{"id":1526114,"date":"2022-06-22T16:35:52","date_gmt":"2022-06-22T20:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1526114"},"modified":"2022-06-22T16:36:05","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T20:36:05","slug":"blood-money-what-to-make-of-the-new-saudi-funded-golf-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/blood-money-what-to-make-of-the-new-saudi-funded-golf-series\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Blood Money?\u2019: What To Make Of The New Saudi-Funded Golf Series\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fblood-money-what-to-make-of-the-new-saudi-funded-golf-series%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1526114&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>In one of its most important times of the year, the game of golf is at war with itself.<\/p>\n<p>The Saudi-funded LIV Golf series debuted this month to an uneasy combination of fanfare and open-mindedness on one side, ridicule and disgust on the other. A few big names \u2014 among them major champions Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed, all of whom couched their decisions in grow-the-game platitudes \u2014 couldn\u2019t resist the massive wads of cash the Saudis were flashing at them to play pressure-free, no-cut 54-hole tournaments where even the last-place finisher still earns $120,000. The new league also addresses the complaints that some golfers have with the PGA Tour, allowing players to leverage their status and fame into bigger paydays, while the Tour remains a strict meritocracy where payouts correspond to performance alone.<\/p>\n<p>Rather than welcome the competition \u2014 and seize the opportunity to point and laugh at the WWE-style shenanigans of the upstart league and its shotgun starts, cavalcade of no-names and has-beens and cheesy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/golf\/news\/liv-golf-team-names-logos-meanings-cleeks-niblicks\/ls0p1kstp05c1fxy79tg7sx7\">team names<\/a> like Fireballs and Majesticks \u2014 the PGA Tour dug in its heels and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/pga-tour-to-punish-players-jumping-to-saudi-backed-liv-tournament\">suspended<\/a> the 17 PGA Tour regulars who had taken the Saudi money.<\/p>\n<p>The whole affair cast an ominous shadow during last weeks U.S. Open, when the focus should have been on the game and the players and not on Greg Norman\u2019s \u2013 The CEO and Commissioner of LIV Golf Investments \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2022\/02\/24\/sports\/greg-normans-long-running-beef-pga-tour-back-spotlight-over-proposed-saudi-league-ban\/\">long standing<\/a> grudge against the PGA Tour.<\/p>\n<p>Amid the chaos, there has arisen a self-righteous Greek chorus of naysayers and armchair critics: the golf media, who have spent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/golf\/article\/liv-golf-clearly-is-sportswashing-now-its-up-to-the-public-to-take-a-stand\/\">the last few weeks accusing<\/a> the Saudi regime of \u201csportswashing\u201d (using sports to launder one\u2019s reputation and deflect attention from a miserable human rights record) and the participating players of accepting \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/phil-mickelson-slammed-for-liv-golf-blood-money\/\">blood money<\/a>\u201d from the butchers in Riyadh. Sounds sort of admirable on the surface, but let\u2019s dig a little deeper.<\/p>\n<p>While giving lip service to the fact that 17 of the 19 9\/11 hijackers were Saudi nationals, these scribes and pundits seem to have focused most of their outrage on the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. At the risk of being accused of whataboutism \u2014 the go-to response of leftist hypocrites everywhere \u2014 let\u2019s look at some uncomfortable facts regarding this selective outrage.<\/p>\n<p>Judging from much of the rhetoric, you\u2019d think Saudi assassins had stormed the newsroom of the Daily Planet and dragged out cub reporter Jimmy Olsen. The reality is that, while his murder was heinous, Khashoggi was a complicated figure \u2014 a moderate, yes, but also a <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/f6d02c4d90ac9d00f3fea5d29c7400db\">Muslim Brotherhood member<\/a>, paid propagandist for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/national-security\/jamal-khashoggis-final-months-an-exile-in-the-long-shadow-of-saudi-arabia\/2018\/12\/21\/d6fc68c2-0476-11e9-b6a9-0aa5c2fcc9e4_story.html\">Qatar regime<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-9709545\/Jamal-Khashoggis-close-friendship-Osama-bin-Laden-Murdered-journalist-cried-died.html\">friend to Osama bin Laden<\/a> (although, to be fair, <a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/i-just-fell-apart-crying-heartbreak-to-you-a-murdered-journalists-yearslong-relationship-with-osama-bin-laden-090022641.html\">he did decry<\/a> bin Laden\u2019s turn toward radicalism while not exactly renouncing the friendship).