Does anyone out there believe Trump has surrendered EVERY piece of classified, National Security information he stole? Me neither. There was news today that sure suggests he’s still got stuff to trade and is willing to use it to bring in money. In this case to his Doral Golf Resort and the once admired course known as “The Blue Monster. As you’d expect the resort itself has gone kinda seedy complete with a bed bug problem, and the course? It once was a regular PGA Tour stop on each spring’s “Florida Swing.” The Blue Monster wasn’t exactly a favorite of the players but a solid enough track that the bulk of the top ones would often show up for “The Doral.
Alas, with his grubby mitts on the place not just the resort went downhill. He started “tricking out” the course and some of the changes didn’t sit well with the pros. Some even publicly criticized them and top players started skipping the event. Trump of course got controversial enough to lose the event. The PGA moved the event that occupied that spot on the calendar. To Mexico! That part took Trump’s humiliation to the next level you can be sure.
Pro golf, as in the PGA Tour has tried to navigate a complicated relationship with Trump. Same with the USGA, the governing body (in conjunction with the Royal & Ancient or R&A over in Europe) with some events at Trump venues being pulled and others kept. It’s tough rescheduling venues where Majors are going to be played as years of prep work go into the incredible number of details it takes to get it done.
That brings us to today’s news and why I say Trump still held on to stuff to sell/trade and has just used some. LIV has announced they are moving their tour’s “Championship” from the first week in November over in Jeddah to an October date – at Trump Doral Resort and Golf Course! (FYI, when at Mar A Lago this is where Trump goes to play most days) Trump’s going to get a big infusion of Saudi cash. Color me ugly orange cynical but I have rather strong doubts about the Saudis moving the crowing event of their golf tour to a dump of a Trump resort in FL out of the goodness of their hearts. Nope. Trump had to have something they wanted and needed.
Just like Jared surely traded National Security information for his two billion dollar bailout, Trump also traded National Security information.
Now, if you don’t follow golf, you probably don’t know the details but have probably heard of LIV, the Saudi backed “sportswashing” (of blood and human rights crimes) effort effort. First up has been professional golf. They actually started quite a few years back, holding a handful of events over their way and luring some of golf’s biggest names with not just huge prize money but in some cases hefty appearance fees. Basically paid em a king’s ransom just to show up and play.
It caused some controversy and some players who grabbed their money did get some questions about it but it wasn’t that many events and there was plenty of other golf news, and of course larger and more important news that would quickly turn attention away from the players who whored themselves out. However, the Saudi ruler knows he’s got an image problem (hacking up a WaPo journalist at your embassy in Turkey, starting while he was still alive tends to damage a country’s and Prince’s image!) that goes back long before he ruthlessly took power. Horrific treatment of women, exporting a particularly extreme version of Islam that in turn radicalized a generation of Muslims who became “jihadists”, the cruelties in its war with Yemen… this list goes on.
So, just as some companies engage in image improvement by say promoting green initiatives (while still making boatloads of money polluting and/or pumping out greehouse gases) the Saudis have decided to engage in “sportswashing.” Starting with professional golf. Like I said they started on a limited basis, but sadly Greg Norman has been out there nursing not a chip but a fooking California Redwood on his shoulder. Now, Norman did have a great career back in the day. He was a global ambassador for the game, won a lot and for long enough to have had a then record stint as #1 in the World Rankings and even won a couple of majors. He was also known for being snakebitten in majors, and there was that epic meltdown at the Masters. He woke up on Sunday and headed to Augusta National with a six shot lead and lost it. And the tournament. Still, both in defeat and victory Norman had displayed class and was admired.
Was.
Norman you see got to the point where he believed himself bigger than the game. There were even signs of being butt-hurt that he wasn’t talked about in discussions of the greatest golfers ever. He wanted to dictate PGA policy or at the very least play a major role. And when he didn’t get his way he started trying to create his own tour. The “Shark Tour” (his nickname was The Shark) never happened but it scared the PGA enough to make some changes to curry favor with top pros to keep them firmly in the fold. So the “World Golf Championship” were born, a handful of special events with huge prize money, limited fields and no cut. A way to shell out some cash and exposure to the top players. (The rank & file? They got to pound sand)
Norman never let go of his dream of f**king over the PGA and European (now called the DP Tour) tours, and unfortunately met up with the right, or rather wrong Saudis and found himself with folks who had money to burn and a will to spend it to burnish their image. And a match made in hell was born. It’s called LIV golf and a game that has stood the test for centuries is headed towards being irrevocably tarnished.
LIV and its format is a joke. If its players don’t get Official World Ranking Points its because the events themselves don’t merit awarding them. They went their first season without even a TV contract. It looked like that would be the case this year too when CW network (CW? Golf? Are you freaking kidding me?) extracted who knows how much money to air their events. And no one watched!
Sadly, the train wreck known as Donald Trump stomping around Doral will draw eyeballs to LIV’s event. What impact this all will have on pro golf and the merger of LIV and the PGA & DP tours remains to be seen. You know the old saying about everything Trump touches dies. His antics might just kill the merger. Or professional golf as we know it, something that took 150 years to build. Or both.
I’m not sure MBS thought this one all the way through.
Trump? What does he care? He’s getting a healthy (and I’m sure needed) infusion of cash. Given his already huge legal problems with even more to come he’s going to have to shell out an awful lot upfront in retainers to get even modestly capable attorneys to handle all the cases where he’ll be sitting at the defense table. Like he’s done his entire life, he’ll do whatever to get past a given financial crisis and worry about long-term stuff at a later time.
PGA Tour honcho Jay Monahan and his two great pals (who he got into positions of power on the Board) have put golf in a helluva fix. And Monahan has come under withering criticism, having so publicly wrapped himself in the mantle of 9/11 only to turn around and sell out. With the help of two close friends, one of whom is a renowned litigator that specializes in large international business mergers and the other a hedge fund manager with a similar portfolio. I can’t be the only one wondering how much money THEY are set to make off this merger? Or what Monahan himself has been promised.
It’s a giant hot mess. And now, with Congress making noise about no tax exemption (and politics does sometimes make for strange bedfellows), players still asking some pretty basic questions for which they have no answers (or aren’t willing to share), when the best thing for the Saudis and the merger would be to keep as low a profile as possible all of a sudden we have the Saudis and Trump burst forth with this! Again, Trump must have had something the Saudis wanted pretty badly for them to shift their season crowning event from the luxury of Jeddah to the Dump at Doral. I think we all know what that something was.
Mark your calendars for October because I think we might see a major explosion. Of golf, of politics including on an international scale too.
The bedbugs at Doral.
Can there be a more appropriate family pet?