KellySyracuse
Living Legend
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2011
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great opinion piece on Washington Post about the players that have joined the LIV. It's behind a paywall but here is the pertinent part of it:
"Put aside for a minute Mickelson and Johnson, LIV’s two biggest stars. Take, Na, a 38-year-old five-time winner on the PGA Tour who is best known for on-course quirks — extraordinarily slow play that draws ire, a tendency to walk in his putts that seems fun. In signing on with LIV for some undisclosed, guaranteed sum, and then playing eight 54-hole tournaments with $225 million in prize money, does Na ever think, “Am I really worth this much? Why does this tour think I am?”
Dig a little deeper down that rabbit hole. It might get scary. The LIV series has no international television contract to pump money into the purses. It can’t make $225 million from ticket sales for eight events. Sponsors are dropping players who sign up — RBC severed its relationships with Johnson and McDowell, for instance. All the cash comes from the Public Investment Fund, which bills itself as a sovereign wealth fund based in Saudi Arabia. Sovereign, huh? Its chairman is none other than Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince who the CIA concluded ordered Khashoggi’s murder.
From a financial standpoint, this isn’t a moneymaker for the Saudis. So Na — or McDowell, a 42-year-old Northern Irishman who once won the U.S. Open, or Talor Gooch, a 30-year-old Oklahoman who has a single PGA Tour victory — would do well to ask themselves, “Why are they willing to lose so much money on this? What are they buying?”
The answer: They’re buying your reputation.
Take the check. Read up on the Saudi record on human rights. Now put your head on your pillow."
"Put aside for a minute Mickelson and Johnson, LIV’s two biggest stars. Take, Na, a 38-year-old five-time winner on the PGA Tour who is best known for on-course quirks — extraordinarily slow play that draws ire, a tendency to walk in his putts that seems fun. In signing on with LIV for some undisclosed, guaranteed sum, and then playing eight 54-hole tournaments with $225 million in prize money, does Na ever think, “Am I really worth this much? Why does this tour think I am?”
Dig a little deeper down that rabbit hole. It might get scary. The LIV series has no international television contract to pump money into the purses. It can’t make $225 million from ticket sales for eight events. Sponsors are dropping players who sign up — RBC severed its relationships with Johnson and McDowell, for instance. All the cash comes from the Public Investment Fund, which bills itself as a sovereign wealth fund based in Saudi Arabia. Sovereign, huh? Its chairman is none other than Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince who the CIA concluded ordered Khashoggi’s murder.
From a financial standpoint, this isn’t a moneymaker for the Saudis. So Na — or McDowell, a 42-year-old Northern Irishman who once won the U.S. Open, or Talor Gooch, a 30-year-old Oklahoman who has a single PGA Tour victory — would do well to ask themselves, “Why are they willing to lose so much money on this? What are they buying?”
The answer: They’re buying your reputation.
Take the check. Read up on the Saudi record on human rights. Now put your head on your pillow."
