is controlled by the Saudi government and valued at greater than $600 billion, it has the monetary assets to maintain it going for years.

It’s attainable the PGA Tour and LIV will come to some sort of compromise in some unspecified time in the future, however that isn’t occurring in the intervening time.

Which means gamers will proceed to play on LIV, with 5 extra occasions to be held this yr and one other 14 already scheduled for 2023.

This week at Trump National, as with the primary two tournaments, the sector consists of 48 gamers and is headlined by among the recreation’s largest stars — including Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia.

The format is similar because the others, too — 54 holes, no minimize, a shotgun begin and hefty assured paydays for particular person and group performances. The entire purse is $20 million, with $4 million of that going to the person winner and $5 million cut up among the many profitable four-man group.

“I feel it’s one thing new and contemporary for golf,” stated Lee Westwood, who can also be within the discipline. “You understand, I’m all for competitors. That is clearly aggressive to the opposite excursions on the market.”

“I feel we’re all extraordinarily excited in regards to the group format of it, so I feel you’ve bought a really structured product going ahead,” added Charles Howell III, who’s making his LIV debut this week. “You might have the gamers that you recognize are going to play and the place they’re going to play.”

It additionally marks the primary time that the course has hosted a event for the reason that 2017 U.S. Ladies’s Open.

That week, Donald Trump, then president of the USA, spent a lot of his time lording over the proceedings from a big, glass-enclosed balcony. This week, he’s anticipated to be omnipresent on the grounds, as he was throughout Thursday’s pro-am, at the same time as his associates are being investigated by the Justice Division for Trump’s actions surrounding the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.

This week’s event additionally marks something of a revenge tour for the former president.

His Bedminster course was to host the PGA Championship earlier this yr. However in January of final yr the club was stripped of the major by the PGA of America days after the insurrection.

“It has turn out to be clear that conducting the PGA Championship at Trump Bedminster can be detrimental to the PGA of America model and would put in danger the PGA’s capacity to ship on many applications and maintain the longevity of our mission,” PGA president Jim Richerson stated in a press release on the time.

Trump’s Doral, Fla., course additionally beforehand hosted the PGA Tour’s Cadillac Championship earlier than the corporate introduced it could not be renewing past 2016 and the event in the end moved to Mexico. On Thursday, Trump was requested by reporters if he had any regrets that his course was internet hosting a LIV event as an alternative of a serious championship or PGA Tour occasion.

“No, no regrets,” he stated. “That’s their drawback. This course blows each different course away.”

Trump — who performed in Thursday’s pro-am with Johnson, DeChambeau and his son Eric — was additionally requested how a lot cash he was bringing in by internet hosting the LIV event, although he declined to reply.

“I don’t do it for that,” he stated. “They’ve been very beneficiant, however I don’t do it for that. I do it as a result of I feel it’s nice for golf.”