Who is gonna take that bag?
The Saudis are offering preposterous sums of money - blood money, that is.
This post is not to talk about how awful the Saudi Golf League - or whatever they’re calling it today (Greg Norman doesn’t seem to quite know, and he’s presumably in charge to some degree) - is, and how even grosser it is that so many top golfers are happy to take their money, regardless of its sources.
(What’s worse is that few of them have the stones to admit this is what they’re doing. “Grow the game” has never been a more popular and meaningless phrase.)
With a shocking number of golfers recently over to play in what No Laying Up has brilliantly and horrifyingly nicknamed The Bonesaw Classic, discussion of the league came up in a very big way.
First, the story broke that Bryson Chambeau was offered $135,000,000 to join the league for an unspecified amount of time. I’ve heard that he’s said no, but Bryson doesn’t seem to have many guiding principles above self-interest, so I suspect that’s a negotiation tactic.
And while Bryson is an idiot in so, so many ways - he’s either smart or he’s surrounded himself with smart people (who obviously are not his TikTok crew). And they’ve probably said, “If they’re starting at $135MM, where are they willing to go?” In theory, joining here would get a golfer banned from the PGA Tour, so this would have to at least match a high side estimate of what his career on that tour would earn, so if you’re gonna grab that bag, make sure it’s as full as possible.
Also, it created this tweet which made me consider buying it as an NFT.
Around the same time, Phil Mickelson started lashing out at the “obnoxious greed” of the PGA Tour. Completely unprovoked, it’s in no uncertain terms ground cover for him doing what everyone has expected him to do all along - take a fat check from the Saudis. Of all people, he’s probably the least surprising to be over there, which makes him complaining about greed perfectly hilarious.
In the meantime, the brilliant Eamon Lynch summed this up better than I ever could pretend to:
It’s difficult to ascertain exactly which character trait—Hubris? Hypocrisy? Indecency?—motivates someone to furiously demand the freedom to exercise his rights while being applauded by benefactors from a regime that dismembers its critics for doing just that. Or to pause his guzzling from the teat of Middle Eastern royalty only long enough to denounce the “obnoxious greed” of an organization that made him an enormous sum of money (which is not to presume he still has it).
Then, some other golfers were asked if they’d consider it. The responses couldn’t have been more on brand with each of them.
Tiger Woods, who already has all the money, said he wouldn’t want to travel that far.
Dustin Johnson, who has never seen an appearance fee he didn’t eagerly grab, thinks it’s “a cool idea” - specifically, that the league would play in teams like Formula 1. He did not note whether cutting up journalists with a bone saw was also a cool idea.
Brooks Koepka said he wouldn’t do it - but because he thinks the competition is weird and too limited a field.
And Lee Westwood, who is at the end of his career and probably correctly sees this as a final payday, said he can’t talk about it because he’s signed an NDA.
It’s kind of insane that even Tiger and Brooks, who are not going to participate, didn’t take the opportunity to say it would be wrong, that sportswashing is working all too well and those dangling the checks were simply not good people to represent.
But the money will be far too tempting. The article linked above says that the Saudis are willing to throw $1.5 - 2.0 BILLION into the player pot. Divide that by 48 and you’re talking about $35 - $40MM on average. Ian Poulter has reportedly been offered $30MM, which is an insane amount of money - and probably the lowest anyone will get out of this.
If someone offered you, say, $50,000,000 to play on a tour for two years, with the opportunity to earn even more in the tournaments themselves, could YOU say no?
There is, of course, always the question of how much is enough. Phil Mickelson MAY have some gambling and investment problems that have cut into the almost $100,000,000 he’s earned ON the course (and the estimated $700,000,000 he’s earned off of it). Perhaps $800MM doesn’t go as far as it used to.
Dustin Johnson has earned about $73,000,000 in winnings.
I simply don’t get THAT.
But let’s look at Poulter again. He’s won about $28,000,000 on the PGA Tour, and almost that much in Euros on the European Tour. So he’s worth at least $50,000,000 one would think. That’s amazing.
That money buys a lot of cars. But he’s reported being offered, for an indeterminate amount of time, to get a check for roughly 60% of his entire career-to-date. Does he need that money? Clearly, obviously, laughably no. Sell a car or 13. But that’s probably roughly a similar calculation for all these guys (or against future earnings, etc. like Bryson). For all involved, it’s a relatively MASSIVE amount of money being offered up. The only price is, you know, having a conscience and being on the right side of history.
All this aside, the PGA Tour has a real problem on its hands. I think the only way they circumvent this is by unleashing a LOT more money to the players, in a way that feels more like a guaranteed salary to the players who deserve it.
Personally, I have absolutely zero issues with guys like Rory, Bryson, Dustin, Jordan, JT, etc., getting guaranteed $25,000,000 or more a season before playing a round. And I’d be fine with tournaments paying appearance fees, especially if they are made public. A bunch of problems with the game today could be part of this change - and the ONLY reason none of this is happening is because the PGA Tour can’t, or won’t, offer up the money. They could, and they aren’t. And that’s not going to last.