From a Michael Schaffer Capital City column on politico.com headlined “Saudi Arabia Thought Golf Could Save Its Image. It Whiffed.”:

To hear critics tell it, the Saudi-owned LIV Golf startup is a devious scheme.

Instead of being about athletics, they say, the new league is really about shamelessly deploying the likes of Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson in order to make Americans see Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as a cheerful golf caddy rather than as the despot behind Jamal Khashoggi’s brutal murder.