The announcement of the DOJ investigation was pretty suspicious to me as that happened just a week or two before the President's begging trip to SA asking them for more oil.
There may be some hypocrisy, but it’s also a bit of a leap from “some sponsors may do some business in shithole country xyz” to “this exhibition tour and players are 100% bankrolled by the Saudi government”. How do you do a “keep the politics out of sports” schtick when a nation state is your 100% backer? I think there are two levels to this. It isn’t just about hypocrisy over $$$. There’s also the lack of loyalty to the tour. A pure sports story on top of the $$$ hypocrisy. Tiger has played in that offseason Saudi tournament and taken appearance fees. Yet he’s also on the side of the PGA tour vs. LIV. Is he a hypocrite? Not all players are in the same circumstance. Even though Phil really stepped in it, I can halfway understand him doing this as his days of regularly winning on the PGA tour are over. Yet he probably feels above doing the rounds on the “Champions” tour. The Saudi’s are a high payout alternative. There are also guys that aren’t Americans or are international players. I can understand that too as some of them are actually only “part time” PGA tour players anyway. But if you are a core PGA tour player or European, the PGA tour is obviously not going to look kindly on this anymore than any other league would allow players to just jump ship midstream. In either case, the right course of action is to ban these guys. PGA tour players always had a minimum number to meet. It used to be 15 tournaments to keep your tour card (even if you were a winner or high in the rankings they had a rule you had to play 15 tournaments). They obviously didn’t always enforce that with the elite players, but if a rival league is going to poach players for 8 tournaments obviously they aren’t going to allow them to just show up whenever they feel like (it isn’t the same as a guy cutting his schedule for injuries or family time). Those spots will go to other players who will meet the requirements of the tour. If these guys jumping ship want to stay qualified for majors playing 8 exhibition tournaments a year or on the Asian tour then good luck to them!
The Chinese soccer league attempted to do a similar thing, where they would pay big money and above market prices for European and South American players (and notable managers), but since no one watches the Chinese league and COVID killed in stadium revenue, it wasnt sustainable, and its not much of a destination for players in their prime anymore. The Saudi soccer league is more like a retirement home too. There is already a ton of competition WRT soccer leagues (which is why sports washing in soccer is basically just buying an existing team in an established league). I think with individual sports, this is much more viable (because there is a virtual monopoly) and viewed as a bigger threat. I could see it happening with tennis too.
What are you talking about? Tell me more about my hate for golf. And hurry, my tee time is 10:20. Didn’t take long to confirm that sportswashing is indeed effective on some. LIV prolly has you in mind when they trot Norman out to say this whole thing is about being “a force for good in the world.” LIV GOLF ANNOUNCES $100 MILLION COMMITMENT TO NEW GLOBAL CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY PLATFORM - The Golf Wire
Not a fan of LIV nor Norman. Not sold on LIV trying to be "a force for good in the world". Hit em straight.
