Two-time major championship winner Dustin Johnson–#1st in the Official World Golf Rankings a year ago and currently 13th–announced yesterday that he has resigned his membership in the PGA Tour to play full time in the new, Saudi-backed, LIV Golf series tour. Its first tournament will this Friday through Sunday in London. It has been rumored that Johnson signed a deal with LIV Golf that guarantees him about $125 million up front with a commitment to play in a certain number of events.
The controversy has arisen partly due to the poor human rights record of Saudi Arabia. But it especially regards the murder of world class journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a former Saudi native who the CIA says was killed in the Saudi consulate in Turkey by the order of the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, often referred to as MBS. At the time, Khashoggi was a Saudi dissident living in our nation’s capital. He was about to marry a Saudi American woman. The Saudi government lured him to the Turkey consulate by falsely claiming he had to sign a marriage certificate there. Saudi henchmen are believed to have gruesomely dismembered his body and somehow disposed of its parts, all because Mr. Khashoggi wrote articles criticizing MBS.
The PGA Tour–whereupon Dustin Johnson made his name as a superstar–announced months ago through its Commissioner Jay Monahan, that PGA Tour members will have to make up their minds whether to compete on the PGA Tour or the LIV Golf series, so that they will not be allowed to do both. Commission Monahan also said that any PGA Tour member who competes on the LIV Golf tour without his permission will be subject to disciplinary action that could involve being banned from the PGA Tour. Both Johnson five-time PGA Tour champ Kevin Na have resigned their membership to avoid legal problems.
This PGA Tour decision is really in keeping with its regulations that have existed way back in my day concerning foreign golf tournaments that are staged the same weeks as PGA Tour tournaments. PGA Tour members always had to get a “release” granted by the Tour Commissioner to skip its tournament to play in the competing, foreign event. The PGA Tour had to do this, and still does, to keep its tournaments and sponsors contractually satisfied by guaranteeing strong fields. But as far as I know, this Tour regulation has never been fully tested in U.S. courts.
So, while the LIV Golf series begins this week in London, the historic Canadian Open (which Yours Truly won in 1970) will also be staged this week. The Saudis are throwing a lot of money out there to woo these pro golfers. For instance, the London tournament will only have 48 players vying for a purse of $25 million, whereas the Canadian Open will have a field of about 150 players competing for a purse of about $8 million.
Two big questions are looming. One is whether or not players who compete on the LIV Golf tour will be allowed to participate in the four major championships, all of which are hosted by organizations other than the PGA Tour: the Masters Tournament, the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open, and The (British) Open. The other question, which only concerns about a dozen U.S. players, is whether LIV Golf participants will be allowed to participate in the Ryder Cup.
Most of the star players on the PGA Tour have publicly announced that they are fully committed to playing the PGA Tour and therefore will not join LIV Golf. However, most of them are young, in the twenties and some in their thirties. Forty-three year old Tiger Woods, arguably the GOAT, has said he is fully committed to the PGA Tour due to his view of the historic legacy of golf and therefore will have nothing to do with LIV Golf. Tiger has criticized fifty-one year old Phil Mickelson for jumping over to LIV Golf. But most of those PGA Tour players who are doing that are older and/or foreigners, such as Graeme McDowell of the UK, Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa, and Sergio Garcia of Spain.
This squabble will no doubt end up in court to become the biggest controversy the PGA Tour has ever experienced, thus greater than the square grooves controversy with the PING corporation back in the 80s and 90s. The main legal issue seems to regard player’s status as independent contractors rather than employees of the PGA Tour. It does not seems that the legal outcome will affect the Tour’s player pension program.
Sparks likely will begin to fly next week when the U.S. Open is staged, thus right after LIV Golf’s first event. The USGA has not said if it will ban LIV Golf participants from its Open.
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