Golfers taking Saudi money is same as PGA Tour and China money | Commentary

Why do we expect professional golfers to have more ethics and morals than sitting U.S. presidents, CEOs of billion-dollar corporations, commissioners of major sports leagues, LeBron James and, of course, the average American citizen?

It’s been sadly fascinating to watch the way Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and other pro golfers are being portrayed in the wake of their decision to defect from the PGA Tour to chase bigger, easier money in the controversial Saudi-backed LIV Invitational golf league.

Johnson, Graeme McDowell and other PGA Tour defectors faced an inquisition at an LIV news conference on Thursday in which they were asked how taking Saudi money to play golf is going to help 81 men who were executed by the Saudi kingdom in March, the victims of a Saudi-led bombing of Yemen, abused migrant workers and the country’s oppressed women and LGBTQ population.

“As golfers, if we tried to cure geopolitical situations in every country in the world that we play golf in, we wouldn’t play a lot of golf,” McDowell answered.

In a perfect world, none of us would do business or support those countries with massive human rights violations, but we all do. Every time you pump that $5-a-gallon gasoline into your gas-guzzling Lincoln Navigator, you’re supporting Saudi Arabia. Every time you text your honey bunny on your $1,200 iPhone, you’re supporting China.

The American government does business with Saudi Arabia.

American corporations do business with Saudi Arabia.

The American people do business with Saudi Arabia.

Why do we expect more from American professional golfers like Johnson and Mickelson?

The golfers participating in the Saudi-funded series of tournaments stand accused of being accomplices in Saudi Arabia’s blatant attempt at sportswashing — the tried-and-true practice in which autocratic political regimes use sport to cleanse their soiled images.

In today’s global economy, isn’t every major athletic entity guilty of being a party to sportswashing?

We all know that the NBA has been in bed with China for years, gorging itself on the billions of dollars in revenue it receives from a country where countless Uyghur Muslims are imprisoned in slave labor camps. It seems the only time the NBA and NBA players “shut up and dribble” is when somebody brings up human rights violations in China.

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And, by the way, if you’re going to accuse today’s pro golfers of sportswashing, what about the great Jack Nicklaus, who just last year took money to design a golf course in Saudi Arabia and reportedly was ready to take $100 million to endorse the Saudi-funded golf league until his own marketing firm — Nicklaus Companies — sued him to stop the deal?

As for the PGA Tour, it certainly isn’t exempt from sportswashing either. After all, it runs a professional tour in China and is a partner with the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour), which holds tournaments in Middle Eastern countries (Dubai, United Arab Emirates) with human rights issues of their own.

And what about Major League Baseball and the NFL, which both have lucrative deals to market their games and merchandise in China?

And then there’s the most popular sporting event on the planet — the upcoming World Cup in Qatar, which has some of the same human rights issues as Saudi Arabia in regards to women and members of the LGBTQ community. Moreover, migrant workers in Qatar are imported from poorer countries and essentially treated like slaves. Reportedly, thousands of these abused migrant workers have died in the rush to build the massive infrastructure it takes to host a World Cup.

Wouldn’t that make the U.S. men’s soccer team and every other national team participating in the World Cup guilty of sportswashing?

We could go on and on with the hypocrisy regarding ethics and morals in today’s global economy.

The bottom line is this: Dustin Johnson, the former No. 1 player in the world, has reportedly been guaranteed $125 million to play in this Saudi-funded golf series. That dwarfs the $74 million he’s made during 15 years as a member of the PGA Tour.

And here’s the thing, that $125 million is guaranteed just like the guaranteed contract Steph Curry gets for playing in the NBA or Mike Trout gets for playing Major League Baseball. On the PGA Tour, you actually have to make cuts and win tournaments to earn money, and it’s always been a huge bone of contention among the game’s top players that they don’t get guaranteed appearance fees even though they are the ones driving ticket sales and TV ratings.

Everybody gets paid in the Saudi-funded tournaments, which are shorter (54 holes) and more lucrative. In other words, the golfers will make more money for less work. All of the Saudi-funded events will have a $25 million prize money pool with $4 million going to the winner, which dwarfs the payout of golf’s traditional majors and the PGA Tour’s most prestigious tournaments.

In comparison, the total payout for last year’s U.S. Open was $12.5 million with $2.25 million going to champion Jon Rahm. At Orlando’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, one of the top stops on the PGA Tour, the total purse was about $12 million in March with $2.1 million going to winner Scottie Scheffler.

Don’t kid yourself, this is going to get very ugly for the PGA Tour because there will be other notable players who will soon defect to line their pockets with easy money — no matter where that money comes from.

Just like Bank of America, Exxon, Pfizer, Proctor and Gamble, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Holiday Inn, Halliburton and all the other companies that do business in Saudi Arabia.

“You’re always weighing from a business standpoint, what is the best financial outcome for me for my time spent,” McDowell says. “There are no promises on the PGA Tour. When an opportunity like this comes along where you can play the last few years of your career in a very financially lucrative environment, you’d be crazy to walk away from that as a businessman. Outside of the majors and the Ryder Cup, golf is a business.”

And Saudi-funded golf is big business.

Bought and paid for every time you go to the gas pump.

Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on Twitter @BianchiWrites and listen to my Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9:30 a.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and HD 101.1-2