The High Stakes Plan To Sheikh Up Golf

"Do I feel comfortable here? I wouldn't say I do. But this was not my choice. Our sport has chosen to be here, and whether it's fair or not, I think that, while we're here, it's still important to do some work on raising awareness.” — F1 racing champion Lewis Hamilton on racing in Saudi Arabia

Has Saudi Arabia become the 2020s version of South Africa for sports? Back in the 1970s and 80s organized sports helped head the drive to isolate the apartheid regime in South Africa. Despite the offers of huge amounts of money (for the day) most establishment sports figures said no, leaving South Africa alone in its racist policy.

There are now the rumblings about the same shunning of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his ruling family over their politics in the region. Specifically the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 has been seen by many as typical of the regime’s cruelty. There is no doubt that the murder was bloodthirsty and arrogant. No one deserves to die that way.

And the strict Muslim regime has been pitiless in how it can treat its own people and immigrants working there. But using Khashoggi as a beacon of liberal thought is a bit much. Liberals have portrayed Khashoggi, whose byline appeared on columns in the Washington Post, as a martyr to the cause of progressivism in the region.

Here’s how we saw the murder in our 2018 column “He May Be An SOB But He’s Our SOB: “Well, the Saudis and their latest omnipotent leader appear to have made the mistake of killing someone who frequented the same DC dining salons as the American national press and political establishment. Some broke flatbread with him in his capacity as a columnist for WaPo. He was pals with prominent reporters.

You can do many things, but you don’t murder a guy who picked up a tab at Le Diplomate for journos one night when they were a little short on cash. 

Thus, we have a fury unseen for at least a fortnight over a guy who, though he didn’t deserve to be butchered with bone saws, was something short of Jimmy Olsen, boy reporter: Nephew of arms dealer Anan Khashoggi, cousin of ill-fated Princess Di consort Dodi Fayed, dabbler in the Muslim Brotherhood propaganda, estranged pal of the current Saudi Royal family, supporter of the Turkish-Qatari axis, friend of disaffected princes and the anti-Saudi elements of the American elite.”

As the expression goes, anyone who thinks they understand Saudi Arabia and the Middle East doesn’t understand Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. But it seems that Khashoggi will nonetheless be the poster boy for the disquiet felt by celebrities such as Lewis Hamilton about a 14th century Islamic fiefdom— with more money that God— upsetting the sports apple cart.

As evidence, NBC Golf Channel hosts this week got in high dudgeon over a golf tournament the Saudis are running opposite the legendary AT&T Pebble Beach Classic in February. As is their wont the Saudis are paying so much in appearance fees that a large number of top Tour pros is headed there. Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson are among the players to have committed to playing in what organizers hope will be a World Golf Tour.

Golf Channel’s Rich Lerner and Eamon Lynch likened the players to those who took money to appear in Sun City in the 1970s. Kashoggi’s publisher The Washington Post got straight the point. “There’s no disguising the fact that it’s blood money.”

But Jordan Spieth thinks the competition will push the Tour . "I think as a player overall it will benefit in that I think that the changes that have come from the PGA Tour have been modernized in a way that may or may not have come about if it weren't there,” he told Sky Sports.

So does Saudi Arabia rate a ban? Many countries and provinces (Quebec for one) rely on Saudi oil for economic survival. They’re not talking. The U.S. sells it military equipment. Still no apartheid comparisons there. Fans of Iran are pissed, but that’s the tribal Middle East for you.

But if the Kingdom does warrant censure why doesn’t China get the same cold shoulder for next month’s Olympics? Their record of late is deplorable— and they don’t care who knows it. Oddly you didn’t hear that take on Golf Channel, whose owners at NBC have billions sunk into the Olympic brand.

And where’s the outrage for Australia as the Open tennis championships begin? As we wrote last month, “while we’re looking at athletes denying politicians a PR bonanza, will any tennis players forgo a trip to January’s Australian Open after the images of police-state tactics on their unvaxxed population in the host city of Melbourne?  What messages are the best tennis stars sending by going ho-hum about a government that creates detention camps in Queensland for people not buying the mandated vaccines and lockdowns? A regime that does midnight raids, snatching people from their homes in the dead of night?”

You know the answer to that one.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). The best-selling author was nominated for the BBN Business Book award of 2020 for Personal Account with Tony Comper. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, he’s also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. His new book with his son Evan Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History is now available on http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx