• The place’s your criticism of the Saudis now, PGA Tour? 9/11 households are asking.
• The PGA Tour introduced Tuesday it will merge with the Saudi-backed league LIV Golf.
• Households of 9/11 victims are livid, calling the PGA a bunch of ‘Saudi shills’ who offered out for ‘greed.’

Households of the 9/11 terrorist assaults ripped the PGA Tour for merging with LIV Golf — not even a yr after the PGA commissioner advised gamers ought to apologize for associating with the Saudi-backed upstart league.

“PGA Tour leaders needs to be ashamed of their hypocrisy and greed,” 9/11 Households United chair Terry Strada wrote in a scathing take-down of golf’s greatest powerhouse. “Our whole 9/11 group has been betrayed by Commissioner [Jay] Monahan and the PGA because it seems their concern for our family members was merely window-dressing of their quest for cash.”

The stunning merger was introduced Tuesday following a yr of back-and-forth sniping between the feuding rivals whereas LIV poached expertise from the Tour with big-money offers.

The 2 leagues reached a blockbuster deal of their very own, agreeing to mix forces. Monahan will take over as CEO, whereas Saudi businessman and chief of the dominion’s Public Funding Fund Yasir Al-Rumayyan would be the chairman.

It is a gorgeous turnabout for the PGA and Monahan, who final summer time took a swipe at golfers who deserted ship to ally with the brand new league whereas banning them from PGA play.

Whereas successive US presidents dodged the problem of Saudi’s involvement within the lethal terror assaults that killed 2,977 individuals, a declassified FBI memo revealed in 2022 that the Saudi authorities was straight linked to these planning the atrocity.

In an interview with CBS final summer time, Monahan trashed these defecting to LIV Golf, saying “I’ve two households which can be near me that misplaced family members [in 9/11]. So, my coronary heart goes out to them.”

“And I’d ask any participant that has left or any participant that might ever think about leaving: Have you ever ever needed to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?” he mentioned.

Of their assertion Tuesday, the 9/11 victims’ households group ripped the PGA as complicit in Saudi Arabia’s “sportswashing” its repute.

“The PGA and Monahan seem to have change into simply extra paid Saudi shills, taking billions of {dollars} to cleanse the Saudi repute in order that Individuals and the world will neglect how the Kingdom spent their billions of {dollars} earlier than 9/11 to fund terrorism, unfold their vitriolic hatred of Individuals, and finance al Qaeda and the homicide of our family members,” Strada mentioned. “Make no mistake – we are going to always remember.” 

In a brand new interview with CNBC, Monahan praised his new Saudi companions for coming collectively.

“I give Yasir, nice credit score for coming to the desk coming to discussions with an open coronary heart and an open thoughts,” he mentioned. “We did the identical and the sport of golf is best for what we have finished right here right now.”