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The controversial Saudi Arabian-backed golf league apparently has its first official commitment from a PGA Tour player.

According to Golfweek, 44-year-old one-time winner Robert Garrigus has requested a release from the PGA Tour to play in the LIV Golf Invitational, June 9-11 at the Centurion Club outside London.

Members of the PGA Tour are required to obtain a waiver to play in tournaments held on other tours the same week as a PGA Tour event; the PGA Tour’s RBC Canadian Open is also scheduled for that week. According to the report, Garrigus is the only player so far to have filed for one.

He may not be the last, however.

The Golfweek report cited sources who said other players are expected to do the same.

Last week, a story in The Telegraph also reported that Bubba Watson, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Kevin Na were among the names the league and its CEO/commissioner Greg Norman were preparing to announce in the weeks ahead. Na later said he has yet to sign anything.

Greg Norman, CEO of Liv Golf Investments
Greg Norman, CEO of Liv Golf Investments Getty Images

A conflicting event release must be submitted to the PGA Tour at least 45 days before the first round of a tournament. The PGA Tour also must decide on such applications 30 days before an event begins.

Earlier this year, the tour allowed such a release for players who competed in the Asian Tour’s Saudi International, which was held the same week as the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, though the organization did so with certain conditions attached.

Fields for the Saudi Arabian-backed league, which has eight tournaments on its schedule, including one at Trump National in Bedminster, N.J., are expected to mostly be made up of journeymen from the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, per Golfweek.

The league has been bashed by many as an attempt by Saudi Arabia to sportswash its human rights abuses.

Garrigus’ lone victory on the PGA Tour came in 2010, at the now-defunct Children’s Miracle Network Classic in Orlando. In 2019, he made headlines again when the tour suspended him for three months after he’d tested positive for marijuana. Garrigus last played on the PGA Tour full-time in 2018.

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