![]() ![]() On Tuesday, LIV had an epiphany about the need for competition and combined with the PGA Tour in what Balsam called “a golf monolith” that will control players and every other aspect of tournament play, from sponsors to players to fans. Not lost among the ironies: LIV was suing the PGA Tour, accusing it of using its monopoly to crush potential competitors. “None of their decision-making that supposedly is responsive to the ideological environment is actually principled. “It shows a certain amount of inconsistency, and perhaps even hypocrisy," said Balsam, who noted that baseball moved its 2021 All-Star Game out of Atlanta in response to a Georgia voting law but continues to do business in other, more troublesome places, including China. But the leagues can’t have it both ways,” said Jodi Balsam, who teaches sports law at Brooklyn and NYU law schools. “One defense to going for the money is that sports shouldn’t be about politics. What didn’t change: It was never about anything else. What changed for Monahan, like so many other sports pooh-bahs before him, was the opportunity to wet the tour's beak in Saudi billions. “I recognize that people are going to call me a hypocrite,” Monahan told reporters after getting an earful from players who had just learned they were about to be partners with the regime they had been denouncing. To fend off the challenge, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan harped on the source of the money, telling his players last year, “Have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?” ![]() That was all threatened when LIV Golf – backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund - began offering nine-figure sums to lure stars like Mickelson and Dustin Johnson to a new tour that featured team play and 54-hole events. The question is: How far will we go?”Īs the top pro circuit in the world, the PGA Tour attracted the best golfers and all that came with them: bankable TV deals, luxury goods sponsorships and the attention of fans who want to see the most skilled athletes playing for the most prestigious prizes. And this does seem to be much the same thing,” said Matthew Mitten, a sports law professor at Marquette University. It’s frightening some of the things have occurred.’ But for the right amount of money, he decided he’s going to join the LIV Tour. “Phil Mickelson initially said, ‘Oh, my God. ![]() So when the PGA Tour overcame its indignation and agreed to merge with LIV Golf - despite the human rights abuses of its Saudi Arabian backers - the flip-flop followed a long-established tradition in sports of flexible attitudes that often hurtle into full-blown hypocrisy. ![]()
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