Former Wimbledon Tennis Champion Labels LIV Golf Players 'Pathetic'

Tennis legend Martina Navratilova has labelled Graeme McDowell's comments at this week's LIV Golf Invitational Series as "pathetic."

G-Mac was asked about the controversial Saudi funding and admitted that the "Khashoggi situation was reprehensible," before saying that "we are proud to help Saudi if they want to use golf to get to where they want to be."

Martina Navratilova called the comments "pathetic" and asked "How exactly is golf going to help women in Saudi?!?" The Czech-American, who won 18 grand slams including nine Wimbledon titles, said she turned down a high-paying South African exhibition match in the 80s due to "principle." 

"In the 80’s, Chris and I were offered a lot of money to play an exhibition in South Africa and we refused. Something called #principle made that an easy decision," she wrote, before saying "I am so disappointed with my fellow athletes for doing this… seems everybody has a price."

A number of golfers have had to field difficult questions from reporters this week at the Centurion Club, including Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter who were asked if they'd play a tournament run by Vladmir Putin and if there's anywhere they wouldn't play if the money was right.

"That's speculation. I don't need to answer that," Poulter said, adding that he doesn't think LIV Golf should be controversial. 

This week's event sees 12 LIV Golf teams of four players take on the Centurion Club, where $25m in prize money is up for grabs. The first round tee times have been released, with all groups going off at 2.15pm local time in a shotgun start format.