Golfweek's Eamon Lynch:
“We know why golfers want to be in Saudi Arabia—appearance fees—but its important to not lose sight of why the government wants them there. Lowry is correct in saying he’s just going to do his job. That’s exactly the point. Mohammed bin Salman is not paying Lucas Herbert to grow the game or Jason Dufner to be a dinner-table raconteur. He is paying them to help present a normalized image of his Saudi Arabia as a place where run-of-the-mill golf events happen, just like any place else. Not every player will take part in publicity shoots or be as grovelingly obsequious as the Crown Prince’s finger puppet, Greg Norman, but they are still being used as stooges for sportswashing. No amount of artifice can disguise that.”