Saudi Arabia, “sportswashing” and the future of golf

Jordan Golf is generally not the kind of sport that makes a lot of headlines. If you don’t care much for it, you can basically ignore it. You might hear a little something when Tiger Woods makes a huge comeback, but that’s about it, and Tiger is running out of those. Right now, though, golf matters to a lot more people than it usually does. As you might guess, that’s not exactly a good thing. When you have managed to offend survivors of 9/11 reporters and press freedom fighters around the world, the LGBTQ+ community, and many more by taking millions from a Saudi Arabian investment fund to play a few rounds of golf, you’ve probably stepped in it.

News Clip #1 17 players, including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, and Sergio Garcia, are suspended or otherwise ineligible for PGA Tour tournament play. Rory McIlroy is standing with the PGA Tour,

News Clip #2 Any decision that you make in your life that’s purely for money usually doesn’t end up going the right way.

Jordan This is the LIV Golf Tour. It’s an organization fronted by a famous former golfer that has recruited a few prominent golfers from the PGA Tour. And most importantly, it is backrolled by that Saudi money. And depending on who you ask, it’s either out to change again, badly in need of it, or to offer cover to the Saudis, using sports to distract from an ugly litany of human rights abuses. This fight for golf has just begun. It shows every sign of getting nastier. So, why golf? Why now? And what exactly is sportswashing, anyway?

I’m Jordan Heath-Rawlings. This is The Big Story. Donnovan Bennett is a senior writer at Sportsnet. Among his many roles with the network, which include video essays, occasional radio spots, and basically being the guy we go to when something strange and political is happening in the world of sports. Hey, Donnovan.

Donnovan Bennett Hey. This definitely is strange, and it definitely is political.

Jordan Well, for the probably vast majority of our listeners who don’t follow professional golf closely, can you explain what the LIV Golf Tour actually is and where it kind of fits in the landscape of golf?

Donnovan Bennett Well, where do we start? Where it fits in the landscape of golf is the LIV Golf Tour is trying to be a bit of a disruptor, and it’s certainly doing that. PGA Tour essentially has a monopoly over the best players in the world. That has been an issue at times with some of the best players in the world. And so LIV golf has come on and said, can we revamp and modernize the sport? Can we have team play? Can we have shotgun starts? Can we make the pool of players smaller? And they claim that their goal is to holistically improve the health of professional golf and help unlock the sport’s untapped potential. Now, what many people believe the LIV Golf Tour is actually doing is being a bit of a firewall for the Saudi Investment Fund, which, depending on who you believe, is somewhere around $600 billion. And so the Saudi Arabians can use the LIV Golf Tour and all of the big names and excitement around it to be the latest example of the practice of sportswashing.

Jordan We’re going to talk about sportswashing and what it is in 1 second. But first, when we talk about players leaving the PGA Tour for LIV golf, who are we talking about? How big are they and why are they leaving? What’s in it for them?

Donnovan Bennett Well, there’s been 17 players suspended by the PGA Tour. We don’t know how long the suspension will be if it’s a lifetime ban for leaving and playing in the first LIV golf tour event in London. So we’re talking about names who have won majors like Sergio Garcia, Phil Mickelson, Louis Oosthuizen, and Dustin Johnson is probably the player that they’ve been able to secure with the biggest resume. Lee Westwood is obviously another big name. Ian Poulter is another big name. But the two people who have really moved the needle would be Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson. Phil Mickelson, because he’s been outspoken on his issues with PGA Tour historically, so him going to another tour gives him a bit of leverage in those conversations, theoretically. He also has reportedly $40 million in gambling debts, and so it’s a great way to erase some of those debts and infusion of cash. And Dustin Johnson, because Dustin Johnson has not that long ago been a world number one. Many Canadians know him because he’s married into Wayne Gretzky’s family, but a lot of people know him for being a really great golfer, who at times has tweeted some problematic things. And so the fact that he was willing to go give them a little bit more cachet.