<\/p>\n<p>And if you\u2019re so concerned about the safety of journalists, where\u2019s the outrage over the fact that the most dangerous country in the world today for journalists is Mexico, where 145 journalists <a href=\"https:\/\/globalinitiative.net\/analysis\/murder-journalists-mexico-threat-democracy\/\">have been killed<\/a> since 2000, 11 this year alone? Lest the sanctimonious scribes forget, the International Federation of PGA Tours snatched the WGC-Cadillac Championship <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2016\/jun\/01\/donald-trump-doral-golf-course-lose-wgc-event-mexico-city\">away<\/a> from Trump Doral and handed it to Mexico City in 2016 for purely political reasons. The Tour currently runs two <a href=\"https:\/\/wwtchampionshipatmayakoba.com\/\">events in Mexico<\/a>, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pgatour.com\/la\/en\/tournaments\/schedule.html\">PGA Tour Latinoam\u00e9rica<\/a> has several events in that country. The equally woke NFL will be playing its <a href=\"https:\/\/ninerswire.usatoday.com\/2022\/05\/04\/49ers-schedule-cardinals-international-game-mexico\/\">fifth game<\/a> in Mexico in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>As for the accusation of accepting \u201cblood money,\u201d let\u2019s get real: All money in today\u2019s intertwined global economy has bloodstains to one degree or another. The obvious elephant in that room is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/33938932\/nba-owners-mum-china-relationship-more-10-billion-invested-there\">China<\/a>, which has elevated sportswashing to an art form to the considerable benefit of the NBA and to the detriment of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/world\/new-details-torture-cover-ups-china-s-internment-camps-revealed-n1270014\">victims<\/a> of its concentration camps. Nor should we forget that LIV critic Rory McIlroy\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1ermqGMJlc8abpgDJBfLji_T_gGey7atkPcIzstikhHE\/edit?disco=AAAAbKMPcgw\">duds<\/a> are splashed with Nike logos sewn into place by child laborers in Chinese <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/siminamistreanu\/2020\/03\/02\/study-links-nike-adidas-and-apple-to-forced-uighur-labor\/?sh=30607fc01003\">sweatshops<\/a>, or that golf columnists type their diatribes on machines assembled under horrific conditions in Chinese manufacturing plants that at least until recently were adorned with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/2011\/02\/ff-joelinchina\/#:~:text=The%20nets%20went%20up%20in,has%20slowed%20to%20a%20trickle\">suicide prevention nets.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>My suggestion regarding the LIV? Let the free market run its course. Quasi-monopolies, like the one imposed on the game until now by the PGA Tour, stifle innovation and improvement. If the LIV is as ridiculous and outrageous as its critics say, it will die a natural death once its benefactors grow tired of it. In the meantime, PGA Tour, up your game a bit.<\/p>\n<p>As for the outrage addicts \u2014 spread the wealth, won\u2019t you? There are plenty of atrocities to go around.<\/p>\n<p>The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In one of its most important times of the year, the game of golf is at war with itself. The Saudi-funded LIV Golf series debuted this month to an uneasy combination of fanfare and open-mindedness on one side, ridicule and disgust on the other. A few big names \u2014 among them major champions Phil Mickelson, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":960,"featured_media":1526176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1526114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/960"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1526114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1526176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1526114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1526114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1526114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}