NORTH PLAINS, Ore. — Ari Fleischer stood no more than 20 feet from the stage Tuesday as players took questions from the media ahead of the second LIV Golf Invitational Series event, diligently taking notes on the questions and answers.
The former White House press secretary runs a communications company and was hired as a consultant for everything under “the comms consulting umbrella,” Fleischer told PR Week.
Brooks Koepka and Pat Perez got testy when they said they didn’t receive any sort of media training to deal with the difficult questions about the connection to Saudi Arabia and its human rights record or the current battle between LIV Golf and the PGA and DP World tours.
“I mean, unless you want to do it yourself,” said a snarky Koepka.
Despite both players flip-flopping on their opinions of the new golf series that’s shaking up the professional scene and the fact that the Fleischer Communications website says it provides everything from media training to crisis management and reputation control, we’ll take them at their word.
That said, anyone who has attended or even watched any of the LIV Golf press conferences can attest to the talking points delivered by players both earlier this month at the inaugural event near London and so far this week at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club.
We’ll call it LIV Golf bingo.
I noticed a trend of similar answers and seemingly scripted talking points during LIV Golf press conferences.
We’ll call it LIV Golf Bingo. Story: https://t.co/YDgrTkYpgW pic.twitter.com/gjtP1aTSqh
— Adam Woodard (@AdamWoodard) June 29, 2022
Variations of phrases such as “golf is a force for good,” “we’re golfers/we’re not politicians,” as well as talking points on respecting opinions have been used this week in Portland and earlier this month in London. There also seems to be a new player response to answer why they joined LIV Golf. In London, Dustin Johnson and Louis Oosthuizen were the two players to mention time at home with family as a reason, with Ian Poulter adding, “So the legacy standpoint is, I’m trying to provide for my family, which is the first and foremost thing that I want to do.” This week, seven of the nine players brought in for press conferences used more time at home as an answer.
With six more events still to come in the 2022 series, four of which are in the United States, players are bound to face more questions about their reasons for joining LIV Golf.
Contributing: Golfweek’s Jason Lusk
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