But when you look through the list, I’ve never sat on my couch and said, man, I can’t wait to watch Kevin Na this weekend. The answer would have been more like, Nah, I’m okay. The vast majority of the top players in the world, including the top seven, or the biggest draws, like Rory McIlroy, who just won in Canada, or Tiger Woods, who people always care about, the vast majority of the top players are still in the PGA Tour. Some players who have big resumes but are probably closer to past their prime have decided to go for a guaranteed money grab, that is the LIV Tour and the money from the Saudis and the Saudi Golf Federation.

Jordan Explain the guaranteed money part to me. This is how they’re getting these guys. And I should say you’re right about most of the field kind of being alright, that guy was on the PGA Tour, I guess. But unlike some of the other golf tours around the world, these aren’t nobodies, even if they’re maybe not necessarily the hugest draw beyond Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson, these are not nobodies. These are guys who can make money on the PGA Tour. Aside from leverage, what is the difference in money that they’re getting?

Donnovan Bennett Well, one of the things you have to understand when you’re putting all of this into context is the PGA Tour itself offers no salaries, no guaranteed payouts. So basically, when you go to a tournament and you pay your way and you pay for your stay and you pay for your caddy, there’s no guaranteed return on investment. Now, for the biggest golfers in the world who are walking billboards and have lots of advertisement, that’s less of an issue. But if you feel like you are the reason why people are going to courses to watch and are tuning in to watch, that might cause a bit of an issue. The big stars in the game are the ones who drive viewership, who drive attendance. So when you look at the top three earners in the PGA Tour history, Tiger Woods has made $121 million. Mickelson has made $95 million. Dustin Johnson has made $74 million. The LIV Golf Tour is guaranteeing money. This is before we’re talking about purses for winning things that shatter that.

Greg Norman, the CEO of the LIV Golf Tour, who has tried to start disruptor tours in the past and was not happy with his relationship with the PGA Tour when he was a Hall of Fame golfer, has said on record that the offer for Tiger Woods was close to nine figures, almost a billion dollars. Johnson has reportedly been offered $150 million. Mickelson was offered 200 million by LIV. So you’re talking about less tournaments in the first year–there’s only eight, guaranteed money before you even hit a ball or tie your shoes. Plus, the individual persons of LIV tournaments are anywhere from four to five times what they are for the average PGA Tour. And remember, since there’s a smaller field, you’re theoretically sharing that money with less people. There is no such thing as missing the cut in the LIV Golf Tour. People understand that no matter if you’re playing well or not playing well, they’re there to see the stars. So it’s guaranteed return on investment in many ways, and by the Saudis, that investment is huge.

To further put it in perspective, the LIV Golf Tour is offering, when we talk about prize money, $255 million. Well, the Masters, I would say the crown jewel of PGA Tour events. Last year, the prize money that they gave out, 15 million. And that was the largest amount they’ve ever given out. So you see, whether it’s guaranteed money or the individual money for winning a tournament, we’re talking about literally, in a sense, two different sports financially.

Jordan Yeah, the matter of scale here, with reference to the money is pretty clear. But now, where does that money come from and how is it linked to Saudi Arabia? And I guess if you can explain it for us, why is Saudi Arabia so interested in golf, particularly?

Donnovan Bennett Saudi Arabia wants to be involved in golf because it clearly wasn’t that hard to disrupt the game of golf and lure some of the best players. It would be a lot more difficult to start an upstart NFL league. No disrespect to people who love the XFL or the USFL and lure Tom Brady to play in an upstart league. There was a real crack in the armour, if you will, in terms of golf. And the Saudi Arabians investing in golf is not new. The Ladies European Tour has five Saudi sponsored events. Now, female sports we always want to see investment in, so there wasn’t much controversy around that. But the Saudi Golf Federation partnered with the DP World Tour, formerly the European Tour, created the Saudi International four years ago. Since it was in Europe, that event was allowed to have appearance fees. And so that was maybe like a beta version of what we’re seeing now, because playing that was Bryson DeChambeau, who is the latest big star to join LIV and will be playing in the next event in Portland, and obviously Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson. And they were getting paid seven figure appearance fees to play in Saudi Arabia for the last couple of years.

