This is not normally a space anyone should come to for a defense of professional golf as a valued American institution, or even as a sport for that matter.
I don't play it, don't watch it, don't care about it.
I've sometimes been compelled to cover it, but my only extended thoughts on golf are that it would be a lot more interesting if the winner were the first person finished, regardless of the amount of strokes taken. And that you should be able to play some defense, whether by hitting another player's ball, or maybe tackling.
So no, this isn't the place for serious golf examination, but I see this week that Congress is taking a whack at it.
When you've mismanaged a sport badly enough that Congress thinks it can straighten things out, it's a dark chapter in your game's history. See Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa Go To Washington, for theatrical reference.
This time, Congress, generally a non-stop performative clown college in its own right, is concerned that the PGA Tour will soon fold itself into a new arrangement with LIV Golf, which is financed through the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Saudi Arabia. The concern is the Saudis are effectively purchasing American golf to "sportswash" their image as a serial human rights abuser.
For the record, Congress got this idea from the PGA itself, which had called LIV Golf a vehicle to "sportswash Saudi atrocities," at least until June, when it began calling LIV Golf something closer to, um, our esteemed future business partners in the noble pursuit of growing the game internationally while looking the other way on torture, executions, public beheadings, etc.
Or something.
As it was presented to Congress by PGA Tour chief operating officer Ron Price and board member Jimmy Dunne on Tuesday, any deal between the Tour and LIV Golf is still highly speculative, so we can assume the Tour still counts itself as extremely uncomfortable with the prospect of getting into bed with the same Saudi government the CIA says murdered Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, whose body was reportedly dismembered with a bonesaw.
This is an important clarification, especially since one of the game's icons, Greg Norman, now the chairman of LIV Golf, explained away Khashoggi's murder last spring with: "Look, we've all made mistakes and you just want to learn from those mistakes and how you can correct them moving forward."
Well there's no correcting that one.
Khashoggi's fiance, Hatice Cengiz, soon told Tom Morgan of the Telegraph:
"It is so hurtful when Jamal's brutal killing is brushed off as a 'mistake' and that we should just move on. Would you say that if it was your loved one? How can we go forward when those who ordered the murder are still unpunished and continue to try to buy back their legitimacy? We should not fall for their wealth and lies and lose our morals and common humanity. We should all be insisting on the truth and justice; only then can we look forward with hope and dignity."
Also not on board with the whole "moving forward" thing Norman suggested are the families of those killed on Sept. 11, 2001, some of whom showed up at the Capitol this week to re-emphasize their position.
"PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan co-opted the 9/11 community last year in the PGA's unequivocal agreement that the Saudi LIV project was nothing more than sportswashing of Saudi Arabia's reputation," they said in a formal statement. "But now the PGA and Monahan appear to have become just more paid Saudi shills, taking billions of dollars to cleanse the Saudi reputation so that Americans and the world will forget how the Kingdom spent their billions of dollars before 9/11 to fund terrorism, spread their vitriolic hatred of Americans, and finance al Qaeda and the murder of our loved ones. Make no mistake — we will never forget."
After three hours of hearings, the bipartisan Congressional subcommittee decided only that it needs to hear more on the matter, particularly from an antitrust standpoint, but the vibe for golf in general did not improve.
"They ought to be exploring options that involve less repressive regimes, no sportswashing, other financial options," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told the Golf Channel afterward. "The concession of financial control and, in effect, equity ownership, I think, puts them in jeopardy of very severe consequences to the sport."
Some with a heavy stake in the game aren't having so difficult a time with all of this. Rory McIlroy, who with Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus is one of only three players to have won four majors by the age of 25, made things fairly plain Thursday after the opening round of the Scottish Open.
"If LIV Golf was the last place to play golf on Earth," said the 34-year-old Irishman, "I would retire. That's how I feel about it."
