A few months before Newcastle United clinched a return to Europe’s top football competition the Champions League after two decades on the sidelines, Yasir al-Rumayyan flew the team to his Riyadh residence for a December pep talk.
It had been just over a year since the club’s acquisition by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, and the 53-year-old PIF chief and Newcastle chair rallied the players with a speech before they bonded over a game of simulated golf.
While Newcastle was experiencing a turnaround in its fortunes, Rumayyan’s other big sports venture, the upstart LIV golf tour, was flailing as it struggled to attract sponsors and battled with the US PGA in the law courts. The foray into golf, a personal obsession of Rumayyan’s, did not seem promising.
This month’s announcement that LIV and the PGA were joining forces, with Rumayyan as chair, took many observers by surprise. While the plan still faces obstacles, including scrutiny from US lawmakers, it has elevated Rumayyan’s reputation as one of the world’s most influential sovereign wealth fund heads.
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