In terms of what’s in it for the Saudis, there’s really not in the short term return on investment, but as I mentioned, the Saudi Investment Fund is literally $600 billion earmarked to promote market and some would say provide some propaganda around the country. So that, one, changes the perception of the country, and two, it makes it open for business so that they’re not so reliant on oil to be a fiscal power. You may or may not have noticed that on CNN, of all places, in between commercial breaks, you’re starting to see some advertisement about Saudi tourism and why it’s a great place to visit. So, in a way, this is a vehicle being used by Saudi Arabia to come and see how friendly we are and see our beautiful golf courses, even though the vast majority of people in Saudi Arabia have never golfed before.

Jordan So this is the concept of sportswashing that you’ve written about that other people have described as well. Can you explain the concept and maybe give us a few other examples that we might be familiar with?

Donnovan Bennett Well, it’s a relatively new term. The human rights organization, Grant Liberty, said that Saudi Arabia loan has spent at least $1.5 billion on alleged sportswashing activities alone. But it’s not necessarily a new practice. We can go back as far as Hitler using the Olympics as a chance to show the rest of the world his dominance, but also to show his own people why Aryan race superiority was something that should be a staple of their culture. So it’s not relatively new. But the practice of sportswashing is, in a sense, if you think of using sports, a high cash, high transaction business is something you potentially would get into to wash money, not to go all Ozarks on you, but essentially you’re using sports as a practice by an individual, a group of corporations, a government, to use sport to wash your reputation, which might be tarnished. And you do that through hosting a sporting event or purchasing a sporting team or sponsoring one, or just by participation in the sport itself. So translation is any country or political regime using that lure, that attraction, that power, and really the goodwill of sport to cover up and in some cases distract from the human rights violations that they have specifically engaged in.

Jordan And I mean, I’m not going to go through the litany, but when it comes to Saudi Arabia, obviously there is a litany of human rights abuses, and the alleged murder of journalists and an oppressive regime. And the thing that fascinates me about this attempt at sportswashing is that these golfers are all individuals. They’ve all made a choice. They came to the inaugural tournament, as you mentioned, last weekend, in London, and they had to explain themselves. How did that go?

Donnovan Bennett Not so well. And it was great that the first tournament was in London because there’s something about the British press, it is a bit of an adversarial relationship at the best of times. So some of the questions that were asked, the way that they were phrased, the hypotheticals that were painted, left people like Graeme McDowell with a bit of like a moth mouth syndrome where you couldn’t really get the words out in a convincing fashion. Dustin Johnson didn’t even try. They said all of the B.S. cliches that they were coached to say, they’re not politicians, they’re looking to grow the game. They believe that human rights issues are important and they don’t stand for any human rights atrocities. But they also said that they’re in it for the journey that Saudi Arabia is on. Well, that journey is changing their perception and maybe taking a little bit of attention away from the fact that this is a nation run by authoritarian regime where women are treated like second class citizens. And the Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman–MBS, as we know him–he has said that he wants to make the country moderate and open to all religions, to the world. But he’s also been directly tied to various abuses, including the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi.

So it is really tough to at one point say, well, these are individual contractors who are trying to get their market value, but at the other point turn a blind eye to the fact that they’re accepting blood money in a way. And one of the things that Graeme McDowell said as he was bumbling through his answers, did though ring true. And he said that if we were going to try to solve geopolitical issues and everywhere we played golf, we wouldn’t play a lot of golf. And that is true. Sportswatching is not unique to the LIV golf tour. It is not unique to the Saudi Arabians, but this probably might be the most blatant example. And part of the wounds are self inflicted because a lot of the controversy happened, not when this was first an idea or first announced. It happened when Phil Mickelson spoke to an unauthorized biographer. Your worst mistake in life. And he said the quiet part out loud about what he was signing up for and what that really meant.

Jordan Why don’t you tell me what he said? You’ve quoted in your article, if people don’t pay attention to golf, they may not have heard it. It was a pretty astounding comment.

