PGA Tour caves to rival LIV Golf to chase the money
Cowardice. Hypocrisy. Greed. Such is professional golf.
The PGA Tour owes Tiger Woods $1 billion. It owes Rory McIlroy $500 million.
It owes about dozen other stars — Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm, Hideki Matsuyama — at least $100 million. Each.
It owes dozens of other golfers hundreds of millions more. These golfers stood strong by the PGA Tour when LIV Golf raided its ranks and stole Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smith, and Patrick Reed, to name the best. These golfers got about $1 billion, combined, from a Saudi regime that the PGA Tour spent the past two years deriding as hostile to the game and the globe.
» READ MORE: LIV Golf is validated by Brooks Koepka’s win at the PGA Championship
Now, the PGA Tour and its adopted little brother, the DP World Tour, have decided to merge with LIV.
Such cowardice. Such hypocrisy. Such unmitigated greed.
Such is professional golf. Such has it always been.
The new enterprise has yet to be named or logoed. In memory of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post reporter whom the Saudis kidnapped, murdered, and dismembered, may we suggest The Bonesaw Tour. The merchandising opportunities would be killer.
They’ve thrown in their lot with these cretins to avoid litigation.
They’ve thrown in their lot to reclaim their stars; Koepka has been the best player in the world for the past six years, when healthy, and he will be so for the next six years, and the PGA Tour is ever desperate to brand itself as the home of the best.
They’ve thrown in their lot with misogyny, homophobia, state-sanctioned murder, and brutal theocracy.
They’ve thrown in their lot with the country of origin for the 9/11 terrorists. A nation whose leaders have been connected to those attacks.
Cowardice. Hypocrisy. Greed.
For the PGA Tour, that’s par for the course.
» READ MORE: LIV Golf loses, Jon Rahm and America win as Brooks Koepka chokes away the Masters