Stars set for Saudi International after PGA Tour agree to conditional release
- News Feeds
- 21 December 2021
Agreement reached to release players from scheduling conflict.
The PGA Tour has granted conditional permission for players to compete in the Saudi International in February.
The event will conflict with the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in California, which was causing a headache for schedulers.
However, players will now be allowed to skip Pebble Beach to compete for the large prize pot available to Suadi Arabia - as long as they pledge to support the California event in the future.
A statement from the PGA Tour on Monday said: "With conditions, the PGA Tour has granted all conflicting-event releases to players for the Saudi International, February 3-6, 2022.
"The tournament will be played the same week as the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, so players will be required to support that Tour staple going forward.
"The memo announcing the decision went out to the membership on Monday.
"Players who have played in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at least once in the past five years were granted a release on the condition that they commit to play it at least once in the next two years ('23, '24).
"Players who have not played the historic tournament on the Monterey Peninsula at least once in the past five years were granted a release on the condition that they commit to play it at least twice in the next three years ('23, '24, '25)."
The Tour added that the releases were "not precedent setting".
Defending champion Dustin Johnson, Tommy Fleetwood, Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Bryson DeChambeau are among the players set to compete in the £3.7million event at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club in Jeddah.
The Saudi International was previously on the European Tour but is now the flagship event on the Asian Tour, which is also launching 10 new events spearheaded by former world number one Greg Norman and backed by 200 million US dollars from the Saudi government's Private Investment Fund.
