THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
The world of golf is one which doesn't usually bring major headlines, until the major tournaments come around or individuals grab the spotlight for reasons that outweigh the sport. But over the last couple of years the game has been torn down the seams and caused a rift between some of the world's elite players and staff.
In 2019 a blueprint for a new tour was laid out. It was backed, controversially, by Saudi investors who would back the new breakaway tour with huge pots of cash for those that it tempted away from the PGA Tour and PGA European Tour. These established organisations were already immensely popular and provided drama with its four major tournaments shared across the globe and other high profile events culminating in the Ryder Cup, the biannual three day showcase that puts the best of the USA against their rival European competitors.
This all came under threat when the LIV Golf tour was born. LIV, by the way, is the Roman numeral for 54, the number of holes played at their scheduled events, a round less than is normal, and a unique selling point to those that wanted to try something different.
Remember the furore created when top European soccer teams wanted to break away and create their own Super League? You have the picture of what the people behind LIV were doing to the game of golf.
Huge amounts of money were being talked about, with a reported $800m being offered to Tiger Woods for him to sign up. Crazy money. Some took the bait, including former world number one Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia and Martin Kaymer. Johnson at the time of joining was one of the sport's leading lights and his reported $150m sign-up was a statement move by the new Tour. Other big names followed including the big hitting Bryson DeChambeau, along with Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed. The very heart of the PGA Tour was being taken away.
Sanctions were put in place by PGA officials which would see anyone on the new tour subject to bans, fines and even omission from major tournament play. This led to those players raising an antitrust civil lawsuit against the PGA. It was all very ugly for a game which was usually so serene and calm.
The Saudi involvement was perhaps the main issue. The money involved was seen as tainted with the laws of that country which became openly questioned by several Human Rights organisations. It was all becoming rather dark, even more so when the 9/11 Families group wrote a letter to the PGA thanking them for standing up against the Saudi-based Tour, in which they said: "Thank you for resisting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's efforts to cleanse its reputation by buying off professional athletes … To those of you who have chosen what is right over blood money from a corrupt, destructive sports entity and its Saudi backers, please continue to stand strong." Players too were outspoken against those that were choosing cash over tradition. The so-called "sportswashing" was tearing the fabric of the game's integrity.
You can only imagine then, the seismic shock when on Tuesday afternoon (June 6) news broke that the LIV Tour would merge with its rival counterparts and bring everything back together as if nothing had happened.
This of course will have huge implications for many weeks and months to come, but the immediate reactions by many were of being let down, with accusations that the PGA Tour was being hypocritical in its stance.
The players on both sides, LIV and PGA, will now have to stand shoulder to shoulder on the tee box again, going through the motions of hiding their emotions behind gritted teeth. The outspoken Rory McIlroy, who was the one of the most vocal against the LIV Tour and those joining it, will now have the dilemma of playing at tournaments that will be funded by those he was so adamantly against. His views of the players that took the money will now leave him, and others like him, with a very bitter taste in their mouths. And imagine being the person that took the money and earned the quick dollar, while your clubhouse colleagues toiled away each week trying to make the weekend cut.
Already there are calls for the resignation of PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan. In a bid to calm the waves, Monahan held a press conference at which he accepted he would be branded a hypocrite: "Any time I've said anything I've said it with the information I had at that moment, and I said it based on someone that's trying to compete for the PGA Tour and our players. I accept those criticisms, but circumstances do change, and I think looking at the big picture got us to this point. It probably didn't seem this way to them, but as I looked to those players that have been loyal to the PGA Tour, I'm confident they made the right decision. They have helped re-architect the future of the PGA Tour, they have moved us to a more competitive model. We have significantly invested in our business in 2023, we're going to do so in '24."
What was most surprising was that, given the blanket news coverage of everything, no one seemed to know anything about the merger until it was literally breaking news, so the shock appeared equal on all parts.
So, just how long had talks being going on, and who made the first move? Some even that say this was an orchestrated stunt. If so, it has hugely backfired.
Given the raw emotions that the Saudis provoke whenever they are linked with big money sports and industries, the deal will raise eyebrows and lead to voices being heard in anger and disappointment. It wasn't long before the letter from the 9/11 Families was being seen as ripped up in front of them. "Our entire community has been betrayed," said Terry Strada, the chair of 9/11 Families United. "The 9/11 terror attacks on the United States in 2001 killed almost 3,000 people. According to an FBI declassified document, 15 of the 19 plane hijackers in the attack were Saudi nationals." Strada, whose husband Tom was among those killed, said in a statement the group she chairs was "shocked and deeply offended" by the merger with a "league that is bankrolled by billions of sportswashing money from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia".
It's often said that sport and politics shouldn't mix, but the two are often closely interlinked. In fact the sports themselves are very political, with their own governing bodies often not seeing eye-to-eye. The recent soccer World Cup being played in Qatar led to many arguments about that country's human rights issues, and now Saudi is being seen as jumping on the sportswashing bandwagon too, with its own soccer league attracting some of the world's biggest stars as it prepares for its own bid to host the biggest global sporting event.
For now the world of golf eagerly awaits the next move, as players and officials get to grips with the fallout of the merger, what it means for the future of its top stars, and how this mess can have a satisfactory conclusion.
