Phil Mickelson, Greg Norman, PGA Tour stars take a stand in LIV Golf – The Columbus Dispatch
Phil Mickelson is taking a heroic stand in the face of relentless persecution.
Why, just the other day, he teed off in the first LIV Golf series event in London wearing what is, for him, the ultimate form of protest. In a manner of speaking, he burned his bra.
LIV Golf is a rebel league run by Greg Norman and bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s royal family. It’s quite a bankroll, too. Phil and 17 other sassy, convention-busting renegades — Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed, Ian Poulter, et al. — are guaranteed hundreds of millions of dollars just for showing up at LIV events.
They took the money. They got kicked off the PGA Tour. They took a stand!
Criticism is flying fast and hot, all over the world. These trailblazing sportsmen are being portrayed as money-grubbing co-conspirators of Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, who more or less funds the renegade tour and who has a sorta, kinda sketchy record on human rights. He kinda kills people when it is convenient.
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The introduction to the Saudi Arabia page at Human Rights Watch goes like this:
Saudi Arabia spends billions of dollars hosting major entertainment, cultural, and sporting events as a deliberate strategy to deflect from the country’s image as a pervasive human rights violator. Scores of human rights activists and dissidents remain in prison or on trial for their peaceful criticism. Authorities failed to hold high-level officials accountable for suspected involvement in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Through 2021, the Saudi-led coalition continued a military campaign against the Houthi rebel group in Yemen that has included scores of unlawful airstrikes that have killed and wounded thousands of civilians.
What’s a few war crimes? Everyone, just relax.
Phil Mickelson’s position
As Phil said about the Saudi tour months ago in an interview with golf writer Alan Shipnuck, “We know they killed (Washington Post columnist Jamal) Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.”
It’s not about the money. It’s about the principle of the thing.
When Phil teed off in London, he was wearing a black vest with the Augusta National Golf Club logo on it — and the logo was blacked out (with a Sharpie, it looked like).
That’s Phil, fighting back against The Man, just like he did when he avoided jail time —while his cohorts went up the river — for insider trading.
Phil is a civil rights warrior. Take that (Sharpie!), Masters!
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It was one of those sports moments that will go down in the history books, like John Carlos and Tommie Smith raising their fists in Mexico City. It was like Muhammad Ali voicing his defiance after being stripped of his heavyweight title for refusing to enter the draft. It was Colin Kaepernick taking a knee.
Courage!
It’s not about the money. No. It’s about suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
(Shipnuck is the real problem. He actually quoted Phil. For that, he was ejected from the interview area at the first LIV event. The best guess is that the Shark sent in the goons.)
As Norman said when he was asked about the Khashoggi Murder: “Everybody has owned up to it, right? It has been spoken about, from what I’ve read, going on what you guys reported. Take ownership, no matter what it is. Look, we’ve all made mistakes and you just want to learn from those mistakes and how you can correct them going forward.”
Norman, who married Chris Evert because it was the only way he could get close to multiple major titles (he dumped her 15 months later), has a heart so big that he can accept a touch of murder in pursuit of larger aim. He’s almost biblical.
It’s not about the money. It’s about learning from those mistakes and correcting them.
That’s what the critics are missing.
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While Shark cannot reassemble and revive Khashoggi, a mistake victim, what he can do is be a force for good in Saudi Arabia.
That’s what this is all about.
Phil and the rest of the gang of 17 who were kicked off the PGA Tour can now use their freedom and their new connection with the royal family’s Public Investment Fund to be instruments of reform in Saudi Arabia.
They will use their platform to promote free speech, free assembly and other basic rights.
As Dr. King said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
Fellow activist Phil has that in his heart. Indeed he does. It is why he was put on this earth, to affect change, like Jim Nantz.