Donnovan Bennett Yeah, I mean, other than the fact that he said that Saudis are scary mf-ers, he acknowledged that they have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. But knowing all this, why would he consider it? Because, as he said it, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA tour operates and get some manipulation, some coercion, some strong arm tactics, and some leverage on the PGA without recourse. Well, the recourse did come because he did look like NASCAR driver with all of the sponsors and ads all over him. He quickly lost all of those sponsors and all of those ads. But at the end of the day, doesn’t matter when he netted out a positive, given the guaranteed money that he’s being paid. And now he’s been out front of it as the face of this deal with the devil and going to the LIV Tour. But as more players join him, that burden on him is a bit lessened. This is essentially the golf practice of picking up some grass and throwing it in the air or putting your finger in the air and seeing which way the wind is blowing. Everyone is certainly watching. How bad is the press on these players? How long does the outrage last until people lily pad to something else they’re upset about? And will the calvary come for the rest of the players? Will the individual tournaments that really matter, not the PGA Tour sponsored events, the majors, will they hold the line as well? The U.S. Open is coming up. It is open because it’s an open invitational, and they have already allowed people like Phil Mickelson into that tournament. So we’ll see what happens with the other majors and really the Masters, and we’ll see if the people who have defected to the LIV Tour can, in a sense, have their cake and eat it, too.

Jordan Listen, Donovan, when we talk often, we don’t like it when athletes refuse to say what’s on their mind and speaking cliches. So to Phil Mickelson for the all time, like saying what’s on his mind in a very misguided way.

Donnovan Bennett No question. And also somewhat cheeky, somewhat funny, somewhat not funny. He walked out to his first press conference with a theme song. That song was The O’Jays’ For the Love of Money. So he’s fully aware of what the conversation is. He got asked in that press conference questions like the 9/11 families called the 9/11 Families United Group who feel like their lawsuit against the Saudi Arabians and the part they played in 9/11, it’s not yet settled, and you are, in a sense, turning your back on all those families. He got asked tough questions in the very same press conference that he walked out to For the Love of Money. So he was a little bit more calculated with his response, but I think he understands that he is no different in some sense to everyone in this relationship. The PGA Tour has a monopoly, and they’re fighting to protect the sponsors, and advertisers don’t want to be tied with something that has such negative public sentiment. The majors, they want the biggest players, and so they might change the rules. A lot of big players aren’t going to be there, and the players want to get paid as much as they can during their earning years, and so they are going to the highest bidder.

The only real group in this twisted relationship that isn’t making a decision solely about money is actually the Saudi Arabians and the people who manage the Saudi Investment Fund, because it is tough to prove how they’re going to have a return on investment, on spending so wildly, because, again, this is a marketing play for them, not actually a business or entrepreneurial exercise. They don’t have a broadcast deal. The first tournament was streamed on YouTube. The clips of the press conference that started to trend were more viewed than the actual first tournament itself. So everyone is in it for the money in a sense.

Jordan The last aspect of this I want to ask you about is the golfers who didn’t go, who made the decision, the ones probably who were offered the same kind of money as D.J. and Phil were and decided to remain on the PGA Tour. Interestingly enough, while the LIV Tour kicked off in London, the entire PGA Tour was in Toronto for the Canadian Open. What did those players have to say about what was going on across the pond?

Donnovan Bennett Not only was the tournament in Canada, it was a great tournament. He had a couple of top ten guys battling it out. Rory McIlroy, one of the faces of the sport, who has been very outspoken about the players who have left, and the LIV Tour ends up winning it. He takes a shot at Greg Norman, the CEO of the LIV Tour, by not only passing him for the number of PGA Tour wins, but also mentioning that in his press availability,

Jordan Taunting him about it.

