Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund and the chairman of state-owned oil giant Aramco, will compete in this week's Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on the DP World Tour.
However, his name won't be on the tee sheet for the pro-am tournament played on three courses, including the host, the Old Course at St. Andrews.
Rather, Al-Rumayyan will be competing in the event under a pseudonym: Andrew Waterman.
According to reporting from The Scotsman, Yasir Al-Rumayyan was invited to play in the event by Johann Rupert, the South African who is the the chairman of Alfred Dunhill’s parent company Richemont and of the tournament's championship committee.
“Sport is supposed to unite people, not divide,” Rupert said to The Scotsman. “We need to get peace.”
Rupert further invited six LIV Golf players to compete in the tournament: Peter Uihlein, who is playing with Al-Rumayyan in the pro-am, along with Louis Oosthuizen, Talor Gooch, Dean Burmester, Laurie Canter and Hudson Swafford, who hasn't played in a LIV Golf event in 2023 due to injury. The players are allowed to compete as sponsor exemptions, and none of the players have DP World Tour membership, so they are not subject to sanction from the tour for competing in LIV Golf.
Al-Rumayyan will be playing in the first three rounds of the event alongside R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers, who has indicated an interest in courting Saudi money to support the governing body in the wake of the framework agreement the Public Investment Fund signed with the PGA Tour to end litigation and seek a definitive path to working together moving forward. Slumbers is playing with Jordan Smith in the pro-am.
