The Unsavory Alliance of Trump and the LIV Golf Tour
Along with Jared Kushner’s sweetheart deal with Saudis, the stench of corruption is hard to ignore
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Whether it’s trying to overthrow a legitimate election, bilking his followers out of millions of dollars through his Super PAC, or lying about the value of his properties, the former president’s corruption and unethical behavior seemingly have no end. We could go on and on.
For those of you who may not know it, Trump even managed to corrupt the world of golf, a sport he loves to participate in daily.
Some might say they couldn’t care less about a sport that has always catered to the very well-off and has a dark history of excluding people of color and women from participating. And, they’d be right about those aspects of the game of golf.
That said, Trump’s involvement in the LIV Golf Tour, Saudi Arabia’s foray into tournament golf, shows his vindictiveness, pettiness, and corruption know no bounds.
For some background, the LIV Tour is a startup tour attempting to compete with the PGA Tour, backed by hundreds of millions of dollars from the Saudi Arabian government. They’ve enticed some big names from the PGA, like Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, by throwing nine-figure paychecks at them to defect and play on their Tour.
In other words, all they have to do is show up. While winning events certainly can pad their wallets with even more millions, the incentive isn’t what it is on the PGA tour in that you have to do well in tournaments to make a living.
Former PGA tour player Greg Norman, a constant critic of the Tour he once played for, is the CEO and commissioner of LIV Golf and is leading the way in trying to entice other players to defect. He also tried to start a rival tour in the early 90s but was unsuccessful.
The PGA has since indefinitely suspended all the players who defected. The controversy has pitted current PGA tour players against those who have defected, including a torrid response from PGA legend Tiger Woods, who didn’t mince words during a press conference at The Open Championship, played this past weekend. Woods came out vehemently against the new Tour, saying the deflecting…
