PGA Tour pro rips Bubba Watson over LIV Golf

Cameron Percy has emerged as an unlikely defender of golf’s status quo, and he was at it again this week.

The Australian has been critical of LIV Golf over the past couple of weeks, and his opinion on the rebel tour shows no sign of changing after Salma al-Shehab, a Saudi women’s rights activist, was handed a 34-year jail sentence.

Al-Shehab, a mother of two, had tweeted calling for “basic rights”. Her sentence is the longest term ever given to a women’s rights activist in Saudi Arabia.

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Freedom Initiative, a US-based human rights organisation, has condemned the sentence, saying: “Tweeting in solidarity with women’s rights activists is not a crime, and Saudi Arabia must be held accountable.”

After seeing the news, Percy reacted by trolling Bubba Watson, LIV’s latest signing.

“Should I ask Bubba to pray for her release?”, he wrote on Twitter.

His tweet was an apparent reference to comments made by Watson after he was announced by the series, which is bankrolled by the Saudi government’s public investment fund.

“My wife loved it, we prayed about it, we came to a decision and here we are,” he said at the time.

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Watson has been branded a hypocrite for joining LIV. He and his wife Angie have adopted two children – a practice which is illegal in Saudi Arabia.

Percy, meanwhile, has attracted attention in recent weeks after claiming compatriots Cam Smith and Marc Leishman had agreed to sign for the breakaway tour.

Smith, the Open champion, is said to have signed a $100 million contract with the Greg Norman-fronted league.