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DOJ Investigating the PGA's Anticompetitive & Xenophobic Attacks on Australian Golfer Greg Norman's LIV Golf Circuit
Greg Norman raised $2B from Saudi Arabia to fund his LIV Golf tour, now the PGA is stoking xenophobic fears & bigotry to cancel anyone who dares to join - in violation of US anti-trust laws.
If you’re a golf fan you might be aware that the Saudis recently invested $2 billion into Greg Norman’s LIV Golf tour. The investment was viewed as a direct threat by the PGA and it didn’t take the 92-year-old tour long to respond. Once Phil Mickelson, one of the greatest players in the history of golf, announced he was considering joining the Australian’s new tour, the media, prompted by the PGA, accused the golfer of being a “Saudi Stooge” and a “tool of sportswashing”. Days later Mickelson was fired by KPMG, Amstel Light, Callaway Golf, and American Express. Then PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan threatened to ban Mickelson and every other golfer who played at even a single LIV Golf tour event. The PGA and their willing accomplices in the media want the American people to believe they’re banning players who play on the LIV tour out of moral outrage over Saudi Arabia’s human rights record - the truth is that the PGA believes LIV’s ‘player-first’ model threatens their very existence. Now the “Department of Justice is investigating whether the PGA Tour engaged in anticompetitive behavior as it battles the upstart, Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit, the PGA Tour confirmed to The Wall Street Journal.”
Each day Americans spend billions on Saudi Arabian oil without spending a moment thinking about the Kingdom’s ongoing war crimes in Yemen, disregard for basic civil liberties, or systemic discrimination against women and minorities. When Joe Biden was running for president he called Saudi Arabia a “pariah” state but after taking office and cutting U.S. oil production he began begging the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia to send more oil to America - human rights abuses be damned. The truth is that the Saudis pay our national debt, buy our military equipment, and invest in our companies to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars each year - our economies are inextricably tied.
In fact, the PGA is already in business with Saudi Arabia through its various sponsors. For example, the Kingdom has invested more than half a billion dollars into Citi one of the tour’s biggest sponsors. Will the PGA end its relationship with Citi? We should also remember that until 1961 the PGA had a “caucasian-only clause” prohibiting Blacks from playing on the tour. It took fifteen more years for Augusta to allow a Black man, Lee Elder, to play at the Masters. Before you criticize LIV Golf for accepting an investment from Saudi Arabia you ought to ask yourself if you’re willing to stop doing business with other companies that have accepted even more money from the Kingdom.
Are you willing to stop flying aboard Boeing airplanes? The Kingdom invested almost a billion dollars in the company that makes half of all passenger planes in the United States. How about Uber? Saudia Arabia has more than $3.5 billion invested in the ride-sharing company. Are you willing to stop playing Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Final Fantasy, and hundreds of other titles? The Kingdom has invested billions in the video game market in companies like Nintendo. Are you willing to stop going to Disney World and skip the next Star Wars and Marvel movies? Saudi Arabia is one of the largest owners of Disney. Are you willing to stop going to concerts? Saudi Arabia is one of the largest investors in Live Nation/Ticketmaster. Can you quit Facebook and Instagram? The Kingdom has invested hundreds of millions into Meta. Will you quit Bank of America, Coke, Marriot Hotels, Cisco Systems, and Carnival Cruiselines as well?
THE REAL ISSUE: MONEY
For almost a hundred years the PGA has been able to avoid treating golfers like other professional athletes instead insisting they are merely independent contractors. LIV Golf’s plan to treat golfers fairly has the PGA running scared and it has nothing to do with human rights.
Ironically, the 250 or so golfers on the PGA Tour actually pay for the privilege of playing. The PGA charges golfers, many of whom earn less than $10,000 a year, a locker room fee for each tournament they attend not to mention making them pay for their own travel, hotel, and food expenses. The PGA is a de facto monopoly that generates more than a billion dollars and spends almost half of it on league officials including PGA Commissioner Monahan who makes $8.9 million each year. It is shocking just how little most PGA golfers have made this year - 150 made less than $1 million, 40 made less than $100,000, and five or six made less than $10,000.
Just last weekend LIV Golf hosted the Invitational Series in London while the PGA hosted the RBC Canadian Open in Ontario. In addition to their sizeable multi-year contracts, every LIV golfer made at least $120,000 with the winner, Charl Schwartzel, earning $4,000,000. Things weren’t so rosy for the PGA players who traveled to Canada. Eighty-six PGA golfers who paid to play earned nothing at all at the RBC event and the winner, Rory McIlroy, only made $1.6 million. Every single LIV golfer made more in one tournament than 40 PGA players have made all year long.
For more than 25 years Phil Mickelson has been one of the best golfers in the PGA winning 45 tournaments with lifetime PGA earnings of $94 million. Mickelson is getting paid twice that, $200 million, to play for LIV Golf. Dustin Johnson has earned just over $74,000,000 during his 15-year career winning 28 PGA tournaments. LIV Golf signed the former world number one golfer to a four-year $125 million contract - that is more than the greatest golfer in history, Tiger Woods earned over his entire PGA career ($121 million).
If LIV Golf is successful professional golfers will earn just as much as other professional athletes. The PGA will either have to change its business model or die a slow death. Compare PGA compensation to other sports:
PGA Golfers: 250
Highest Salary: $11 million (Scottie Scheffler)
Average Salary: $1.5 million
Lowest Salary: $7,659 (Matt Every)NFL Players: 1,696
Highest Salary: $61.5 million (Matthew Stafford)
Average Salary: $2.7 million
Lowest Salary: $480,000NBA Players: 450
Highest Salary: $46 million (Stephen Curry)
Average Salary: $7.5 million
Lowest Salary: $925,000MLB Players: 906
Highest Salary: $43 million (Max Scherzer)
Average Salary: $4.41 million
Lowest Salary: $700,000NHL Players: 903
Highest Salary: $16 million (Connor McDavid)
Average Salary: $3.12 million
Lowest Salary: $750,000MLS Players: 799
Highest Salary: $8.2 million (Xherdan Shaqiri)
Average Salary: $438,728
Lowest Salary: $65,500
Sadly, instead of paying golfers a fair wage, the PGA is spending their time and capital attempting to disparage and defame LIV Golf and any golfer who dares to play non-PGA golf. Note, anytime you read an article about LIV Golf and they preface the name with “Saudi-backed” you know you’re reading xenophobic talking points provided by the PGA’s PR consultants. If journalists were being honest they’d begin calling the United States “the Saudi-backed United States” as the Kingdom owns more than $160 billion in our debt and spending billions more on arms.
BONUS: If you’re interested in possible challenges to the PGA’s decision to ban LIV Golf players from future events I found THIS article interesting. And fun fact: the final LIV Golf event of the year will be hosted by former President Trump at Trump National Doral Miami (book your room now). LIV Golf players will be competing for a $50 million purse.
Here are a few examples of the results of the PGA’s PR efforts:
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@amuse (formerly Politique Republic) is a newsletter dedicated to the political issues facing America from a conservative viewpoint.