Donnovan Bennett Yeah, it was almost like he became an NBA player for a second and went full petty, went full Petty White on him. But Rory is a very interesting case on how this flips, because he reportedly was offered $400 million to go to the LIV Tour. So double the amount that Phil left for. And Rory has basically said, Listen, I have a beautiful life. I have a beautiful house. It’s very big in that house. I go into two or three rooms. If I were to go to the LIV Tour, I’m not sure how appreciably different my life would be, how much better of a house I would get. And ultimately, when in life, you’re making decisions and at the root of it, the sole thing you’re deciding on is money, you often don’t make very wise decisions. I thought that was sage advice. But I thought that was for someone who is still a very young, relatively face in the game, especially relative to the players who’ve left, pretty mature.

The other piece of this, though, is that we all have our own biases. We’re all complicit, in a way. And the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund has also invested billions of dollars in Uber. Before it went public, it bought Stock and Boeing and Facebook and Disney and Starbucks. It just bought Newcastle. And the Newcastle United fans were not upset about where the money came from. They were happy that they were now one of the richest clubs in the world. So we have to have this calculation, and it’s a pendulum that is different for everyone. Am I complicit, because I downloaded the Uber app? Am I complicit if I drive for Uber, if I work for Uber, if I have stock in Uber? Am I not, because there’s a couple of degrees of separation from it? But you are if you decide you’re going to play 18 holes and take the money directly from the Saudi Arabian Investment Fund.

Where do we want to draw the line so that we’re all making sure that we’re not throwing stones from a glass house, I think, is a fascinating part of the conversation and one that we’re going to continue to readily have, because guess what? The World Cup, the FIFA World Cup that we’re all excited about as Canadians can’t wait to see our boys back in it. Well, it’s in Qatar, and there’s lots of real issues around how it got there and why the people in jail based off of the bribery that got it there. So it is a fascinating conversation, and essentially, we’re living through a moral ethics course if you want to be a sports fan in 2022.

Jordan I want to ask one more question and bring it back to golf. Is the game, the sport of golf, in trouble? This seems like the kind of very public acrimonious split with big players on both sides that just wouldn’t happen in a healthy sport.

Donnovan Bennett I’m fascinated to see how the PGA Tour responds. Will they change some of their archaic rules? Like the fact that you can’t have a golf shirt that isn’t uncoloured, that the blade collar is something you’re not allowed. Just rules like that don’t make any sense in 2022. Will they embrace some of the rule changes and the focus on fun that the LIV Tour has? Or will they hold the line and not change at all and potentially die a slow death? Because all of these golf tournaments only matter because of the cachet that we give to them. There are thousands of beautiful courses around the world, but we care about the ones with the history based off of them being historic PGA Tour events. Will some of that cachet change? If the LIV Tour has ten of the top 25 players, will some of their events over time become the ones that we care about? But right now, we care about what are the top players in the world doing and what’s happening at the majors. And that is an issue that golf needs to change for the health of their business in between the majors, in between when Tiger is in contention. The LIV Tour has some interesting proposals on how you change those things. But ultimately, people don’t really care about the LIV Tour yet because there is no real brand affinity to the Portland tournament or the Doorbells tournament or the London tournament. So this could splinter the sport in a way where it’s not recognizable in 25 or 30 years, where every tournament has an asterisk around it because it doesn’t have all of the top players, or it could force real change on the PGA Tour side, or the LIV Tour side could eventually win out. The group that has the real power in this is the players. They have the leverage in terms of what they forced the PGA Tour to do, and in a way, he was ridiculed for saying it, but there’s a lot of truth to what Phil was saying. It just didn’t really land that message with any sort of decorum attack.

Jordan That’s a unique talent of Phil Mickelson’s. Thanks so much for this, Donnovan.

Donnovan Bennett Yes, my pleasure. Any time.

Jordan Donnovan Bennett of Sportsnet, that was The Big Story. For more, head to thebigstorypodcast.ca. Find us on Twitter at @TheBigStoryFPN. Talk to us via email [click here!]. Leave us a voicemail by calling 416-935-5935. And as always, find this podcast in your favourite podcast player. Give it a rating, give it a review, tell a friend.

Thanks for listening. I’m Jordan Heath-Rawlings. We’ll talk tomorrow.

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