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LIV Golfers Attract Fans and Outrage at Pumpkin Ridge

Participants in the Saudi-backed event “have turned their backs on the crime of murder,” one critic said. But spectators just wanted to see their favorite players.

Phil Mickelson, playing from the rough during a three-over-par round, drew a dedicated group of fans on Thursday at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club.Credit...Troy Wayrynen/EPA, via Shutterstock

NORTH PLAINS, Ore. — Even as Phil Mickelson and other marquee players teed off to applause on Thursday in a Saudi government-backed tournament outside Portland, the golfers were excoriated in a protest and an affiliated television ad by family members and survivors of the Sept.