ATLANTA — The chair of the 9/11 Families United organization spoke Tuesday in Atlanta ahead of the Masters, expressing their "outrage and disappointment" that golfers of the Saudi Arabia-funded LIV Tour will be allowed to participate at Augusta National.
Those golfers, Terry Strada said in a press conference, "made a choice to turn their backs on their country and the 9/11 community."
Augusta National announced last year that players on the LIV Tour - the breakaway tournament that has lured away dozens of golfers away from the PGA Tour - would not be barred from playing the Masters tournament in 2023.
Strada said she spoke with Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley this week, in which she said she "got my point across in how the 9/11 families feel" about LIV golfers playing the Masters.
"We implore Augusta National to rethink their decision to allow these Saudi servants a world stage, and not permit them to partake in future Masters tournaments," Strada said.
Terry's husband, Tom Strada, died Sept. 11, 2001, after American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center and left him trapped on the 104th floor, where he worked.
She described him as an avid golf lover and accused the LIV Tour of being a "PR stunt by the Kingdom (of Saudi Arabia) designed to take the long, time-honored sport of golf and create a sports-washing entity aimed at diverting attention away from the Kingdom's support for terrorism, offensive human rights record and murders."
Last year's statement by Ridley did not mention the LIV Golf tour by name, but said that despite recent events that have "divided men's professional golf," all players who are eligible will be invited.
"Regrettably, recent actions have divided men’s professional golf by diminishing the virtues of the game and the meaningful legacies of those who built it. Although we are disappointed in these developments, our focus is to honor the tradition of bringing together a preeminent field of golfers this coming April," the statement said.
At that time it said "any modifications or changes to invitation criteria" - as Strada and the 9/11 Families United group are pushing for - would be announced this April, if they're made.
Strada said her conversation with Ridley on the matter was "very respectful."
"He just wanted me to understand his side as a person that's making these decisions," she said. "I didn't agree with him, but he was entitled to his opinion."
The 2023 Masters tournament starts Thursday in Augusta.