Oh to be in that room when Jay Monahan had to look the players on the PGA Tour in the face on Tuesday. The chainsaw from Scarface couldn’t have cut the tension in that room. A room of the players who weren’t offered hundreds of millions of dollars of Saudi Arabian Money — or worse, were offered but turned it down — to bolt from the PGA Tour to LIV.
“We don’t trust you, Jay – you lied to our face,” Grayson Murray shouted at the commish.
Still, Monahan had to stand there and stare out at all of those disappointed, betrayed, and furious faces at the Oakdale Golf and Country Club in Toronto. According to Golf Channel’s Johnson Wagner, Monahan was reminded in Tuesday’s meeting of what he said last July at the 3M Open in Minnesota.
For all of the money at the Public Investment Fund’s disposal, what it was supposed to not be able to buy was the prestige of the PGA brand. Except for the fact that LIV golfers were still permitted to play in all of the major tournaments because PGA Tour doesn’t own any of them, and also the Saudis have purchased the PGA Tour. The players were informed the same way that the public was, when Monahan sat next to the chairman of the yet-to-be-named new association Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who is also the governor of PIF, on CNBC and announced the merger that includes the DP World Tour as well — formerly known as the European Tour.
This doesn’t erase Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations
This is not a drill, the Saudis have purchased the country club. The country club that didn’t enact a policy against discrimination based on race and/or sex until 1991. Saudi Arabia helped fund 9/11 and it took only two years for the PGA to clumsily tumble from the moral high ground that it attempted to establish over the Saudi-funded LIV.
As recently as Memorial Day weekend — a national holiday in the U.S., lest we forget — Rory McIlroy stated that European players who defected to LIV should not be permitted to play on the continent’s Ryder Cup team. He left nine figures of Saudi money on the table, and was out front early expressing his distaste for LIV.
While Mcllory was the most vocal PGA Tour player against the organization, it also failed to land Jordan Spieth, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods. They all turned down massive money for whatever reason to eventually be betrayed — although Woods’ main gripe was with the involvement of Greg Norman and, according to Sports Illustrated, the LIV CEO and commissioner is “not expected to be part of the venture going forward.”
Less than 10 days after McIlroy voiced his most recent opposition to LIV, he is now a part of that organization. He wasn’t one of the players who voiced displeasure on social media, so the only conclusion that can be made about Mcllroy is that he lost out on the same initial windfall as everyone else who stuck with the PGA. All this while Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, and others return to PGA-sponsored tournaments with Saudi money flushed into their coffers.
All that it took for the defectors to return was an enormous sum of money from the Saudis to the PGA tour, which the public may or not ever be privy to the exact amount.
The irony of this whole situation is that LIV golf earned credibility because Phil Mickelson turned to it due to his displeasure with the revenue that he believed the PGA hogged — as American organizations are wont to do. The PGA made modest changes to the compensation of its golfers and is now financially backed by a fund with $620 billion at its disposal. When faced with a similar fight, the MLB, NBA, and NFL players received free agency. The golfers, and the PGA, just received access to enough money that could litter a humid evening sky like mosquitoes.
Another American institution that’s reputation has been punted off of a cliff. Part of the reason that discourse surrounding the two primary parties in the American government is so toxic is the population largely agrees that it is being taken advantage of. Who the primary culprit is depends on the team (political party) of which you are a fan.
Americans accepting unethical money is a longstanding tradition. What is most disturbing about this situation though is the brazenness of the PGA. It appeared to have seized a moral high ground against this country infamous for oil production and human rights violations. Then with lawsuits pending, the PGA took advantage of historically friendly — albeit currently frayed —United States relations with Saudi Arabia and metaphorically spat in the eye of its players to end the litigation and swim in a lake of money.
The country club turned on its members on Monday. Take notes, people, because if it can happen to them it can most certainly happen to you too. Not only will it happen, but the powers that be will look you dead in the face and tell you that it’s good for you.