The PGA since its inception in 1929 has been a bastion of excellence and integrity, promoting the game of golf around the world. It has been a game enjoyed by every age group, every ethnicity, nationality, and every gender. And the main requirement? Play by the rules!
No more!
PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan, in one of the most blatant, shameful, and hypocritical reversals of position, has reached an agreement to merge with the LIV Tour.
The LIV Tour was founded in 2021 with financial backing from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) allegedly as an alternative to the PGA to spread golf to an even wider audience around the world. In reality, it represents an ongoing effort by Saudi Arabia to rehabilitate their murderous reputation as sponsors of radical terrorist groups, like those responsible for 9/11, and killers of journalists. The PIF has purchased controlling stakes in soccer clubs and is investing heavily in American companies and real estate.
Many PGA golfers, including Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, and Brooks Koepka made Faustian bargains for outlandish amounts of money (over $200 million for Phil), abandoning the organization that made their careers.
Golfers like Tiger Woods (offered $700 million!), Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, and many more refused the blood money and backed the PGA with the understanding, based on Monahan’s earlier comments, that the PGA would stand firm and united against the LIV Tour.
And they had every reason to believe it. Monahan called the LIV Tour “Sportswashing,” and invoked 9/11 and the 9/11 Families United group to push back on the Saudi-backed Tour. He saw the LIV Tour as a threat to the game and its integrity. That was then.
But, in the last several months, while competing lawsuits were ongoing, Jay Monahan sold out. Behind closed doors, and without any player input or consultation, he and the PGA bent the knee to the Saudi regime, stabbing the players, the 9/11 families, the tour sponsors, and fans in the back.
The details of the agreement are as yet unclear. Whatever they might be, clearly backroom deals were made and money exchanged. This has irreparably damaged the PGA tour’s reputation, tarnished its leadership, and thrown the game of golf into an unknown future. The stalwarts like Woods and McIlroy are left looking like suckers for not taking the money, while the sellouts like Mickelson and DeChambeau have their cake and eat it too.
It may be impossible to get these players to respect each other again, and that will be a visible tension that the game doesn’t need. It was always about competition, not animosity.
One can only hope that there are boycotts by sponsors and fans as well as investigations into the legality of the deal that was struck.
So shame on Monahan and the PGA! You have betrayed all of us that love the game.
