You bailing on the PGA Tour and playing LIV?
What kind of money they talking? I saw the top guys could get 100 mil to play on the LIV.
Guaranteed $120K per event. That’s last place in a no cut event. Not sure Cook or Landry command a sign on bonus
I’ve read some but don’t know a lot of the situation. The little I do know, you have to decide whether you’re willing to play on a tour that’s backed by a regime that has a horrible human rights record.
Basically selling your soul to the devil. I side with the critics of the NBA turning the other cheek and doing business with China. So if I was a player, I would likely decline.
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I’d say this. Saudi Arabia is complicated. Yes they likely murdered a journalist. But they also have been an ally for 70 years. We’ve had US troops there for a long time. Our troops served alongside them in the 1990 Gulf War. They are a balance against worse people like Iran. So I don’t think it’s black and white like a “North Korean golf tour”.
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How many of the 911 hijackers were Saudi Arabian?
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That’s why I say it’s complicated. I think 15 of the 19 were from Saudi Arabia. But we sell them billions in arms and have continued to do so.
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I think the Saudis are trying to cherry-pick the PGA and Euro tours. Meaning they’re not gonna be throwing that kind of money at an Austin Cook or Andrew Landry; they’re going for the bigger names.
Saudi misdeeds aside, the two existing tours are not taking kindly to being raided and those to play on LIV are not likely to be allowed back on those tours any time soon, if at all. U.S. Open is going to let them play, but not sure about the other majors. So it could be a case of take the money and say goodbye to their professional future if LIV flames out, which is quite possible.
Gosh, I wish I had decision to make…… 
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PGA Tour set up an official side tour in China back in 2018. And they haven’t exactly been forthcoming about the details.
Just glad that I’ve never been attracted to professional sports to begin with.
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This will make the PGA up their game. That’s the good part of the situation.
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With respect there is no “likely” to it, there is an audio recording of him being drugged, murdered and dismembered. I am awaiting for my post “to be moderated” but it has links/facts with the recording AND confirmation by our intelligence services.
I believe they had him killed too. But doesn’t change my mind as it relates to this issue.
If the US is still OK working with them on tons of fronts and huge US companies like Northrop Grumman and Boeing can sell them arms, aircraft etc and US energy companies like Schlumberger can enter into multi-billion contracts to service their oilfields, I don’t see why Dustin Johnson or Phil Mickelson can’t play in their golf tournaments.
I just think it’s hypocritical to say they are so bad we shouldn’t deal with them when we do on many fronts everyday.
Yeah they’re going to want the heavy hitters to bring attention to the tour,hopefully this will at least get the PGA tour to get off its butt and start doing more for their players
The PGA Tour stance has nothing to do with Khashoggi or any other Saudi naughtiness. It has to do with “you can play for us or you can play for them, but not both.” Purely keeping golfers from playing for a competitor.
I agree with that Swine. But much of the commentary nationally is that the golfers have made a deal with the devil. And I just don’t think that’s fair if so many US Co’s and even our Federal Govt work with them every day.
Well, if I were in that situation, I would have to think long and hard about taking their money (LIV is backed by the same Saudi fund that just bought Newcastle United soccer team in England, so same deal there). So there is a deal with the devil component.
In a similar vein, there are companies that I will not buy their products, or stay at their hotels, or even play their golf courses, because I don’t want to be the one supplying the money in a lesser deal with the devil.
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With respect, there’s no likely to it, there are audio recordings of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder/dismemberment.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49657908
From the BBC article above:
“Their latest report details information from the alleged recording.
It includes details such as a forensic expert, part of a team sent from Saudi Arabia, allegedly referring to the journalist as an “animal to be sacrificed” prior to his arrival.
The Sabah report says Khashoggi, once inside the consulate, became suspicious and was told he had to return to Riyadh because of an Interpol order.
The journalist allegedly refused to comply with the group’s requests, which included texting his son, and was then drugged, according to the newspaper.
He reportedly then told his killers, in his last words, to not keep his mouth closed because of his asthma, but then lost consciousness.
Khashoggi was suffocated with a bag put over his head, the Sabah reports, with the sounds of a scuffle allegedly picked up by the recording.
The newspaper also alleges the tape captured his alleged dismemberment at the hands of the forensic expert.”
From the article above:
“ The Biden administration has just released an unclassified version of an intelligence report confirming who ordered the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi: It was Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
That conclusion was an open secret, as news reports shortly after the grisly assassination cited classified intelligence pointing to Mohammed bin Salman (often referred to by his initials, MBS) as having personally ordered the killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. That intelligence included, among other things, information about the crown prince’s phone calls in the days before the murder, and calls by the kill team to a senior aide to the crown prince.
After a 2018 CIA briefing on the classified intelligence, retired Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), then the Senate Foreign Relations chair, said there was “zero question that the crown prince directed the murder.”
Full disclosure, I’m not a fan of the House of Saud. I was there in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia via Rammstein AFB just after they were bombed in 1996 while we were in transit to another location for a TDY. I would post more but I’m sure I don’t have to fill in the details for readers here to understand the brutality of such an attack.
It is kinda like Nil, etc. World is opening up to new money sources and the old established parties are fighting it. I know that money is the mothers milk that sure gets change moving quickly once it takes hold. TV and other sponsorship money will dictate but golf appears ripe for some disruption at this time.
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What’s the stance on some of the golfers’ current sponsors? Did Phil lose any of his long time sponsors? Would Cook and Landry lose any of their current sponsors? If so, what would be the dollar trade-offs?