LIV Golf revoked a reporter's credentials after the reporter refused to remove a question about the league's Saudi funding from a podcast interview with golfer Pat Perez. LIV had contacted the reporter, Bill Hobson, to arrange the interview promoting a tournament at The Cardinal at Saint John's. Hobson spoke with Perez for about 30 minutes; most of the conversation was lighthearted but included a question about LIV's association with Saudi Arabia, which Perez answered. League officials called shortly after, asked Hobson to remove that question and another about former CEO Greg Norman, and then escalated calls when he declined.
To promote the upcoming tournament, Hobson told Golfweek, LIV reached out to him and asked if he wanted to interview Perez. Soon after, Hobson spoke on the phone with Perez for approximately half an hour. While most of the conversation was lighthearted touching on topic's like the league championship and the recent release of the film Happy Gilmore 2 Hobson briefly pivot to a more serious subject when he asked Perez about LIV's association with Saudi Arabia. The country's Public Investment Fund owns and operates the league. While Perez had no problem answering the question, LIV was less than enthused about it.
According to Hobson, league officials called him 10 minutes after the interview and sounded panicked. The report continued: They asked Hobson to take out the question regarding Saudi Arabia and another about former LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman. Hobson kindly declined. As a result, he received several more phone calls from escalating levels of LIV officials over the following 48 hours.
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