Once dismissed by many as a joke, the launch of LIV Golf divided the sport in 2022 as the Saudi-backed circuit lured top players from the PGA Tour with huge paydays while the two sides entered an ongoing legal battle.
And though Tiger Woods's return to competition after a near-fatal car crash in February 2021 grabbed plenty of attention, LIV Golf proved the defining story of the year as it upended the professional golf landscape.
Critics say LIV Golf, which is bankrolled by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, amounts to “sportswashing” by a nation trying to improve its reputation in the face of criticism over its human rights record. Along the way, LIV Golf joined a handful of its players in an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour, which then filed a counterclaim saying golfers knew they had no unilateral right to defect and that breaching contracts would result in bans.
Woods provided some distraction from the LIV Golf noise as he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame and returned to action at the Masters in April, 14 months after a car crash that nearly resulted in doctors amputating his right leg. At the PGA Championship, Justin Thomas levelled the largest comeback in the tournament's history when he erased a seven-stroke deficit in the final round to beat Will Zalatoris in a playoff for his second major title.
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