The world of professional golf is unlikely to be the same again. Dustin Johnson, one of the biggest stars on the PGA Tour, announced it in his own way by accepting, in the small amount of 125 million dollars, to join a new championship funded by Saudi Arabia’s totalitarian regime.
Next week, the Saudi regime will officially begin its most impressive operation sports washing not yet seen. The new LIV Golf Championship, funded by the Saudi National Investment Fund, will be held the first tournament in its history at the Centurion Club outside London.
To set up this new circuit, the Saudi authorities will not go behind their hands, as Jean Perron would say. The 125 million paid to Dustin Johnson exceeded the total amount of profits Tiger Woods pocketed on the PGA Tour during his extraordinary career. A few weeks ago, Jack Nicklaus, 82, announced that he had refused more than 100 million to be an ambassador for the LIV championship.
Johnson, 37, has reached approximately $ 74 million in revenues since his PGA debut, where he won 24 tournaments. The value offered by the Saudis is probably very hard to deny, as long as we ignore the fact that its new employers kill journalists and political dissidents, imprison feminists and impose the death penalty on minors. age.
Last March, Saudi Arabia killed 81 prisoners in one day.
To set up this sporting showcase that will help to soften his image and increase his legitimacy in the world, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al-Saud has called on former Australian star Greg Norman.
Three weeks ago, at a press event promoting the inaugural LIV Championship tournament, Norman was asked how he lived with the Crown Prince’s alleged complicity in murder and segregation, in 2018, from the journalist of Washington Post Jamal Khashoggi |
We all make mistakes and we need to learn from them and see how we can correct them in the future.Norman replied, as if asked to comment on a missed putt on the 18th hole.
In any other scenario, the birth of a well -funded golf tour capable of competing in the PGA would be big news for professional golfers around the world.
Sports leagues that operate in a monopolistic environment do not have to fight to get their hands on the best talent available. Therefore, they do not provide optimal financial benefit to athletes. In addition, athletes who practice individual sports are always paid less than their team sports counterparts, where athletes are grouped into associations or unions that increase their relationship with the power of ten times.
It is for this reason that the top five tennis players in the world amass an average annual purse of approximately $ 8 million, the same salary of Chicago White Sox right-hander pitcher Kendall Graveman, who most likely that you have never heard of.
The birth of the LIV championship clearly puts the PGA leaders in a situation of unfair competition. The money given to Dustin Johnson and the fortune offered to Jack Nicklaus show that the Saudis have unlimited financial resources and their decisions are not part of any market logic.
Even by sharpening their pencils to offer better condition to athletes, PGA leaders will never be able to compete with a public fund directly connected to Saudi Arabia’s sovereign fund, which amounts to nearly 1,000 billion dollars by 2025.
With 125 or 150 million contracts, individually, the promoters of the LIV championship could eliminate the PGA of most of its headliners. After that, the PGA will be a kind of empty or half -empty shell.
The PGA has certainly refused, so far, to issue releases to players who want to participate in Saudi Championship events. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan further indicated that violators of the ban could be banned for life.
These threats, uttered by an organization leader who is accustomed to enjoying a monopoly, may not take into account the fact that if a large number of players decide to challenge the PGA, it is the PGA that end up with bad sheets and not the players.
Some believe the PGA Tour is not really threatened with the arrival of the LIV championship. They consider that many golfers will refuse to associate themselves with a totalitarian regime and with the atrocities it commits.
It’s not sure.
F1 drivers are expressing their anxiety, but will still be racing in some countries that violate human rights. And no Olympic athlete withdrew last winter when the time came to compete in the Beijing Games.
Since making the case for a new Saudi Tour in February, Phil Mickelson has been considered almost an outcast within the PGA fraternity. But now that Dustin Johnson has jumped the fence, other players who fear opprobrium will be tempted to follow him.
The more apostasy, the lower the moral weight of an organization the Saudi regime is hard to bear.
Next week, the inaugural tournament will feature household names such as Sergio Garcia, Martin Kaymer, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel, Kevin Na, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood. Many also hoped that Phil Mickelson would be there.
While waiting to see what the real reaction of the PGA Tour leaders would be, the sponsors who were severing their relationship with the golfers decided to join the LIV championship.
Johnson is sponsored by the Royal Bank of Canada. Until last Tuesday, Wayne Gretzky’s son -in -law was supposed to compete at the Canadian Open next week. The Canadian Open is also sponsored by RBC.
However, on Wednesday, RBC severed its relationship with Johnson as well as Graeme McDowell, who also participates in the LIV circuit. Lee Westwood was also dumped by his sponsor UPS.
That said, what is Dustin Johnson depriving RBC of now that he has a 125 million contract in his pocket?
In other words, the PGA Tour is now faced with less than good competitors who are literally printing money. And this unprecedented and unequal struggle is likely to break the world of golf and leave deep scars.
The battle officially began.
Source: Radio-Canada
